Hyundai Motor Company has won the Truck Innovation Award 2020 for its Hydrogen Mobility Project, based on its H2 XCient fuel-cell all-electric heavy-duty truck which promotes the introduction of a ‘green’ hydrogen-fuel road transport ecosystem in Switzerland, and other European countries in the near future.
This much sought-after trophy was awarded for the second time by the International Truck of the Year (IToY) jury, a group made up of 25 commercial vehicle editors and senior journalists, representing major truck magazines from Europe and South Africa.
The latest award acknowledges the enormous technological changes and the energy transition that are evidenced within the field of commercial vehicles during the past few years. The Truck Innovation Award 2020 was handed over to Rolf Huber, Chairman of of Hydrospider AG & H2 Energy and to Jihan Ryu, Vice-President Commercial Vehicle Engineering Design Group of Hyundai Motor Company, at Solutrans 2019.
In accumulating 80 votes, Hyundai’s fuel cell truck-based mobility project was voted ahead of the Nikola Hydrogen truck range, Freightliner’s eCascadia, Volvo Trucks’ Vera and Scania’s AXL autonomous driving vehicles and Renault Trucks’ Optifuel Lab 3.
According to Gianenrico Griffini, ITOY Chairman, “The International Truck of the Year jury praised the comprehensive approach to clean mobility in the commercial vehicle sector, based on the partnership of several key players in supplying ecofriendly heavy-duty trucks. The partnership includes vehicle-provider Hyundai Motor Company together with H2 Energy, Linde and Alpiq for green energy solutions for hydrogen production and distribution, together with logistics and retail and trade partners in Switzerland. The Hyundai H2 XCient Fuel Cell truck (FECV) that has been developed according to European regulations features a new 190 kW hydrogen fuel cell system with two 95 kW fuel cell stacks connected in parallel. It has an operational range of around 400km, thanks to seven fuel-tanks, each with a storage capacity of almost 35 kg of hydrogen at a pressure of 350 bar.