Hyundai Motor makes hydrogen investments

Home > Business > Industry

print dictionary print

Hyundai Motor makes hydrogen investments

Hyundai Motor is investing in three European companies with technologies related to hydrogen power.

The largest automaker by sales in Korea announced Wednesday that it has signed agreements with Linkoping, Sweden-based Impact Coatings, H2Pro from Caesarea, Israel, and Sion, Switzerland’s GRZ Technologies.

As part of their agreement, Impact Coatings and Hyundai Motor are co-developing technologies to reduce the manufacturing cost of fuel cells. The Korean automaker is looking to develop ceramic-coated fuel cells, which cost significantly less than cells made with precious metals.

By using more affordable fuel cells, Hyundai Motor expects to lower the price of fuel-cell electric vehicles and gain an edge in the market.

The Korean automaker is partnering with H2Pro for technology that lowers the cost of producing hydrogen.

By utilizing the company’s emission-free water electrolysis technology, which consumes 20 percent less electricity than electrolysis used by other companies, Hyundai Motor expects to greatly cut the production cost for hydrogen and later develop on-site hydrogen-producing charging stations.

Under the agreement, GRZ Technologies and Hyundai Motor are collaborating to utilize better technologies for hydrogen fueling stations.

Hyundai Motor said storage tanks from GRZ Technologies can store up to 10 times more hydrogen than other tanks, even at a lower pressure.

The Swiss company also has technology that can reduce the cost of maintaining hydrogen fueling stations and reduce the time it takes for fueling vehicles.

According to a road map announced in December 2018, Hyundai Motor plans to make 500,000 hydrogen-powered vehicles a year by 2030 and invest a total of 7.6 trillion won ($6.5 billion) along with its 124 partnering companies to expand related research and development efforts.

BY KO JUN-TAE ko.juntae@joongang.co.kr
Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)