WITH HYDROGEN NEXO TO THE HYDROGEN EXPO

Our editorial team of four drove 1,480 km in the exclusive Hyundai Nexo hydrogen SUV. On the way from Prague to the Hydrogen Technology EXPO Europe 2022 in Bremen and back. And it was a RIDE! We now want to share with you the exhilarating and "slightly" thrilling experiences.

The car was loaned to us by Hyundai Motor Czech - we picked it up on 18 October 2022 at the Hyundai Praha Domanský dealership in Prague's Stodůlky. It caught our eye with its elegant, confident design, relying on natural beauty, not extravagance. We were intrigued by the unique narrow, slightly arched LED headlights, connected by a thin curved line across the entire front of the body. And the car's overall extremely aerodynamic lines (compared to its predecessor, the Hyundai ix35 Fuel Cell managed to reduce the overall air drag coefficient from 0.350 to an exceptional 0.329).

 

We climbed into the car and headed first to Neratovice to fill up with hydrogen at the local non-public hydrogen filling station. From the first moment we enjoyed absolute silence, maximum comfort and something like "a feeling of space weightlessness" ... yes, that's how comfortable the Nexo is. And that's even when you're driving through crowded Prague streets or along classic Czech highways full of refined potholes. Perhaps only the car's controls, especially the very wide, bulging centre console, offer so many buttons and dials that at first you feel rather like you're in the cockpit of an Airbus A380, the world's largest transport aircraft. But once you get your bearings, you'll enjoy the car even more! Another huge plus is the large, 12.3-inch widescreen that shows navigation, fuel consumption, infotainment and climate control, for example. It's also compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. There's plenty of clever gadgetry in the Nexo - for example, you can watch video footage of so-called "blind spots" when crossing lanes on the dashboard.

In Neratovice, we filled up with hydrogen for the first time in our lives. Although we could only fill the tanks halfway, because the Neratovice filling station is one of the older ones (the pressure in the local filling station is 350 bar, the Nexo ideally requires 700 bar), we still appreciated that this half-filling took just over two minutes! Compare that to the "endless" refuelling of a conventional electric car, not a hydrogen fuel cell electric car like the Nexo.

From Neratovice we went to the centre of Mladá Boleslav, where our editorial office is located. Here we tried out some of the "magic" that the Nexo can do: for example, it can park itself or drive out of a parking space on its own - all you have to do is press the remote control.

And then we were off towards the Czech and German motorways, for another "stopover" at the hydrogen filling station in Dresden. On the motorways, we were a bit unpleasantly surprised that the Nexo quickly loses its hydrogen reserves at high speeds, so it's wise to drive rather more prudently, economically (the main reason is simple: even in Germany there is not yet a good infrastructure of hydrogen filling stations, and so with a bit of recklessness you can end up with a hydrogen car standing somewhere between fields, without "juice"). And we were also somewhat unpleasantly surprised that the Nexo feels a bit "floaty" at higher speeds due to the very sensitive power steering, so the driver has to hold the steering wheel really carefully and firmly.

In Dresden, we filled up again with hydrogen - and the filling station here was older, too, allowing only half of the tank to be filled. So we had to look for another filling station relatively close to Dresden. Unfortunately, the filling station in Leipzig was out of order, so we headed to Halle, a city 155 km away. And here we lost a lot of time and fuel because the filling station was located quite far from the motorway, on the edge of a suburb. But it was new, and so it allowed us to fill up the whole tank.

Thanks to this, we reached our destination - Bremen - the evening before the start of Hydrogen Technology EXPO Europe 2022. If the journey from the Czech Republic to Bremen in the hydrogen Nexo could be summed up as succinctly as possible, it would be as follows: if it weren't for the slight nervousness (and calculations) about whether we would be able to reach the nearest hydrogen filling station and whether it would work or even exist, travelling in the super-luxurious Nexo would have been extremely comfortable and relaxing (with the exception of the aforementioned necessary careful steering control at higher speeds).

In Bremen, the Nexo served us well for both days of the Hydrogen Technology EXPO Europe 2022, and getting around town in it was truly sensational. However, we did experience one rough curiosity with it: on the second day of our stay, we parked the Nexo in the local picturesque Old Town on Dechanatstraße, paid the proper parking fee ... and when we returned to the Nexo, we found a ticket behind the wiper. We had no idea why, we had complied. Since the police were just a few steps away from where we parked, we went there to "explain". And we were told that Bremen is one of those German cities where only cars with a green eco-plaque stuck on the windshield are allowed to enter the city center. We tried in vain to explain to the police that we had driven into the centre of Bremen with the most ecological, "greenest" car that can exist - after all, the only waste product of the Nexo is hot water... We simply could not convince the police, German regulations are regulations.

We started our return trip to the Czech Republic by filling up a full tank of hydrogen in Bremen, then we filled up again in Halle, and then we wanted to refuel in Dresden, but the filling station here was out of order (unlike on the way there). However, we had enough hydrogen to get to Mladá Boleslav and Prague.

As we returned the Nexo to the Hyundai Prague Domanský car showroom on the morning of 21 October 2022, we were delighted to have passed the Bremen Hydrogen Technology EXPO Europe 2022 in style - with this particular gorgeous hydrogen supercar! And that we enjoyed travelling into the future.

 

Photos: Dan Moc