Hyundai Motor joins Hydrogen Council at Davos Forum

By Jhoo Dong-chan

Hyundai Motor has joined the Hydrogen Council, an international initiative to promote fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) as an alternative means of future transportation, as an official member company at the World Economic Forum (WEF) held at Davos Resort, Switzerland.

According to Hyundai Motor, Wednesday, the council was established Tuesday in which 13 global carmakers and energy companies participated as a follow-up measure to successfully execute the 2015 Paris Agreement of limiting global temperature increases to under 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The other 12 participating firms are Air Liquide, Alstom, BMW Group, Daimler, ENGIE, Honda, Kawasaki, Royal Dutch Shell, The Linde Group, Total and Toyota. The council is co-chaired by Toyota and Air Liquide.

Hyundai Motor Vice Chairman Yang Woong-cheol said in his keynote speech for the council’s opening ceremony they are “determined to develop and provide platforms to realize a hydrogen society while trying to seek cooperation from companies in other fields as carmakers alone are not enough for the commercialization of FCVs.”

The carmakers plan to produce a total of 630,000 FCVs annually while building 520 hydrogen fuel stations across the country by 2030, Yang added.

After Yang’s speech, the Hydrogen Council strongly requested the international community to use hydrogen fuel as an alternative energy source.

Introducing the Tucson ix fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) in 2013, Hyundai Motor has stepped up its efforts to commercialize its hydrogen FCEVs.

The carmaker signed a deal with Ulsan Metropolitan Government and a taxi association in the city to offer 10 Tucson ix FCEVs as taxis. It plans to add five more vehicles in Ulsan in 2017, and begin running another five as taxis in Gwangju.

It also plans to introduce the next-generation FCV model in time for the opening of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, in February 2018.

An FCEV is a hybrid car that uses a fuel cell and a battery to power an electric motor, instead of a gasoline-powered engine. It generally uses oxygen from the air and compressed hydrogen, emitting only water and heat.