Hyundai Motor Co. delivered its Xcient hydrogen electric trucks to customers in Lucerne, Switzerland on Oct. 7. The Xcient, the first hydrogen truck in the world, is equipped with a 190-kilowatt hydrogen fuel cell system and has a maximum driving range of 400 km.
Hyundai shipped 10 Xcients from South Korea to Switzerland in July this year. Seven out of the 10 were delivered to seven distribution and logistics companies on Oct. 7 and the delivery of the rest is scheduled for late this month.
Hyundai is planning to increase exports to Switzerland to 50 units within this year. There, the company has formed a hydrogen truck ecosystem since last year in cooperation with H2 Mobility Swiss Association, Hydrospider, Hyundai Hydrogen Mobility and H2 Energy so that vehicle supply, customer service, hydrogen charging and hydrogen production can be organically linked with the Swiss government planning to boost the number of hydrogen charging stations.
The 50 trucks are sold on a pay-per-use basis with every service cost included in relation to charging, repair, insurance, regular maintenance, etc. The idea is to boost its presence in the European commercial vehicle market by reducing customers’ initial costs and burdens. Hyundai is planning to increase its hydrogen electric truck supply capacity to 2,000 a year by 2021 so that the global hydrogen electric truck market can be stably expanded. In addition, it is going to expand the business throughout Europe and increase its annual supply to 1,600 in 2025 and 25,000 in 2030.
In the North American market, pre-commercialization demonstration projects are scheduled for next year and more than 12,000 hydrogen electric trucks are expected to be supplied by 2030. Also, Hyundai is planning to export at least 27,000 hydrogen electric trucks to China by 2030.
