The Korean Hyundai Motor Company has delivered the first ten hydrogen-powered “XCIENT Fuel Cell” trucks to Switzerland. By the end of the year, another 40 units of what are said to be “the world’s first mass-produced fuel cell heavy-duty trucks” are expected to arrive in the country.
In 2019, Hyundai Motor Company formed a joint venture called Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility (HHM) with Swiss company H2 Energy, which will rent the trucks to commercial operators on a pay-per-use basis, leaving no initial investment for fleet customers attack. The handover starts in September.
In Switzerland there is no motor vehicle tax for zero-emission commercial vehicles. This almost equalizes the transport costs per kilometer of the fuel cell truck compared to a normal diesel truck. The companies did not provide any information on the acquisition costs or operating costs.
To reduce carbon emissions, all trucks must run on environmentally friendly hydrogen. Switzerland is the country with one of the highest shares of hydropower in the world and can therefore supply enough green energy for H2 production.
Hyundai plans to launch a total of 2025 XCIENT trucks by 1.600. This project marks "a significant milestone in the history of commercial vehicles and the development of the hydrogen society," said In Cheol Lee, executive vice president and head of Hyundai Motor's Commercial Vehicle Division.
XCIENT is powered by a 190-kilowatt hydrogen fuel cell system. Seven tanks together offer a storage capacity of around 32,09 kilograms of hydrogen (at 350 bar). The Siemens drive has an output of 350 kilowatts, the range per charge is around 400 kilometers (with cooling configuration and a 34-ton truck-trailer combination), and the top speed is 85 kilometers per hour. This was developed “with a balance between the specific requirements of potential commercial fleet customers and the charging infrastructure in Switzerland”. The double-mounted fuel cell system provides enough energy to drive the heavy vehicles even in the region's mountainous terrain. Refueling takes around eight to 20 minutes.
So far, Hyundai has brought the “ix35” hydrogen car and the “Nexo” hydrogen-powered off-road vehicle (FCEV) onto the market as standard. The company says it is currently developing a long-haul tractor unit that can travel 1.000 kilometers on a single charge of hydrogen and is intended for markets such as North America and Europe. Hyundai plans to sell 2025 electric vehicles annually by 670.000, including 110.000 FCEVs.
As part of a roadmap (“Fuel Cell Vision 2018”) announced in 2030, the Hyundai Motor Group wants to produce 2030 fuel cell systems per year for automobiles, ships, rail vehicles, drones and power generators by 700.000.
Once the project gets underway in Switzerland, Hyundai plans to expand it to other European countries. In December 2019, Norway's Nel Fuel AS, a subsidiary of Nel ASA, together with H2 Energy AS, Greenstat AS and Akershus Energi Infrastructure AS founded the joint venture “Green H2 Norway”. It will build green hydrogen production facilities in Norway to supply Hyundai trucks expected in Norway from 2020.
Deep link:
https://www.hyundai.com/worldwide/en/company/news/news-room/news/-0000016484
https://h2energy.ch/nel-asa-gruendet-ein-joint-venture-zur-lieferung-von-gruenem-wasserstoff-an-hyundai-lkw-in-norwegen/
Photos:
Hyundai plans to deliver a total of 50 XCIENT hydrogen trucks in Switzerland this year / © Hyundai Motor Company
