Kia-owner Hyundai definitely isn’t in an enormous rush to go carbon impartial. It has set its goal because the far-away date of 2050. However now it says it’s going to rely closely on hydrogen gas cells generated from plastic, meals, and natural waste to energy an entire new era of EVs, from passenger vehicles to heavy-duty vans. Downside is, there’s nowhere to cost them.
The South Korean automaker is amongst a small group of firms embracing hydrogen gas cell know-how, with GM, Toyota, and Honda amongst them. At CES in Las Vegas, the corporate introduced that hydrogen gas will now play a “essential position in Hyundai’s sustainability roadmap as it’s a clear vitality supply.”
“Clear hydrogen needs to be for everybody, powering the whole lot, and obtainable in every single place,” Jay Chang, president and CEO of Hyundai Motor Firm, mentioned in an announcement. It plans to make use of hydrogen in any variety of automobiles, from passenger vehicles to buses and vans, in addition to trams, boats, energy mills, superior air mobility, and particular tools.
Hyundai has already been mass-producing hydrogen gas cell EVs for some time with its Nexo line. At the moment the 2024 Hyundai Nexo compact crossover and the Toyota Mirai sedan are the one two hydrogen gas cell (FCEV) EVs in the stores within the US, and that’s solely in California.
Quite than plugging within the automobile as you’d for a battery-electric automobile, hydrogen gas cells depend on compressed hydrogen. To recharge, you may high off your automobile by way of a gas cell stack in about 5 minutes. For the Nexo, a recharge can take you 380 miles, with its solely emissions being water vapor.
Downside is, there’s nearly no hydrogen infrastructure and only a few hydrogen recharging stations, and solely a smattering in North America. China has the biggest community of recharging stations on the earth, however in California, you’ll discover round 63 recharging stations, largely round Los Angeles and San Francisco. Within the East Coast, there are perhaps a handful of stations. Storing hydrogen is a problem too in that it requires excessive pressures, low temperatures, or different chemical course of to maintain it compact.
Hyundai has additionally introduced that it’s creating “megawatt-scale polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyzer manufacturing capabilities for inexperienced hydrogen manufacturing, which is predicted to commercialize throughout the subsequent few years.” The corporate plans to make this transition by way of its hydrogen gas cell system model, HTWO, launched in 2020.
To provide hydrogen, the corporate will concentrate on Waste-to-Hydrogen strategies, which entails fermenting natural waste, comparable to meals and livestock manure, to supply biogas. The biogas is then handled to seize CO2 and produce hydrogen. One other technique, Plastic-to-Hydrogen, will use waste plastic that’s nonrecyclable – first it’s melted, the changed into gasoline, then remodeled into hydrogen after stripping away unessential parts.
Hyundai additionally introduced some new applied sciences at CES, together with its “Software program-defined All the things,” which “goals to rework all shifting gadgets, fleets and ecosystems into beneficial property by means of superior software program and AI.” Hyundai, like quite a lot of different automakers, is creating software-defined automobiles, à la Tesla, which might then be up to date by way of over-the-air updates. The corporate mentioned it’s shifting “the whole lot right into a software-defined strategy, from automobile growth to constructing your entire mobility ecosystem.” What this implies appears to be that Hyundai drivers can count on to see some new infotainment upgrades, a brand new app library, and the event of SDKs for builders to create some “killer apps.” AI, in fact, can be part of the package deal, with its in-car voice help up to date to allow extra seamless communication between the automobile and the motive force. Hyundai’s $100 million stake in AI chip producer Tenstorrent ought to assist make that occur.
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