New Hyundai hydrogen Nexo due 2025

Hyundai has confirmed a new hydrogen Nexo is planned for next year.

The new fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) has been announced at CES 2024 in Las Vegas.

The Nexo has been in production since 2018, with the new version succeeding it next year, various media say.

The third generation of Hyundai’s fuel cell system is being developed in 100kW (said to be 30% smaller than current stacks) and 200kW stacks (for commercial use and similar to the present Nexo setup). The engineers are aiming to double durability and halve costs, according to the Hydrogen Vision 2040 document released in 2021, says Motor1.com, adding that Toyota and BMW are also confident hydrogen has a role in automotive.

Hydrogen refuelling has yet to catch up with EV charging in many countries, including New Zealand where a court decision has allowed a Taranaki hydrogen project to proceed.

Through the HTWO brand, Hyundai Motor Group projects that it will off-take three million tonnes of hydrogen annually by 2035, powering businesses such as clean logistics, green steel production and power generation.

During a presentation at CES 2024, Hyundai FCEV and battery development head and senior vice president Chang Hwan Kim explained the company is also developing megawatt-scale polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyser manufacturing capabilities for green hydrogen production, expected to commercialise within the next few years.

Hyundai, through sharing components of fuel cell systems, plans to achieve a competitive price compared to existing PEM technologies.

The current market price of PEM electrolysers is about 1.5 times higher than that of alkaline electrolysers, the company is confident the price will drop below the alkaline electrolysers through component sharing.

At CES, the company announced its ‘Software-defined Everything’ (SDx) strategy, which aims to transform all moving devices, fleets and ecosystems into valuable assets through advanced software and artificial intelligence (AI).

Hyundai also plans to develop “software defined vehicles” (SDVs) by incorporating software development methods to vehicle development processes while expanding software solutions to business customers for fleet operations and insights by offering customised fleet management services and real-time data analytics.

“At Hyundai, we believe that science and humanity are two sides of the same coin; that advanced technology should also make people’s lives better,” says Hyundai Motor Company president and chief executive Jay Chang.

“Clean hydrogen should be for everyone, powering everything, and available everywhere.”

Hyundai is reportedly considering commercial hydrogen vehicles, where refuelling infrastructure is only needed at the start and finish destination for trucks.