HYUNDAI

Hyundai Xcient : The South Korean automotive giant's hydrogen fuel-powered tractor will arrive in the US

Hyundai Motor Company has announced the launch of the Xcient truck in the United States. The hydrogen fuel cell tractor should arrive at US stores in 2024. The new truck, with a flat-face cabin, aims to serve long-distance road transport operations. That is, the so-called Class 8 of trucks.

According to Hyundai, the new truck has 6x4 traction. In addition, autonomy exceeds 700 km. According to the South Korean brand, among the advantages is the speed of refueling, which takes about 30 minutes to complete. It is worth remembering that the fuel cell generates electricity through a chemical reaction. Thus, in practice the truck is driven by one or more electric motors.

The Hyundai Xcient truck has two 90 kW fuel cell systems. As a result, they feed the electric motor that generates the equivalent of 476 hp of power and 228 mkgf of torque. Furthermore, the energy generated by the cells is stored in a 72kW battery pack.

Hyundai Xcient debuts in California...According to Hyundai, the Xcient truck will debut in California. That is, the State with the most advanced policies aimed at electrifying freight transport in the USA. In this sense, the California Environmental Agency determines that, by 2024, half of the truck fleet registered in the State must be electric. And, from 2027, only electric trucks will be able to be licensed in the State.

According to the head of Hyundai's commercial vehicle area, Martin Zeilinger, the brand has been developing the system for over 20 years. "Hyundai's fuel cell technology is already present in several applications. And it proves to be reliable and performs well. Especially in the commercial vehicle sector," he says.

Other markets... In this sense, the executive recalls that this solution is already used in Hyundai buses that run in Europe and Asia. As well as in passenger cars. These vehicles are already on sale in markets such as Switzerland, Germany, Israel and New Zealand. Just like in South Korea, the brand's homeland.

According to Zeilinger, fuel cell buses debuted in South Korea in 2019. "Currently, there are more than 330 of them in operation in the country," he says. Also according to the executive, 47 trucks from 23 different customers in Switzerland have been operating on regular routes since 2020.

By the way, recently Hyundai announced that the Xcient operating in Switzerland are the first fuel cell trucks in the world to run more than 6 million km. According to the brand, these vehicles operate in logistics and distribution operations. As well as supplying supermarkets.

Hydrogen refueling network...Likewise, Hyundai plans to develop the hydrogen refueling network in the US. For this, he created Waste-to-Energy. That is, a program that aims to convert biogas generated from organic waste into hydrogen. In this way, it reuses food scraps, cattle manure and sewage sludge, for example.

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