Hydrogen Vision 2040 by Hyundai

Author: James Yang Jianwen

In the context of the trend towards electrification, global automakers are working hard in the field of pure electric vehicles.

Meanwhile, the situation for hydrogen energy is rather awkward. It remains at an early stage of development and has not gained much traction, even though Honda, which has been promoting the development of hydrogen energy, has decided to temporarily put aside its fuel cell vehicles relying on hydrogen and turn to focus on pure electric vehicles.

At such a time, is it still worth investing in hydrogen energy?

Now, Hyundai has given a strong response to this question.

Yesterday, Hyundai Group held an online global event called “Hydrogen Wave”, formally unveiling its “Hydrogen Vision 2040”.

Hydrogen Vision 2040

How committed is Hyundai to hydrogen energy? Consider the following timeline:

• Since 1998, Hyundai Motor Group has been working continuously to prepare for the future development of hydrogen energy, by researching and developing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCEVs).
• In February 2013, the first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, the Hyundai ix35 FCEV, was launched.
• In 2018, the new generation hydrogen fuel cell SUV model, the NEXO, was released.
• In 2020, the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell heavy truck, the XCIENT Fuel Cell, was officially launched.

And now, Hyundai has decided to go “all in” on hydrogen energy.

Hyundai has announced that it will begin by working on heavy commercial vehicles with high CO2 emissions, and launch new types of commercial vehicle, such as hydrogen fuel cell and pure electric coaches and heavy trucks, to the global market. By 2028, Hyundai aims to become the world’s first automaker to install hydrogen fuel cell systems in all of its commercial vehicle models.

As an example, Hyundai will promote the transformation of public transport and logistics systems in Korea to turn them into hydrogen-based solutions.

At the same time, Hyundai will target cost competitiveness with electric vehicles in order to ensure its competitiveness in the market.

By 2030, the cost of hydrogen fuel cell systems should be comparable with electric vehicle batteries. By 2040, hydrogen energy will not only be applicable to transportation, but will also be more widely used in different industries and fields.

The Next Generation Hydrogen Fuel Cell System

With a vision in place, what about the technology?

In this event, Hyundai introduced its third-generation hydrogen fuel cell system which will replace the current NEXO system. The new system has two power variants: 100 kW and 200 kW. It is planned to be launched in the market in 2023.

Compared with the current hydrogen fuel cell system, the new generation 100 kW hydrogen fuel cell system is 30% smaller in size, making it more adaptable to different vehicle types and applications. The 200 kW version is similar in size to the NEXO’s hydrogen fuel cell system, but its output power has doubled, and this version is specifically designed for commercial trucks.

In 2018, the second generation hydrogen fuel cell system equipped in NEXO achieved a quality guarantee of 5000 hours and 160,000 kilometers, which is equivalent to that of traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. The development goal of the third-generation hydrogen fuel cell for the passenger car market is to achieve a quality guarantee of 500,000 kilometers.

Hyundai Motor Executive Vice President and Head of Fuel Cell Division, Kim Sae-hoon, gave an example: The cost of a hydrogen fuel cell system used in a prototype vehicle was three times the price of his house in Seoul, South Korea in 2003. In 2006, the cost was reduced by half, and in 2013 (the fuel cell system used in the ix35 FCEV), the cost has decreased to 10% of that ten years ago. The cost of the third-generation fuel cell system is expected to be reduced by nearly 98% compared to 2003, which is also the foundation for Hyundai to achieve the goal of making FCEVs as competitive as battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in terms of cost.

Looking back at Hyundai’s vision, they aim to become the world’s first automaker to have all commercial vehicle models equipped with hydrogen fuel cell systems by 2028.

Hydrogen-powered Mobility Products for the Future

In the commercial vehicle market, Hyundai XCIENT Fuel Cell is the world’s first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell heavy-duty truck. It was put into operation in Switzerland last summer, and there are now 45 XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks driving on the road with a mileage exceeding 210,000 kilometers. Later this year, Hyundai will deliver an upgraded XCIENT Fuel Cell to Switzerland.

At the same time, Hyundai is developing a tractor based on the hydrogen fuel cell heavy-duty truck XCIENT Fuel Cell, which is planned to be released in 2023. Hyundai will also actively enter the European commercial vehicle market.

