TOKYO — Even because it pushes forward with huge plans for electrical autos, Hyundai Motor Group is readying a hydrogen blitz.
Hyundai, one among solely a handful of auto trade true believers within the potential of hydrogen-powered autos, plans to current a imaginative and prescient for the longer term subsequent week, exhibiting how compressed gasoline can energy all the things from vehicles to freight haulers and all method of recent mobility.
Promo movies for the deliberate Sept. 7 occasion tease a high-powered racer tearing up a observe, a buslike cross-country cargo mover, and the promise of the power to “cost hydrogen, wherever you’re.”
“Be a part of the hydrogen future filled with surprises,” the clips beseech.
The South Korean carmaker is billing the general public proclamation as “Hydrogen Wave.”
However the discussion board is anticipated to transcend autos of the longer term by outlining plans for a hydrogen infrastructure that covers next-generation gasoline cell programs, fueling networks and different functions for the futuristic inexperienced know-how, each within the auto sector and different industries.
Hyundai will even pitch a marketing strategy for the imaginative and prescient.
Its ramp-up of hydrogen-based applied sciences comes as a lot of the auto trade sidesteps gasoline cells and stampedes towards full battery-electric autos.
Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp., nonetheless, additionally needs to pursue hydrogen gasoline cell know-how.
Final week, Toyota introduced it would open a brand new devoted meeting line at its plant in Georgetown, Ky., in 2023 to supply built-in twin gasoline cell modules to be used in hydrogen-powered heavy-duty industrial vans.
In a press release on the mission, Toyota mentioned the modules “will enable truck producers to include emissions-free gasoline cell electrical know-how into present platforms with the technical help of Toyota beneath the hood.”
The modules will weigh roughly 1,400 kilos and ship 300 miles of vary at a full load weight of 80,000 kilos, in line with Toyota. The kits will embody a high-voltage battery, electrical motors, transmission and hydrogen storage meeting from top-tier suppliers.
Toyota additionally mentioned that it’ll present powertrain integration experience to assist truck producers adapt the programs to all kinds of functions.
Hydrogen performs an vital position in Hyundai Motor Group’s multipronged method to slicing emissions, a technique that additionally consists of battery-electrics and hybrids.
Hyundai launched the trade’s first mass- produced gasoline cell passenger automobile, the Tucson Gas Cell, in 2013 and at the moment presents the Nexo gasoline cell crossover and Xcient Gas Cell heavy truck. Final 12 months, it launched a model referred to as HTWO to advertise the usage of the H2 hydrogen molecule in creating and selling hydrogen gasoline cell programs for numerous transportation functions.
Honda Motor Co. additionally has an extended historical past of engaged on future hydrogen applied sciences with Common Motors. In Europe, German maker BMW additionally continues to dabble in hydrogen as a zero-emission pathway.