Hyundai to debut car-carrier hydrogen trucks in H2

Hyundai Motor Co. plans to roll out car carrier trailers and refrigerator trucks powered by hydrogen in the second half of this year with a focus on the US market, about four years after it debuted its XCIENT hydrogen fuel cell truck, the South Korean carmaker said on Wednesday.

It will also expand the lineup of its hydrogen fuel cell vehicles into express and low-floor intercity buses by early 2027, while developing what would be the world’s first hydrogen-powered supercar for launch in 2026.

In October 2020, the XCIENT hydrogen truck hit the market in Switzerland.

Since then, Swiss transportation companies have bought 48 units of the hydrogen fuel cell truck and have driven them a total of 10 million kilometers. That mileage is equivalent to circling the earth, with its circumference of 40,075 km, 240 times.

XCIENT is the world's first mass-produced, hydrogen-powered heavy truck. It sells for 600 million-800 million won ($437,000-$583,000) per unit.

The zero-emission truck is fitted with a 180-kilowatt (kW) hydrogen fuel cell system consisting of two hydrogen fuel cells and a drive motor with a maximum output of 350 kW.

They can drive up to 400 km on a single charge.

To improve the mileage of hydrogen trucks and buses, Hyundai is working to increase the electricity production of hydrogen fuel cell stacks that convert chemical energy to electrical energy through an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen to 200kW from 180kW.

Early this week, Hyundai Motor took over hydrogen battery pack assembly facilities from its affiliated auto parts company Hyundai Mobis Co. to take charge of both the development and production of fuel cell packs.

Write to Jae-Fu Kim and Jin-Won Kim at hu@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.