No a humdrum vehicle for 65k is an obscenity. The future is therefore going to be exactly like the past. Poor peasants wont be allowed to move off their feudal lords premises, living working and dying a few miles apart. Meanwhile an overclass will swan about in 65k crystal bourgeois mobiles powered by crushed swan beaks. But we'll have saved the planet. Well if that's the future count me out of all this saving malarkey. It ain't worth it.

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say...

A bit over dramatic there?, and completely ignoring the fact that the reason this car (and the Toyota Mirai) is so expensive is because the technology is still very much in its infancy. If hydrogen fuel cell cars become more popular, they will inevtably drop a lot in price as the various parts become more affordable through volume and manufacturing processes become more efficient through practise.

Other than current price, one of the main barriers to the success of hydrogen fuel cell cars is the fact that there are only a handful of places in the UK you can refuel one. Relevant companies are reluctant to invest in more filling stations due to the very small number of current vehicles to use them. The car manufacturers are reluctant to release hydrogen fuel cell cars as there is not enough places to refuel them, classic catch 22.

I have nothing but admiration for Toyota and Kia for making these cars available in the UK, and i have even more admiration for folk who buy one. They could have gone down the 'me too' route and spend £65K on an Audi, BMW or Merc (quite easily), but they decided to put the environment in front of their vanity. Not something to be scoffed at!.

Alas, until the aforementioned big three German companies bring out hydrogen cars (folk have no qualms at all about spending that much or much more on one of them), they will remain a very niche product.

A real winner in the green stakes - 95% of hydrogen today is made using natual gas (not green!) as a base, and the processing, compression and storage of the gas at high pressure takes a huge amount of energy before the fuel is even put in the vehicle.

Only when the hydrogen is made by electrolysis using renewable energy will it be green. Or the egg heads may come up with a better way of hydrogen production possibly using algae although this is may be decades away.

By then we will need to seriously question whether a hydrogen based vehicle offers any real benefit over electric in terms of cost, safety, range etc.

Quite right.

HJ reported about how Toyota were using the electrolysis method to split off hydrogen from water to power six pallet liefters for a day. Trouble is that it needed a huge PV array, which would likely generate enough electricity to power the equivalent EV versions and much more, and the 'filling station' was quite large as well.

Now imagine what would be needed (and access to huge amounts of water, 24/7) to do the same for the average daily usage of an 8-pump small filling station serving an average sized town. I shudder to think what the size of the PV array and high pressure hydrogen storage tanks (never mind the consequences of a leak or, God forbid, an explosion) or having a piped system like with natural gas would be.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cell#Fueling_stations

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_station

Besides, areas further inland would either have to use (already scarce) fresh water supplies, inconsistent rainfall captured (more cost for that) or pump in either seawater from the coast or have a potentially very dangerous (far more than natural gas as it's under much higher pressure and more prone to leaks) centrally-piped distribution system.

To me, it's telling that in 2016 (see first wiki page) that Samsung dropped out of the fuel cell market because the prospects didn't look good. Things may eventually get better, but, like with EVs, the issues surrounding the tech's implementation are the real sticking point, not the concept itself.

Apparently just making these cars is extremely damaging to the environment in terms of resources used in the making and the carbon footprint.

Is it any worse than an EV with a huge battery?. I'm no expert, but i was under the impression one of the biggest (environmental) arguments against these, is the sourcing of the stuff which goes into the battery.

As to putting the environment first that is open to serious debate

Yes, that is fair enough and has been argued many times on many threads, but i was more thinking about the actual cost being being placed behind the (admittedly arguable) environmental benefit. Very often, when EV threads come up, there are comments about how an EV does not make financial sense due to depreciation and PCP/personal lease cost. I just find it refreshing that not everyone thinks that way.

But also, the title of the thread itself just highlights the mentality of the potential buyers Kia has to overcome. No mention of hydrogen fuel cell, just, "A Kia for £65,995". This suggests the OP's main consideration is paying that money for a car with a Kia badge, as opposed to the pro's and con's of hydrogen fuel cell as a viable option. But if, ignoring my own doubts, that was the case, why now?. The Toyota Mirai has been available in the UK (at around £65k) for nearly 5 years now.

Apparently just making these cars is extremely damaging to the environment in terms of resources used in the making and the carbon footprint. As to putting the environment first that is open to serious debate

All manufacturing can have an affect on the environment.

What do you put first instead of the environment? If that's not looked after there won't be any people here.