Hyundai motor's ambition and action in the development of hydrogen vehicles

Most car manufacturers are hesitant to wait and see and resolute in the development of hydrogen vehicles. Even if they decide to mass-produce a certain car model, they cannot put forward a specific development blueprint and timetable, preferring to be in line with the short-term market-oriented positioning. For example, European car manufacturers are constrained by regional regulations and geographical factors, and have to start the hydrogenation of heavy vehicles or commercial vehicles, and focus on the establishment of the car ecosystem, rather than the all-round development of the entire car series. For example, in June 2021, Renault and Plug Power, a hydrogen fuel solutions provider, established HYVIA as a joint venture, combining their complementary expertise to provide maintenance energy and battery integration, power stations and fleet management. At present, only Toyota and Hyundai have relatively complete and comprehensive development plans for the entire car series and its ecosystem. Among them, Hyundai's ambition and action are the most obvious.
What impresses most about Hyundai is the vision that the exact setting can seamlessly integrate and replace the combustion engine. This does not have any conflict with the current development of lithium vehicles. Both lithium vehicles and hydrogen vehicles use electricity as a power source, and many technologies can be shared. Refining the technology of lithium vehicles is of great help to the development of hydrogen vehicles. Furthermore, the use of hybrid powertrains is becoming more and more common in response to the needs of various regions and applications. The comprehensive development of various technologies has become a must-have condition for future leading car manufacturers, which is indeed a great challenge. However, in the early stage of the hydrogen vehicle market, where uncertainty and doubts are still strong, Hyundai Motor is still technically trying to demonstrate that, even if it cannot rely on sufficient economic scale for mass production to reduce costs. The performance on various models of vehicles can be comparable to or even surpass that of fuel vehicles and lithium vehicles. In terms of cost reduction, there are also solutions. After all, in the automotive industry, it respects and pays more attention to specific scientific and engineering verification than other industries. Only on this basis can it have sufficient credibility.


References

• 2022-04-02, 騰訊網, 引領未來氫能社會轉型——現代汽車走出了“韓國經驗”

• 2022-07-22, Hydrogen Central, A Green Hydrogen Economy Depends on This Little-Known Machine

• 2021-09-07, Hyundai Motor, Press release, Hyundai Motor Group presents its vision to popularize Hydrogen by 2040 at Hydrogen Wave Forum

• 2021-09-06, CNET, Antuan Goodwin, Hyundai's Fuel Cell Trailer Drone is the future of trucking, minus the trucks
• 2021-09-07, Hyundai Motor, Press release, Vision FK, the world’s first high-performance eco-friendly hydrogen electric vehicle