Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Euisun: "Achieving a Hydrogen Society by 2040"

Hyundai Motor Group Hosts 'Hydrogen Wave'
"Declaring the Popularization of Hydrogen Energy by 2040"
Commercial Vehicles to Be Fully Converted to Eco-Friendly Cars

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun presenting at the 'Hydrogen Wave'. (Photo by Hyundai Motor)

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] Chung Euisun, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, declared that 2040 will be the inaugural year for the popularization of hydrogen energy.

On the 7th, Chairman Chung held an online event called 'Hydrogen Wave' and unveiled a clear vision for the hydrogen business along with a large number of world-class new hydrogen fuel cells and hydrogen mobility, announcing his commitment to making 2040 the inaugural year for the popularization of hydrogen energy.

Hydrogen Wave is Hyundai Motor Group's first global event related to hydrogen, and the company explained that it symbolizes creating a great wave of change to shift the energy paradigm for humanity's sustainability and to realize a hydrogen society early.

In his keynote speech, Chairman Chung said, "The future hydrogen society vision that Hyundai Motor Group dreams of is to enable hydrogen energy to be used by ‘Everyone, Everything, Everywhere’," adding, "We aim to achieve this hydrogen society by 2040."

He continued, "To accelerate the realization of a hydrogen society, all commercial new models to be launched in the future will be released only as hydrogen electric vehicles or electric vehicles, and by 2028, hydrogen fuel cell systems will be applied to all commercial vehicle lineups," and announced, "To this end, we will introduce hydrogen fuel cell systems with reduced price and volume, and significantly improved durability and output."

This announcement of a comprehensive eco-friendly transition plan for commercial vehicles is the first among global automobile companies.

Various mobilities using 'e-Bogie' such as trailer drones (Photo provided by Hyundai Motor Company)

Revolutionary Changes Across Industries with Hydrogen Energy by 2040

At Hydrogen Wave, Hyundai Motor Group presented ‘Hydrogen Vision 2040,’ aiming to bring revolutionary changes across industries and society through hydrogen energy by 2040.

First, Hyundai Motor Group will promote global emission reduction by popularizing hydrogen electric commercial vehicles. By 2028, it plans to apply hydrogen fuel cells to all commercial vehicle lineups, including already released models, becoming the first in the global automotive industry to do so. All new commercial vehicle models such as large trucks and buses will be launched as hydrogen electric vehicles or electric vehicles to completely eliminate emissions.

Through this, Hyundai Motor expects that annual hydrogen demand exceeding 200,000 tons will be generated in the domestic commercial vehicle market alone by 2030. Hyundai Motor Group plans to accelerate global expansion by leading the hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicle market, including actively entering the European medium and large commercial vehicle market, which reaches 400,000 units annually.

Additionally, Hyundai Motor Group plans to target the small commercial vehicle market, expected to reach 7 million units worldwide by 2030, by developing hydrogen fuel cell PBVs (Purpose Built Vehicles) with lengths of about 5 to 7 meters. In the future, it will further strengthen its business capabilities by combining autonomous driving and robotics in the commercial vehicle sector.

At the Hydrogen Wave announcement event, Hyundai Motor Group unveiled for the first time its unmanned transport system concept mobility for future long-distance logistics, called the ‘Trailer Drone.’

The Trailer Drone is a new concept transport mobility where a trailer is mounted on two ‘e-Bogies’ equipped with hydrogen fuel cells and full autonomous driving technology, capable of turning within a narrower radius than a conventional trailer. A bogie refers to a wheeled chassis under a train.

Hyundai Motor Group is developing the Trailer Drone to travel over 1,000 km on a single charge, and the e-Bogie can be operated separately from container trailers, allowing use in various fields such as freight transport, construction, firefighting, and rescue.

Chairman Chung stated, “We will continuously expand future business areas by applying hydrogen fuel cells not only to automobiles but also to mobility and energy solutions,” adding, “We will contribute to realizing a global hydrogen society by applying fuel cells to various means of transportation such as trams, trains, ships, and Urban Air Mobility (UAM), as well as to daily life and industries including houses, buildings, factories, and power plants.”

Mobile Hydrogen Refueling Station 'H Moving Station' (Photo by Hyundai Motor Company)

First Reveal of 3rd Generation Hydrogen Fuel Cell System

At Hydrogen Wave, Hyundai Motor Group also unveiled for the first time in the world prototypes of the 3rd generation hydrogen fuel cell systems, 100kW and 200kW models, scheduled for release in 2023.

The 100kW fuel cell system reduced volume by 30% compared to the 2nd generation fuel cell system applied in Nexo. The 200kW fuel cell system, developed for commercial vehicles, is similar in size to Nexo’s system but has approximately double the output. Durability is also increased by 2 to 3 times. The high-durability fuel cell system for commercial vehicles is planned to secure a driving range of over 500,000 km.

Hyundai Motor Group plans to reduce the price of the 3rd generation fuel cell system by more than 50% compared to current levels, and by around 2030, it expects hydrogen electric vehicles to have price competitiveness comparable to general electric vehicles.

Besides the Trailer Drone, Hyundai Motor Group also showcased new hydrogen mobility and hydrogen fuel cell systems under development.

Hydrogen mobility is environmentally friendly with zero emissions, and features such as short refueling time and long driving range are key advantages.

The high-performance hydrogen fuel cell vehicle ‘Vision FK,’ which combines the strengths of hydrogen and electric vehicles, was also unveiled worldwide for the first time. Vision FK integrates a fuel cell and a high-performance Power Electric (PE) system, targeting a maximum driving range of 600 km on a single charge. Its output exceeds 500kW, and it can accelerate from zero to 100 km/h in under 4 seconds, demonstrating the potential to create high-performance vehicles using hydrogen technology.

The ‘Rescue Drone’ is a mobility combining a hydrogen fuel cell e-Bogie with a flying drone and firefighting water cannon. It can fly to disaster sites, operate the water cannon to extinguish fires, and conduct rescue operations.

It supports both remote and autonomous driving, plans to implement crabwalk movement allowing rotation in place or diagonal movement, and has a driving range of approximately 450 to 500 km on a single charge.

Chairman Chung Euisun said, “Hydrogen is certainly one of the powerful solutions for humanity to overcome environmental disasters,” but added, “However, it is not easy to rapidly transition to the hydrogen society we desire through the efforts of some countries or companies alone.”

He emphasized, “As a responsible global corporate citizen, Hyundai Motor Group will actively strive to accelerate the hydrogen society for humanity’s future, and widespread participation from governments and companies worldwide is necessary.”

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