Hyundai Motor Company received a $3.5 million grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) to provide the XCIENT fuel cell electric truck in California.
“We are excited to deploy our XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks in California, especially as this will help local stakeholders to decarbonise the hydrogen supply chain itself by replacing conventional trucks, which have been used to transport hydrogen, to hydrogen trucks,” said Senior Vice President and Hyundai’s Head of Commercial Vehicle Innovation Business, Mark Freymueller, in a recent statement.
First Element Fuel (FEF), the largest hydrogen gas station operator in the US, will deploy Class-8 heavy-duty trucks to deliver liquid hydrogen to their filling stations over the next five years, including a year of demonstrations with reporting duties for the US. EPA and four years of commercial operations.
The project is being led by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (South Coast AQMD), which applied for the Targeted Airshed Grant (TAG) funding.
After careful review, the US EPA selected AQMD’s South Coast application, which requested five fuel cell electric trucks supplied by Hyundai Motor and operation of a gas station by FEF in California.
“This is where change begins. Reducing pollution from heavy-duty trucks and construction equipment brings us closer to the clean air our communities deserve,” said Wayne Nastri, South Coast AQMD Executive Officer.
The EPA’s TAG program aims to reduce air pollution in areas of the country with the highest levels of ambient ozone and fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution. The focus of the TAG program is to provide financial assistance for projects such as reducing emissions from priority emission sources and increasing ozone emissions.
Under the TAG program, eligible state and local air pollution control agencies must apply directly to the U.S. EPA, but can select partners for the project consortium.
For the TAG 2021 program, Hyundai Motor partnered with South Coast AQMD and FEF to develop the TAG application to support the replacement of FEF diesel-powered hydrogen transport trucks with fuel cell electric vehicles.
Having been selected as a truck supplier for this TAG project, Hyundai Motor looks forward to demonstrating its fuel cell electric heavy-duty truck technology in long-haul transport operations.
The EPA’s selection of the XCIENT Fuel Cell demonstration project recognized the significant emission reduction benefits of Hyundai Motor’s fuel cell electric truck technology.
The XCIENT Fuel Cell 6×4 tractor model participating in the demonstration is equipped with a 180 kW fuel cell system and an e-motor with a maximum output of 350 kW.
The tractor’s hydrogen tank can hold 67 kg of hydrogen with the battery providing 72 kWh for a combined gross weight of 37,200 kg for an average range of over 450 miles per tank.
Hyundai Hyundai XCient hydrogen heavy duty truck to debut in Germany