Nissan announces first “commercial” lease of their X-Trail fuel cell vehicle

(Sacramento, CA, Nov 24, 2009) Nissan North America announced today he lease of an X-TRAIL Fuel Cell Vehicle (FCV) to Sacramento Coca-Cola Bottling Co.  This is Nissan’s first commercial lease of an FCV in North America.  The lease period is for one year and may be extended for a further two years.

The zero emissions X-TRAIL FCV will be used by the bottler for sales calls and public events in the Sacramento area in promotion of its Coca-Cola Zero® soft drink.  Zero?  No, Coca Cola hasn’t unveiled a drink with zero carbon footprint.  It’s a drink with zero calories.

The Nissan X-TRAIL FCV is based on the X-TRAIL SUV, which is available in Mexico, Japan and Europe. It is fitted with a Nissan-developed compact fuel cell stack, a compact Lithium-ion battery and a high-pressure hydrogen storage cylinder. Performance is close to that of a similarly sized internal combustion engine-based vehicle. Versions of this generation X-TRAIL FCV are capable of speeds in excess of 95 miles per hour, with a cruising range of up to 300 miles.

Nissan’s press release says that other Nissan X-TRAIL FCV’s in the Sacramento area have been driven nearly 300,000 miles with one vehicle having close to 100,000 miles.  The California Fuel Cell Partnership is located in Sacramento and these other X-TRAIL FCV’s may be part of testing programs at the CaFCP or other nearby organizations.  Because of these other FCV’s being tested in that area, Sacramento has an existing infrastructure for refeuling hydrogen based vehicles like FCV’s.   As noted in prior reporting (see Infrastructure considerations for gasoline, ethanol, biodiesel, electricity, hydrogen, Electric Vehicle infrastructure issues demonstrated by Shocking Barack ride, and Planning for the coming wave of electric vehicles, a significant barrier to adoption of advanced technology green vehicles is the refeuling infrastructure.  The incumbent gasoline and diesel cars have an existing infrastructure, and success of other vehicle technology hinges on there being a similar infrastructure.

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Fuel cell vehicles use a catalyst to combine hydrogen and oxygen to make electricity and water.  The electricity is sent to an electric drive system nearly idential to that in a battery electric vehicle.  Typically the hydrogen supply for FCV’s is extracted from natural gas.

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About David Herron

David Herron is a writer and software engineer living in Silicon Valley. He primarily writes about electric vehicles, clean energy systems, climate change, peak oil and related issues. When not writing he indulges in software projects and is sometimes employed as a software engineer. David has written for sites like PlugInCars and TorqueNews, and worked for companies like Sun Microsystems and Yahoo.

About David Herron

David Herron is a writer and software engineer living in Silicon Valley. He primarily writes about electric vehicles, clean energy systems, climate change, peak oil and related issues. When not writing he indulges in software projects and is sometimes employed as a software engineer. David has written for sites like PlugInCars and TorqueNews, and worked for companies like Sun Microsystems and Yahoo.

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