Despite badly missing its target of having 1,000 Tucson Fuel Cell SUVs sold by a margin of over 700, Hyundai maintains that hydrogen is the future of automotive fuel.
The automaker is standing behind the belief with a bet worth billions.
Fuel cell technology offers a potentially more lucrative avenue for Hyundai than electric vehicles because competition in the EV market is much more fierce than it is in the fuel cell category, according to Kim Sae Hoon, general manager of Hyundai's fuel cell design team.
Beyond having less competition in the market, there are other advantages of using fuel cells in vehicles. Fuel cell technology is much more scalable than electric and hybrid powertrains. Refuel is as quick as gassing up and its range is wider than the range offered by electric vehicles.
On top of its range and scalability, fuel cells emit no harmful chemicals into the atmosphere. While Hyundai has struggled to sell its fuel cell SUVs to customers, the Fuel Cell Tucson SUVs that are on the road have logged 477,800 emission-free miles in California, the automaker announced.
That 477,800 mark, reached on June 17, gave Hyundai a glimpse at the potential of its fuel cell technology, said Mike O'Brien, Vice President of Corporate and Product Planning for Hyundai Motor America.
"If a small fleet of hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles can accumulate this kind of mileage in just a few short months, one can only imagine the potential for a zero-emissions hydrogen vehicle future," said O'Brien. "It took the growing Tucson Fuel Cell owner fleet about 240 days to reach the moon, but only half that for the return trip."
Hyundai plans to invest $10 billion over the next four years in green technologies that include electric, hybridization and fuel cell. The company already produces vehicles that make use of each of the aforementioned eco-friendly technologies.
Despite the early struggles with sales of its fuel cell vehicles, Hyundai is still heading in the right direction at least. It hasn't been a strong year for the company, and last month was rough as well, but its year-to-date sales of 303,648 vehicles puts the automaker up two percent year over year.
"Bright spots for the month were Elantra, Genesis sedan and Sonata Hybrid, up seven, 18 and 40 percent, respectively," Hyundai said of its May sales.
