A hydrogen-powered option will be available for all passenger vehicles and commercial vans, trucks and buses made by Hyundai Motor Group from 2028, the company announced on Tuesday as part of its aim to popularise hydrogen fuel cell technology by 2040.
The South Korean group, which is the parent of the Hyundai and Kia car manufacturing companies, said it will launch hydrogen fuel cell powertrains in 2023 for commercial and passenger vehicles.
It made the announcement as part of a hydrogen-focused event to showcase its plans to make the fuel cell technology “readily used for everyone, everything and everywhere”.
Before the end of the decade, Hyundai said it wants to be selling hydrogen fuel cell vehicles at roughly the same price as battery electric vehicles, having managed to significantly cut the costs of the technology since the turn of the millennium.
Last year, Hyundai and Kia sold close to 290,000 commercial vehicles, of which 115 were hydrogen fuel cell buses and 45 were fuel cell trucks.
Hyundai also said it plans to use hydrogen fuel cell technology in other areas, such as container transport, using a new autonomous vehicle called a Fuel Cell e-Bogie that carries a large hydrogen storage system.
As the company's hydrogen fuel cell technology is modular and can be stacked together to create outputs as high as a megawatt, it says this could also be used as an emergency power source for certain companies and organisations.