Hyundai to manufacture fuel cells in South Korea
According to South Korean media reports, Hyundai has reached an agreement with its union to build a next-generation hydrogen fuel cell plant at the manufacturer’s existing factory in Ulsan. After completion, it would be the second largest fuel cell production facility in the world after HTWO Guangzhou, Hyundai’s fuel cell plant in China. It can build up to 6,500 fuel cell systems there per year. However, there is no real mass market for fuel cells so far.
Hyundai’s decision to build a new fuel cell plant comes about a year after the company took over the hydrogen fuel cell business from its automotive parts subsidiary Hyundai Mobis to centralise the Hyundai Motor Group’s hydrogen business under one roof.
After the construction of the new fuel cell plant in Ulsan, Hyundai will be able to manufacture fuel cell stacks in one place, as well as integrate them into hydrogen-powered vehicles. Hyundai already has an H2 model on the market in the form of the Nexo, and last autumn it presented a concept car for a successor to the Nexo under the name Initium, which is due to launch this year.
With the addition of the fuel cell plant, Hyundai Motor aims to accelerate its plan to design and control the entire value chain of energy and vehicle production with hydrogen. At CES 2024, the world’s largest technology trade show, Hyundai unveiled a plan to develop not only fuel cells for cars, but also other hydrogen technologies that cover the entire hydrogen value chain under its fuel cell brand HTWO.
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