Meanwhile, Hyundai has also launched a series of hydrogen-powered mobility products for the future.Hydrogen-powered intelligent unmanned transportation vehicle (Trailer Drone): A brand new concept car that is currently in the development stage. It can achieve a fully automated container transport system, equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell system as the power source, and two intelligent unmanned transportation platforms, e-Bogie. Trailer Drone can be configured with the number of hydrogen tanks based on the mileage, ensuring that it has a range of more than 1000km on a single hydrogen refueling, which is fully comparable to the existing container transport system.

Multifunctional intelligent unmanned transportation platform (Fuel Cell e-Bogie): Designed based on the bogie of the railway industry, located under the container, equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell system, and can achieve independent four-wheel steering.

The hydrogen-powered intelligent unmanned transportation vehicle is equipped with two e-Bogies that are equipped with hydrogen fuel cells, which can move laterally and have excellent maneuverability. The hydrogen-powered intelligent unmanned transportation vehicle can operate in the port and narrow urban environments with autonomous driving.

In “cluster mode”, the efficiency is further improved. In this mode, multiple hydrogen-powered intelligent unmanned transportation vehicles can travel synchronously like a train.

Hydrogen hybrid sports car concept Vision FK: The world’s first hydrogen fuel cell energy converter combined with a high-power, rear-wheel drive plug-in PE power system in a hydrogen fuel cell car, with a maximum output power of more than 500 kW, acceleration time of less than 4 seconds from 0-100 km/h, and can be refueled with hydrogen in 20 minutes, with a maximum range of over 600 km.

Given the “complexity of vehicle design,” Hyundai will work with Rimac (a supercar brand that Hyundai has also invested in) to jointly develop the PE system of the car. Hyundai’s high-performance and hydrogen fuel cell department engineers are responsible for developing all other systems of the car.

Mobile hydrogen refueling station (H Moving Station): Heavy-duty vehicles equipped with hydrogen fuel cell vehicle refueling equipment. It can refuel up to 25 NEXO hydrogen fuel cell systems at a time, providing hydrogen refueling services for areas with limited refueling station numbers or when the refueling station is under maintenance.

In addition to these, there are also Rescue Drones, Rescue Hydrogen Generator Vehicles (RHGV), and other products. We won’t list all of them here.

Summary

To achieve success in the hydrogen energy industry, breakthroughs are needed in four areas: hydrogen production, hydrogen storage, hydrogen fuel cell technology, and infrastructure (such as hydrogen refueling stations). This cannot be achieved by the modern group alone, but requires collaboration throughout the entire industry chain.

Although countries are announcing plans to support the construction of hydrogen fuel infrastructure, it is unclear when it will be truly effective. It should be noted that electric vehicles have only recently begun to be gradually accepted by consumers in the past few months, and it has gone through a long period of development.

Fortunately, modern did not immediately focus on passenger cars, but chose to focus on the more obvious demand for commercial vehicles.

After all, long-distance transportation with fixed scenarios is very suitable for hydrogen energy and hydrogen fuel cell systems as a substitute for diesel power systems. To put it bluntly, at least in long-distance freight transportation, there is a good chance for hydrogen fuel.

In fact, this is not the first time that modern has proposed a similar vision. In December 2018, modern announced its “2030 Vision”, which included the goal of producing and selling 500,000 FCEVs (fuel cell electric vehicles) by 2030, including passenger cars and commercial vehicles.

For ease of calculation, let’s convert that to 10-year increments. From 2020 to 2030, modern’s annual FCEV sales target is to reach 50,000 vehicles.

However, as of now, the sales volume of modern’s hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is still not high. As of November 2020, the total sales volume of NEXO in Korea has just exceeded 10,000, which took modern two years and seven months to achieve. As for hydrogen fuel heavy-duty trucks, there are currently only 45 running, and the official data says “the annual production is 10,000 to 15,000 vehicles, and no profit has been earned yet”.

Therefore, I am skeptical about modern’s 2040 vision.

Modern society has realized that the market for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is still in the early stages of development, and it is difficult to persist on this road. However, in order to prove that “hydrogen energy is a viable path”, Hyundai still needs to provide more evidence: maybe it is the all-new NEXO equipped with third-generation fuel cell system, which will be launched in 2023; or maybe it is profitable sales of FCEVs; or perhaps it is promoting the transformation of Korea’s public transportation and logistics system to a hydrogen-based energy system.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.