Hyundai Motor Chairman Chung Euisun: "Achieving a Hydrogen Society by 2040... Hydrogen Trucks to Launch Domestically Next Year" (Comprehensive)

Chairman Jeong: "We will make hydrogen 'for everyone, everything, everywhere'"
"Hydrogen will contribute to solving climate change"
Mass production of Xcient in Korea next year

[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] "The future hydrogen society vision that Hyundai Motor Group dreams of is to make hydrogen energy 'for everyone, for everything, everywhere.' We aim to achieve this hydrogen society by 2040."

Jung Eui-sun, Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group, announced the 'Hydrogen Vision 2040' at the 'Hydrogen Wave' event held online on the 7th, aimed at overcoming the global climate change crisis and shifting the energy paradigm to hydrogen.

Hyundai Motor Group will first apply hydrogen fuel cells to all commercial vehicle lineups, including already released models, by 2028?the first among global automakers?and all new commercial vehicle models to be launched in the future will be released as hydrogen electric vehicles and electric vehicles. This means that production of internal combustion engine commercial vehicles will gradually cease.

Hyundai Motor Group will take the lead in entering the European medium- and large-sized commercial vehicle market, which reaches 400,000 units annually, with hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles. Additionally, to target the global small commercial vehicle market expected to reach about 7 million units by 2030, they plan to develop hydrogen fuel cell purpose-built mobility (PBV) with a length of 5 to 7 meters and intend to combine autonomous driving and robotics in the commercial vehicle sector in the future.

Chairman Jung repeatedly emphasized the importance of international cooperation by mentioning humanity, the Earth, and climate change several times during the event. In a media briefing, he explained the background of Hyundai Motor’s first announcement of Hydrogen Vision 2040, saying, "The world’s energy is transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy," and "We need to overcome limitations such as storage and efficiency in renewable energy, and Hyundai Motor believes hydrogen can be the answer." He added, "A complete transition to renewable energy is impossible without hydrogen," and emphasized, "It is difficult to achieve this through the efforts of specific companies or the private sector alone, but Hyundai Motor Group could no longer just watch and decided to take the lead in change and play an important role."

Chairman Jung also mentioned that the 'Hydrogen Vision 2030' announced three years ago is connected to this Hydrogen Vision 2040. While Hyundai Motor’s earlier 'Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) Vision 2030' announced in 2018 focused on quantitative expansion goals such as establishing an annual production system of 500,000 hydrogen electric vehicles by 2030 and the supply of fuel cell systems and vehicles, this time the focus was on demonstrating the potential and diverse scalability of future hydrogen mobility.

He said, "Hydrogen Vision 2030 focused on setting goals for the spread of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, whereas Hydrogen Vision 2040 aims to show the potential and various expansions of hydrogen mobility," adding, "By 2040, we will introduce various hydrogen-based mobility including passenger cars, commercial vehicles, trains, ships, urban air mobility (UAM), and robots." Furthermore, he explained, "We will expand its use so that it can also be used as an electricity source for houses, buildings, factories, and power plants," and "We are considering various factors such as national policies, environmental regulations, and natural environments."

He also revealed plans to begin domestic mass production next year of Hyundai Motor’s hydrogen electric truck, the Xcient, which is currently launched in Switzerland. Chairman Jung stated, "Hyundai Motor Group will promote a plan to completely convert domestic public transportation and logistics systems to hydrogen-based solutions," and "The hydrogen mobility ecosystem will become a model for countries worldwide."

Chairman Jung is actively working both domestically and internationally to elevate hydrogen as a global agenda to realize a hydrogen society. He participated as a founding member of the 'Hydrogen Council,' a global CEO consortium established during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2017, and in January 2019, he was appointed co-chairman of the Hydrogen Council, proposing the establishment of a global system for joint cooperation between governments and the private sector.

In early last year, he met Mark Menezes, then Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), to discuss ways to expand the hydrogen base in the U.S., and also attended the U.S. Governors Association winter meeting reception to explain hydrogen’s environmental friendliness.

Chairman Jung also serves as a midwife for the 'Hydrogen Business Council,' a CEO gathering of domestic hydrogen-related companies. The Hydrogen Business Council, officially launching on the 8th, will include many participants such as Chairman Jung, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, POSCO Group Chairman Choi Jeong-woo, Hyosung Group Chairman Cho Hyun-joon, and Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin.

On this day, Chairman Jung emphasized the importance of building various infrastructures to realize a hydrogen society. Accordingly, Hyundai Motor Group signed memorandums of understanding with Air Liquide of France and multinational energy company Engie in October 2018, and with Saudi Aramco in June 2019, to collaborate on the spread of hydrogen electric vehicles.

Additionally, in November last year, Hyundai Motor Group signed a business agreement with global chemical company INEOS Group to build an integrated hydrogen value chain, and in July this year, signed a joint development and commercialization agreement for water electrolysis systems with Canada’s Next Hydrogen to produce green hydrogen. Recently, they also invested in Germany’s 'H2 Mobility' to build a hydrogen charging station network.

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