Hyundai Motor Company plans to ship 50 XCIENT Fuel Cells to Switzerland this year, with handover to commercial fleet customers starting in September. Hyundai said it plans to roll out 1,600 XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks by 2025.
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“XCIENT Fuel Cell is a present-day reality, not as a mere future drawing board project. By putting this ground-breaking vehicle on the road now, Hyundai marks a significant milestone in the history of commercial vehicles and the development of hydrogen society,” said In Cheol Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Commercial Vehicle Division at Hyundai Motor.
Hyundai said XCIENT is powered by a 190kW hydrogen fuel cell system with dual 95kW fuel cell stacks. Seven hydrogen tanks offer a combined storage capacity of around 32.09kg of hydrogen and the driving range for XCIENT Fuel Cell is about 400km on a single refuelling. Refuelling time for each truck takes approximately 8-20 minutes.
Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility (HHM), a joint venture with Swiss company H2 Energy, will lease the trucks to commercial truck operators on a pay-per-use basis.
Switzerland has been chosen for the roll-out of XCIENT because road tax on freight vehicles does not apply to zero-emission trucks. Around 56 per cent of the nation’s domestic electricity is produced by hydropower, which fits with Hyundai’s aim of using hydrogen from sustainable sources and building a hydrogen infrastructure in Switzerland. The set-up of the truck-refuelling infrastructure in Switzerland with stations running with 350 bar also presents the chance to extend the network for - and uptake of - fuel cell passenger cars.
Once the project is underway in Switzerland, Hyundai plans to expand it to other European countries as well.
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