The Hydrogen-Powered Bus and Truck from Hyundai Motor Company

Authors

S. Kweon, J. J. Park, Dr.-Ing. S. H. Kim, Hyundai Motor Company, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea

Year

2020

Print Info

Fortschritt-Berichte VDI, Reihe 12, Nr. 813

Summary

Most federal and local governments consider resolving severe air polluting as shifting transportation paradigm from the fossil fuel to clean energy. And EU had set binding CO₂ limits for trucks in 2019. This new rules will ensure that between 2025 and 2029, new trucks will emit on average 15% less CO2 compared to 2019 emission levels. From 2030 onwards, they will be required to emit on average 30%. The heavy-duty vehicles powered by hydrogen are currently spotlighting as one of candidates for solutions.
Hyundai Motor Company (HMC) launched the world’s first mass-produced fuel cell vehicle, ix35 Fuel Cell, in 2013. Based on its fuel cell system, HMC manufactured and operated the fuel cell buses for the demonstration projects in Korea for several years. Next Hyundai fuel cell vehicle, NEXO, was introduced in the market in 2018. New fuel cell trucks and buses have been improved with two sets of NEXO fuel cell system. A few new fuel cell buses are being used at several municipal areas in several Korea cities in 2019. In addition to fuel cell bus, HMC will launch fuel cell trucks in Switzerland in the near future. The fuel cell power of heavy duty vehicles is 190 kw, two NEXO systems. So even though one of systems has problem, the other one can still make power. Fuel cell bus has 700 bar hydrogen tanks and it can remove fine dust from the air during operation. In case of fuel cell truck, it has 350 bar hydrogen tanks to meet the Switzerland local specification of hydrogen stations.