Growth of Hydrogen Vehicle Market Expected to Accelerate

European automakers are joining the global hydrogen vehicle market, which is being led by Hyundai Motor Group. The growth of the market is expected to accelerate.

BMW is planning to release its first hydrogen vehicle in 2030 or earlier. The company recently unveiled a prototype hydrogen vehicle based on the X5. It said that it would make 100 prototypes by 2022 and test them for commercialization.

Audi is working on hydrogen vehicles, too. The team in charge of the project includes more than 100 mechanics and engineers. Renault Group set up a joint venture with Plug Power early this year and is developing a non-large hydrogen truck.

Daimler and Volvo Trucks founded a joint venture in June last year in order to develop fuel cell systems for use in hydrogen electric trucks. Hyundai Motor Group recently started exporting hydrogen trucks.

According to market research firm SNE Research, a total of 10,300 hydrogen vehicles were sold worldwide for the first seven months of this year whereas the volume stood at 4,900 in the same period of the previous year. At present, Hyundai’s share in the market is 51.2 percent and Toyota’s is 40.1 percent.