Hyundai Motor bringing XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks to Israel
13 December 2022
Hyundai Motor Company announced that its heavy-duty, hydrogen-powered XCIENT Fuel Cell truck is entering Israel, its first Middle East market, to establish a hydrogen value chain in the region.
Hyundai Motor supplied three XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks to Israel as part of a partnership between its Israeli agency Colmobil, hydrogen producer Bazan and hydrogen refueling station operator Sonol to form a hydrogen value chain in Israel. The three heavy-duty trucks will be handed over to Colmobil, Bazan and Sonol, respectively, and will be put into commercial operations in the first quarter of 2023.
The launch event took place in Tel Aviv, attended by Shmuel Harlap, Chairman of Colmobil, Asaf Almagor, CEO of Bazan, and Sonol CEO Nir Galili, CEO of Sonol.
The first vehicle to be used for commercial operations in the Middle East is a 4x2 XCIENT Fuel Cell truck delivered to Colmobil, equipped with a 180-kW hydrogen fuel cell system that can travel more than 400 km on a single charge. It will be used to procure parts for Colmobil, with a daily operation range of about 330 km.
Hyundai Motor plans to accelerate the establishment of a hydrogen value chain in Israel. The plan aligns with Israel’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) updated in 2021, committing to slash its national greenhouse gas emissions by 27% by 2030 and by 85% by 2050, relative to 2015 emission levels.
Establishing the first hydrogen infrastructure in Israel in close collaboration with the country’s key players marks a significant milestone in our efforts to build a sustainable hydrogen value chain around the world. We are confident that our fuel cell trucks will substantially contribute to the acceleration of the energy transition in Israel.
—Mark Freymueller, Senior Vice President and Head of Commercial Vehicle Business Innovation of Hyundai Motor Company
XCIENT Fuel Cell is the world’s first mass-produced heavy-duty hydrogen electric truck and is currently being used in real-world commercial operations in Germany, Switzerland, Korea and New Zealand. The 47 units operating in Switzerland since October 2020 have achieved a cumulative mileage of more than 5 million km through October this year, demonstrating the truck’s reliability.
Additionally, Hyundai Motor will deploy five XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks for the 2021 Targeted Airshed Grants (TAG) program and 30 units for the NorCAL ZERO project, both in the US, during the third quarter of next year.
Now Hyzon has been shown to have inflated claims, Hyundai is about the only reputable company with on the road, in commercial service, heavy duty fuel cell trucks.
They are due to be joined by several others over the next few years though.
Of course, battery only folk are going to have ready made opinions, and energy density and ease of fueling are entirely disregarded by them.
Posted by: Davemart | 13 December 2022 at 01:18 AM
Someone must really want to play with hydrogen. The longest trip you could make in Israel in only a bit over 200 miles which could be handled with battery electric for less money especially if they are planning on using green hydrogen and less than half the energy. Anyway, most of the electrified trucks that are being purchased are battery electric. See the Volvo article above and the Schneider/Freightliner article below.
Posted by: sd | 14 December 2022 at 07:52 PM