Hyundai Motor held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new Hydrogen Fuel Cell plant on the 30th.
The new Hydrogen Fuel Cell plant will be three stories above ground with a total floor area of 95,374 square meters (about 30,000 pyeong) and is set to become Korea's first production base for polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) water electrolysis (an electric process that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen).
Vice Chairman Jang Jae-hoon of Hyundai Motor said in a welcome address that the company would "secure a driving force for national economic growth and cooperate to expand the global hydrogen ecosystem by supplying fuel cells to corporations in various fields such as ships and construction equipment."
Targeting completion in 2027, the new plant will integrate the "chemical process" for processing raw materials and the "assembly process" for putting together finished parts, giving it an annual fuel cell production capacity of 30,000 units. The investment amounts to about 930 billion won.
Notably, the site for the new plant previously housed an internal combustion engine transmission factory. Despite a temporary lull in demand for eco-friendly cars such as electric vehicles, the company said it is pushing ahead with new facilities in Ulsan, including an EV-dedicated plant and a new fuel cell plant, accelerating the transition to a key base for the future automobile industry.
Going forward, the site will produce next-generation Hydrogen Fuel Cells and electrolyzers that can be installed in hydrogen mobility. A Hydrogen Fuel Cell is a type of generator that combines air, hydrogen, and thermal management systems with a fuel cell stack to generate electricity through an electrochemical reaction between oxygen from the air and hydrogen supplied from a hydrogen tank.
The next-generation Hydrogen Fuel Cell is expected to improve output and durability over current models while achieving cost competitiveness. It will be bifurcated to suit the characteristics of passenger and commercial vehicles and designed for application in trucks, buses, construction equipment, ships, and agricultural machinery, aiming to deliver optimized performance for each use case.
Attendees at the ceremony included Vice Chairman Jang; José Muñoz, president and CEO of Hyundai Motor; Lee Dong-seock, president in charge of domestic production; and other executives and employees; Minister Kim Seong-hwan of the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment; Ulsan Mayor Kim Doo-kyum; and National Assembly members Kim Gi-hyeon, Park Sung-min, and Yoon Jong-oh. Also present were Ivana Zmelkova, CEO of the Hydrogen Council, who visited Korea for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) business event, and representatives from hydrogen application and parts corporations.