According to reports, the new hydrogen crossover was pushed back to 2024.
A report about Hyundai’s hydrogen development challenges surfaced late last year. Although the Chosun Ilbo claimed that engineering of a third generation fuel cell stack was stopped, a spokesperson for South Korea’s company quickly denied the rumor, saying: “The automaker denies this speculation and maintains its roadmap for next-generation fuel cells development.” A new report on a similar issue emerged in June 2022.
Automotive News Europe mentions the Seoul Economic Daily which states that Hyundai has delayed the launch of the second-generation Nexo. The launch of the hydrogen-powered crossover was initially scheduled for the second half next year. However, it has now been delayed to 2024. A supplier informed the newspaper about the problems in development. It appears that engineers are still having problems with the fuel cell setup. Hyundai declined to comment when ANE reached out to them.
According to Seoul Economic Daily Hyundai is yet to decide if its luxury division Genesis would launch hydrogen models. Several of you may recall that Hyundai expressed its desire for this technology last year when it presented Hydrogen Vision 2040. The next-generation fuel cell stack boasted a 30% reduction in size, twice the power and lower manufacturing costs.
Hyundai claims that the third generation setup will be available in 100 kW or 200 kW. The latter is designed for commercial vehicles and has a fuel cell stack comparable in size to the Nexo’s. The goal of development was to improve durability by 50-100 percent. The hardware is intended to travel 500,000 km (310,685 miles) for commercial use. Hyundai aims to reduce costs by half and achieve cost parity for battery-powered EVs before the end of the decade.
The Vision FK was also used by Hyundai to show off the performance credentials for the rear-wheel drive hydrogen car. The concept was a two-door sporty car that could sprint from 0 to 60 mph (100 km/h). From a mid-mounted hydrogen fuel cells, the range was more than 373 miles (600 km).
Hyundai sold 3,978 Nexo crossovers in Korea during May and 120 exported.