IF YOU’VE been busting to know what driving a hydrogen vehicle is like, we’ll skip to the chase – surprisingly normal.

In an era where most of us are now familiar with how electrification works in a passenger vehicle – even if it’s only that first moment of movement in a Camry Hybrid taxi – there’s nothing unusual about not hearing a combustion engine humming away up front.

In that regard, the Hyundai Nexo medium SUV is just like Hyundai’s Kona and Ioniq EVs – smooth, effortless, and borderline-silent. Except that the Nexo feeds on hydrogen, not electricity, and even though it has a battery mounted above its rear axle – powering ancillaries while adding a performance boost when required – the front-drive Nexo’s chief source of propulsion is the fuel cell occupying its engine bay.