Hyundai's Nexo keeps 1st place in hydrogen car market beating Toyota

Hyundai Motor Co.'s hydrogen fuel cell car model Nexo far surpassed Toyota in the world's market share.

According to SNE Research, a market research firm specializing in the energy market, on Wednesday, the number of hydrogen-powered vehicles sold worldwide between January and November last year was 18,457, up 14.2% from the same period last year.

Hyundai Motor's hydrogen fuel cell car Nexo sold 10,700 units during this period, ranking first in the world. Toyota's Mirai was ranked second with 3,238 units sold.

The market share for Nexo was 58.0% while it was 17.5% for Mirai. Meanwhile, Honda sold only 209 units of its hydrogen car Clarity, and China's SAIC sold 204 units of the Maxus EUNIQ7 model.

SNE Research predicted that Hyundai Motor and Toyota will launch the Nexo and Mirai, respectively, in the Chinese market in the near future. It is reported that Hyundai Motor is also considering the launch of the Xcient, a large hydrogen electric truck, in China.

"Chinese and Japanese automakers will fiercely chase Hyundai Motor's leadership position on the back of each country's government subsidies. It is worth watching whether the rapid growth pace of hydrogen commercial vehicles in the Chinese market will lead to the growth of the hydrogen passenger car market," said an official of SNE Research.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com