Early hydrogen Hyundai enters service

One of the first examples of Hyundai’s XCIENT Fuel Cell truck has entered service with Gebrüder Weiss, the Austrian-based transport and logistics provider. Based at the company’s location at Altenrhein in Switzerland, the Hyundai is powered by a 350kW electric motor fuelled by “green” hydrogen (H2). As a drawbar trailer combination, it has a GCW of 36 tonnes, allowing a payload of 25 tonnes to be carried with a range up to 600km. Apparently, there is sufficient hydrogen infrastructure for it to operate throughout eastern Switzerland, where it will primarily serve a customer in the renewal energy sector.

Hyundai has plans to deliver 2,000 such vehicles by the end of this year. Gebrüder Weiss CEO Wolfram Senger-Weiss said “We are proud to be among the first in the world to take receipt of these vehicles. We see the H2 truck as a viable alternative to other drive technologies that exist today and, given the right infrastructure, we intend to use it in Austria and southern Germany in the future.”