Man falls returned whilst quoted: substitute part of his Hyundai charges twice as a lot as the car itself

A German motorist did now not know what hit him while he acquired the citation for the restore of his automobile. For one replacement element, the person needed to pay nearly 104,000 euros, more than double what he had ever paid for the car.

After seven years and eighty four,000 trouble-loose kilometers, German IT expert Till Westberg all of sudden broke down along with his Hyundai ix35 FCEV. The guy decided to have his vehicle towed to the provider and request a quote for repair. When he subsequently obtained it, he nearly fell off his chair. He had to pay no less than 103,764.17 euros… for one replacement part.

And it wasn’t a typo.

How is that feasible? Westberg’s Huyndai is one of the first actual manufacturing vehicles with a hydrogen power. The most essential element in it's miles the gas cell, which combines the hydrogen from an onboard tank with oxygen from the air to generate the power had to power the engine.

Pure water as an emission

Because no heavy batteries are required and no exhaust fumes are emitted, only pure water is emitted, hydrogen-powered vehicles are seen by way of many because the era for the future. The biggest disadvantage is that a fairly massive quantity of electricity is misplaced.

“I was very glad with my automobile,” Westberg now testifies inside the German newspaper Bild. He offered the automobile in 2015 because he believes there are higher solutions than the combustion engine. Initially, he even drove greater than one hundred ten kilometers to refuel at one of the few hydrogen filling stations. “But I didn’t thoughts. The car drove almost silently and had quite a number 450 to 500 kilometers. Perfect for regular use.”

Now the gasoline mobile has failed. Manufacturer Hyundai has introduced that the restore is so steeply-priced because it's far a completely rare model. The Hyundai ix35 became produced among 2013 and 2018 and most effective 1,000 gadgets had been offered.

Westberg has – logically – decided now not to have the upkeep completed and to declare the auto a ‘overall loss’. Although his 5-year manufacturing facility assurance has expired a while in the past, he believes that Hyundai must take the auto back because in his view it became no longer but geared up for collection production. However, Hyundai does not appear like answering the question.