One Year Since the Hydrogen Economy Started with Cars... "Now It's Time to Expand Infrastructure"

Minister Sung Yun-mo of the Ministry of Industry Holds Meeting with Sector Representatives

Hydrogen Vehicles Lead Global Sales with 60% Share
5,000 Units Supplied Domestically... 20,000 Passengers
Challenges Include Price Burden and Lack of Charging Stations

The hydrogen-exclusive large truck 'HDC-6 Neptune' launched by Hyundai Motor Company last October. (Image provided by Hyundai Motor Company)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chae-seok] As of the end of last year, the cumulative export of hydrogen vehicles surpassed 1,700 units. The number of export countries also increased by 8 from the previous year, expanding to 19 countries. The domestic hydrogen vehicle supply exceeded 5,000 units, and the number of passengers using hydrogen taxis in Seoul surpassed 20,000 in just four months. On the 13th, the government highlighted these achievements and evaluated that the hydrogen economy has grown significantly one year after the announcement of the "Hydrogen Economy Activation Roadmap" in January last year. However, experts advised that for Korea to become a global leader in the hydrogen economy, efforts must be made not only in hydrogen vehicles but also in expanding infrastructure markets such as charging stations and fuel cells, as well as building hydrogen cities.

On this day, Sung Yun-mo, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy, visited Jipilos, a renewable energy-linked water electrolysis manufacturing company located in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, and held a meeting. After the event, four organizations?Jeju Energy Corporation, Korea Midland Power, Hyundai Motor Company, and the Hydrogen Convergence Alliance Promotion Group?signed a "Business Agreement for the Jeju Green Hydrogen Full-Cycle Demonstration Project." According to the agreement, the four organizations plan to conduct a feasibility study by June this year to produce green hydrogen using Jeju Island's unused renewable energy power and utilize it in various fields such as fuel cells, hydrogen buses, and ships.

According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, since the announcement of the roadmap last year, the government has established six measures related to hydrogen vehicles, charging station construction, research and development (R&D), and hydrogen pilot city promotion, supporting approximately 370 billion KRW.

A representative achievement is Hyundai Motor Company selling 3,666 hydrogen vehicles (January to October; 60% of global sales), surpassing Japan's Toyota, which sold 2,174 units, becoming the world's number one. Thanks to expanding exports to Europe and Australia, the number of export countries increased from 11 in 2018 to 19 last year. The cumulative export volume of hydrogen vehicles, which remained at 709 units in 2017 and 936 units in 2018, jumped to 1,724 units in 2019. Hyundai Motor Group plans to produce more than 10,000 hydrogen electric vehicles annually this year, so exports are expected to continue increasing. Starting this year, they will officially begin exporting about 1,600 10-ton class hydrogen trucks to Switzerland.

The cumulative domestic supply of hydrogen vehicles increased significantly from 908 units in 2018 to 5,097 units at the end of 2019. The number of passengers using hydrogen taxis operating in Seoul since September 10 last year reached 22,374 in four months.

However, the market demands that for the hydrogen economy to grow to the government's target of "economies of scale," the industry's structure must shift from being centered on hydrogen vehicles to expanding hydrogen infrastructure and hydrogen cities. As of the end of last year, Korea's hydrogen fuel cell power generation capacity was 408 MW, ranking first in the world, and hydrogen charging stations numbered 34, ranking fourth after Japan, Germany, and the United States, but many opinions say this is still insufficient. Im Eun-young, Senior Researcher at Samsung Securities, said, "Installing charging stations requires not only private capital but also government subsidies," adding, "For example, Korea would be considered to have a proper charging station infrastructure if it had about 10,000 taxi liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) refueling stations nationwide."

The fact that the price of a hydrogen vehicle is as high as 70 million KRW per unit is also a burden. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced plans to reduce the price of hydrogen vehicles to the 40 million KRW range by 2025, but this is still a distant goal. Minister Sung Yun-mo urged, "Based on the achievements of the past year, the public and private sectors should unite even more to firmly establish Korea's position as a leading country in the hydrogen economy this year."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.