Incheon To Receive 700 Fuel Cell Buses From Hyundai

The South Korean city of Incheon, intends to roll out 700 fuel-cell buses overall by the end of 2024. 200 of these H2 buses will be operational this year, with the remaining 200 following in 2019. This has been agreed upon by the Environment and Transport Ministries of South Korea, the Incheon Municipal Government, Hyundai Motor, and SK E&S. The large-scale project will use Hyundai vehicles, and the SK Group company SK E&S, an energy specialist, will set up the hydrogen bus filling stations and supply the liquid hydrogen. 

The involved ministries are funding the initiative and have committed to changing the rules to make it easier to use fuel-cell buses. The buses are probably Hyundai Elec City Fuel Cell hydrogen-powered models. Since 2019, South Korea has been using Hyundai's H2 city bus. The vehicle is equipped with a 180-kW fuel cell system that is made up of two 90-kW fuel cells and has an electrolyte membrane and a hydrogen diffusion layer (similar to Hyundai's H2 truck Xcient). The actual hydrogen is kept in an 845-litre tank. The drive also has a 78.4 kWh battery. The intended range is 500 kilometres.

Incheon currently has six hydrogen refuelling stations. This year, it is planned to construct eight more, according to Korea JoongAng Daily. A hydrogen production facility is reportedly being planned by SK E&S for Incheon, with an annual production capacity of 30,000 tonnes, which should go into operation at the end of this year.

A hydrogen infrastructure is also being built on the South Korean island of Jeju to power 1,700 fuel cell vehicles by 2030.