(Invited) Recent Advances in Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Technologies of Hyundai

Abstract

Over the past few decades, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) powered by hydrogen have received great attention as a promising candidate for not only eco-friendly vehicles due to their high power density and zero emission features, but also distributed power plants and active air cleaners on the road. Since Hyundai’s deployment of the world’s first mass-produced FCEV, Tucson ix35, in February 2013, Hyundai has been exerting every effort in resolving three major challenges, i.e., performance, durability, and cost. As a result, Hyundai unveiled an advanced FCEV, NEXO, in March 2018 and began to manufacture it for the world market. The NEXO FCEV has achieved significant technological advancements in comparison with its predecessor, Tucson ix35 model: enhanced driving range on a single charge by approximately 45%, i.e., from 415 km to around 600 km according to the fuel economy test results in Korea; improved durability from 4 years/80,000 km to 10 years/160,000 km; enhanced cold start-up capability from -20 oC down to -30 oC; improved system efficiency from 55% to 60%. In this presentation, the recent advances and progress of Hyundai’s FCEV technologies will be addressed, along with the research and development roadmap of the next-generation FCEVs aiming for more robust and cost-effective systems.