Hyundai Motor Group is dramatically expanding its eco-friendly car lineup as part of efforts to secure future growth engines.
Hyundai Motor demonstrated a next-generation fuel cell vehicle at the “Hydrogen Electric House” that opened at a Han River park in Yeouido, Seoul on Aug. 17. Hyundai Motor Group unveiled a group-wide eco-friendly vehicle roadmap, calling for raising the number of eco-friendly cars from the current 14 to 31 by 2030. Hyundai Motor Group, the first global automaker with a system to mass produce a hydrogen car, plans to strengthen its presence in the global eco-friendly car market with by ramping up its technological leadership in a big way.
The group plans to dramatically hike technology levels of EVs and hydrogen cars, emerging as next-generation automobiles with no pollution emissions. It will make diverse and concerted efforts to cope with the arrival of a future in which eco-friendly car are dominant, including the expanding of charging infrastructure.
The group plans to ramp up its hybrid model lineup outfitted with eco-friendly elements, while retaining the strengths of the conventional powertrain as an intermediate stage.
Lee Gwang-guk, head of Hyundai Motor’s Domestic Business Division, said demonstratinga next-generation fuel cell vehicle “reconfirms Hyundai’s global leadership in the hydrogen car sector and heralds the full-fledged arrival of an ear of hydrogen, a clean energy.” The next-generation fuel cell vehicle, which will debut in early next year, will be a combination of eco-friendly electric power systems the automaker has accumulated so far, one step up from a hydrogen fuel cell system, and future car technologies.
Hyundai Motor aims at mass producing a next-generation hydrogen car that can run for a range of more than 580 km per charge. The automaker has secure performance (maximum output) of 163 horsepower, more than 20 percent higher than competitors, which is equivalent to an internal-combustion engine.
The automaker has developed the membrane electrode assembly (MEA), a core component of a fuel cell that helps produce the electrochemical reaction needed to separate electrons, and a technology for metallic bipolar plate while localizing technologies. Hyundai Motor Group has price competitiveness by establishing a system to mass produce core parts optimized for hydrogen cars.
The next-generation hydrogen car is to be outfitted with such devices as a smart parking assist system and advanced driver-assistance systems, or ADAS.
The name and major technologies of the next-generation hydrogen car will be unveiled at the CES, to be held in Las Vegas next January. The automaker will introduce a new technology dubbed “Human-Machine Interface,” for interacting between the motorist and the vehicle on top of self-driving.
Hyunidai Motor will launch the next-generation hydrogen car in global markets, including the United States and Europe. The automaker is considering entering China, emerging as a new hydrogen car market. Since 2010, when the “Tuckson ix Self-driving Car,” the group’s fist autonomous vehicle, was demonstrated, Hyundai Motor Group’s mass produced cars have been employing new technologies based on self-driving cars it developed. While releasing the Genesis EQ90 in 2015, the group introduced the Genesis Smart Sense, the “advanced driver assist system” (ADAS), an advanced self-driving technology.
Based on the commercialization of technologies it developed, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors obtained a license to test-drive self-driving cars on the expressways of Nevada in November 2015. They were granted a license to test-run the IONIQ electric and hybrid on all kinds of roads and environments. A self-driving car was demonstrated on real roads in a side event of the Creative Economy Fair held in November 2015. In March of 2016, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) issued a license to experiment a self-driving car on roads based on Genesis (DH).
Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors plan to invest about 2 trillion won between 2015 and 2018 to develop vehicular semiconductors and core self-driving automotive parts. The business group targets the commercialization of partial self-driving and full-fledged self-driving technologies by 2020 and 2030, respectively.
They are focusing on strengthening their presence in the eco-friendly car business, a key business arena. In late 2014, the business group announced the “2020 Mileage Improvement Roadmap,” in which it called for the mileage improvement of 25 percent by 2020, and eco-friendly mid- and long-term development strategies, calling for the release of 28 kinds of eco-friendly vehicles.
Currently, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors have lineups that include a combined 14 eco-friendly vehicles, comprising six hybrids, four plug-in hybrids, three electric cars, and one hydrogen electric vehicle. In particular, the business group is now developing a new electric car capable of driving 320 km per charge with the target of releasing it by 2018. Hyundai Motor is to release the following version of the Tuckson hydrogen electric car by 2018.
