Electric
Hyundai is committed to evolving hydrogen power for its big cars and trucks
Hydrogen is ‘definitely in the plan’, but smaller city cars will likely still be battery-powered
Vijay PattniPublished: 19 Jun 2023 External link to Top Gear Magazine Subscription – 5 issues for £5Skip 1 photos in the image carousel and continue reading
While the quest to develop cheaper, lighter and less environmentally intensive batteries continues at pace, Hyundai still believes in the power of hydrogen. At least for its big cars and trucks.
Speaking to TopGear.com, European boss Michael Cole confirmed the South Korean carmaker remains committed to developing the technology, but admitted it would require a great level of investment.
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“It’s definitely in our plan,” Cole said. “With infrastructure restrictions, it’s not so easy to do wide-scale sales. Also, let’s be honest, today the technology cost and the availability of green hydrogen makes it difficult to really move forward with any volume.”
He noted how Hyundai was focusing a lot of – ahem – energy in developing fuel cells for heavy duty trucks, and Cole pointed towards the 2035 goal for more battery and hydrogen charging points. “So there will be a better infrastructure, there’ll be better availability of green hydrogen, and of course we have to work on bringing the cost of the technology down.
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“So I definitely see sitting alongside battery electric vehicles will be fuel cell passenger vehicles. I think in terms of practicality, it’ll be in larger vehicles. It’ll be in bigger SUVs. It may not be so easy to put the technology into smaller cars – city cars will be more than likely battery electric.
“Then the bigger, longer commuting cars will probably be hydrogen. But the two things will live together – they’re complementary to each other. We don’t see it as one or the other,” he added.
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It’ll still be a while before we see anything of great scale. “We’re not at the point of any production plans yet, but there’ll be opportunities,” Cole said.
The petition for that opportunity to be the N Vision 74 (pictured above) begins here…
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