Hyundai Motor Group will transfer all of its hydrogen business capabilities to one subsidiary. Hyundai Mobis’ hydrogen fuel cell production management division will be transferred to Hyundai Motor to complete the Korean automotive group’s value chain of hydrogen mobility production and boost its efficiency.
According to sources in the automotive industry on Aug. 30, Hyundai Motor Group is considering transferring Hyundai Mobis’ hydrogen fuel cell business to Hyundai Motor.
A hydrogen fuel cell is a device that uses hydrogen as a fuel to generate electricity and serves as the heart of hydrogen mobility. Until now, Hyundai Mobis has been supplying hydrogen fuel cells produced at its Chungju plant to its Ulsan and Jeonju plants, which produce the hydrogen car Nexo, the hydrogen truck Exient, and the hydrogen bus Elec City.
Hyundai Motor is enjoying the No. 1 market share in hydrogen vehicles with the Nexo first unveiled in 2018 front and center. Its dominance in the hydrogen vehicle market is largely due to the fact that it continued to research and introduce new vehicles even as its competitors were skeptical about hydrogen vehicles and focused on developing electric vehicles. However, the global hydrogen vehicles industry, including Toyota and Chinese carmakers, have re-entered the hydrogen vehicle development arena and are in hot pursuit of Hyundai.
BMW Group is one good example. The German automaker unveiled its first hydrogen vehicle prototype, the iX5 Hydrogen, in Korea, signaling a strong commitment to the development of hydrogen vehicles. It plans to introduce hydrogen vehicles that can run 504 kilometers on a single charge beginning in the late 2020s.
The Chinese industry is stepping up its offensive. Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC) introduced the hydrogen vehicle Unique 7 through its brand Maxus. Industry insiders say that the Chinese government’s policy to promote hydrogen vehicles can help Chinese automakers increase their market shares at any time. Honda is planning to produce a hydrogen car based on its CR-V sport utility vehicle (SUV), and Volkswagen will release a hydrogen car in 2026.
In the first half of this year, Hyundai topped the hydrogen car market with a 38 percent share, but its gap with second-place Toyota narrowed to 10 percentage points. The move to transfer all of Hyundai Motor Group’s hydrogen business capabilities to Hyundai Motor reflects the group’s determination to remain competitive in the hydrogen mobility market by taking on hydrogen fuel cell production.
Hyundai Motor is focusing on the development of a new Nexo model expected to hit the market in 2025. In addition to passenger cars, Hyundai has also secured advanced competitiveness in the commercial vehicle business. In May, it introduced a mass-produced model of the Exient hydrogen-electric truck tractor, which can travel more than 720 kilometers on a single charge, to the U.S. market, and launched the hydrogen-electric bus Universe with a range of up to 635 kilometers in Korea. The carmaker plans to supply 1,300 of these buses to the city of Seoul by 2026.
After handing over its hydrogen business to Hyundai, Hyundai Mobis will focus on its electrification components business. With the completion of a new picture of hydrogen mobility production, Hyundai Motor Group’s work on building a hydrogen ecosystem is expected to accelerate. The automotive group aims to have a business portfolio that includes hydrogen production, distribution, and power generation by going beyond simply producing hydrogen vehicles.