Beyond the fact that Hyundai is clearly betting on the electric car, with an Ioniq family that has left us some of the most spectacular cars of the moment, the Korean company has alternative plans for zero-emission mobility.
At the beginning of this year we already said that Hyundai was working on a plan that went beyond putting hydrogen-powered cars on the market. The company’s idea is to carry out a comprehensive strategy.
Hydrogen is expensive to produce and transport. Therefore, the Korean company’s intention is to enter the business by producing and offering it itself. For the first part of the process, it works on the development of polymeric membrane electrolyzers (PEM).
But, in addition to the above, if hydrogen wants to be viable You need to have cars on the market that sell their benefits. For years, the offer has been almost limited to two models. The Toyota Mirai has failed to take off and in the United States its owners have taken the company to court, accusing it of misleading advertising.
The second model is the Hyundai Nexo. An SUV that advanced the company’s plans which, they assured in 2021, would end up permeating its entire offer. Then they proposed that their entire range would have a fuel cell alternative in the year 2028.
At the halfway point of this project, we have not heard from it again. But now Hyundai has presented a prototype very close to a production version. It’s the Hyundai Initium.
Taking over from the Hyundai Nexo
Until now, the Hyundai Nexo has been only in the Korean company’s offer. Now it will also have the Hyundai Initium, a fuel cell vehicle that the Koreans promise to launch in the first half of next year.
The car, although still a prototype, It already seems to be very close to the final model. What the company has confirmed is that they anticipate a range of 650 kilometers, slightly higher than what the Hyundai Nexo offers, and that it will have a 150 kW (205 HP) electric motor.
Hyundai also anticipates that the car will have Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) capability. That is, it can act as a battery in itself and power appliances and other electrical devices in a home if necessary.
What the company does not reveal is the size of the deposits that it will use to store hydrogen. This is one of the main problems since they need a size that is too large to perform enough to cover hundreds of kilometers. The best thing about technology, on the contrary, is that recharging them is very fast.
Hyundai has also noted in its presentation that the new Initium will have a specific route planner. They point out that the shortage of service stations (in Spain they are almost non-existent) is the main problem that this technology faces. The planner will show the status of the service station and the vehicles that are refueling hydrogen at that time.
Hyundai’s great challenge, in which Toyota is also immersed, is to demonstrate that hydrogen has a future for smaller passenger vehicles. Transporting hydrogen is extremely expensive because, in its gaseous state, it is very volatile and flammable. In liquid format it is more stable but it must be moved to -253ºC and subsequently returned to a gaseous state in order to be used in a fuel cell vehicle.
For its part, Toyota is investigating Skip this last step. A part of its development is dedicated to studying whether it is viable to use hydrogen in a liquid state to burn it in a combustion engine and offer sensations similar to those offered by a gasoline car.
In the latter case, the expulsion of NOx occurs, one of the most harmful particles for human beings. In its latest draft on the ban on selling cars with combustion engines from 2035, the European Union focused on banning engines that were not carbon neutral, opening the door to this way of working and efuel.
Photo | Hyundai
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