Hyundai and Skoda cooperate on hydrogen

Hydrogen and the fuel cell are more or less dead as a solution for cars, or so we thought. Only Toyota with its Mirai and Hyundai with the Nexo and Honda are still pursuing the concept. And BMW recently announced a hydrogen car for 2028. But now we are surprised by a report that Hyundai has agreed a hydrogen co-operation with Skoda.

But wait a minute, what is this really about? According to the press release, the Hyundai Motor Company (which also includes Kia and Genesis in addition to the core brand) and the Skoda Group have now signed a letter of intent to this effect:

We stumble across the company name: It says Skoda Group, not Skoda Auto. A look at the website of the previously unknown company shows trains and trams. The Skoda Group includes the transport technology company Skoda Transportation (Wikipedia), but not Skoda Auto. So is it not about cars at all?

According to Hyundai, the plan is to "work together to build a hydrogen economy", which really doesn't sound like fuel cell Skodas. "Together with the Skoda Group, we are striving to lead the fast-growing hydrogen business by creating positive synergies between our fuel cell technology and the Skoda Group's mobility products and projects," says Ken Ramírez, who is responsible for the hydrogen business at Hyundai, among other things.

Skoda Group CEO Petr Novotný wants to "bring innovative, environmentally friendly solutions to the global mobility ecosystem and promote cleaner energy in the areas where it is most urgently needed." He does not reveal exactly what this is about. It is possible that he himself does not yet know exactly, as studies on the possible applications of hydrogen fuel cells are to be carried out first, including beyond the topic of mobility. The energy sector is mentioned.

Hyundai is committed to building a hydrogen society with the HTWO (H2) brand. The Hyundai Nexo fuel cell SUV is well-known in the passenger car sector, but apparently so few of them were sold in the first eight months of this year that they no longer appear in the registration statistics. Only 72 units were registered in the whole of last year. In addition, there were 166 units of the Toyota Mirai. 

More recent hydrogen related news:

Renault Master H2-Tech: Hydrogen van covers 435 miles

Rolls-Royce working on hydrogen engines for stationary systems

The bottom line

Hyundai apparently also wants to sell its fuel cell technology to Skoda, but not to Skoda Auto, but to the Skoda Group. Hydrogen trains are presumably planned, perhaps also energy storage units - at any rate not cars. Hyundai makes a press release out of it without mentioning this small but important detail.

Perhaps this was meant as a test for automotive journalists, as they are likely to be the majority of readers of the Hyundai press page. In any case, this is not something that is essential for an electric car website.

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Should you report on something like this at all? Well, the news is finished - maybe someone will be interested. And if a technically interesting hydrogen tram emerges from the co-operation in five years' time, we will perhaps be pleased that we did not ignore the press release. However, our generally sceptical attitude towards hydrogen as an energy storage system for cars will not change.

Our cover picture shows the fuel cell stack of the Hyundai Nexo.   

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