The South Korean government aims to have around 80,000 hydrogen-powered fuel-cell vehicles on the country’s roads by 2022, as it looks to expand the country’s “hydrogen economy”.

The Minister of Economy and Finance, Hong Nam-ki, made the remarks on Wednesday at a meeting with Seoul city officials on innovation-led growth in the capital.

The South Korean government sees hydrogen as a new engine for economic growth and central in the country’s shift to a low-carbon based economy in the long term. Industry statistics show a total of 2,000 hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles were in use in South Korea at the end of 2018.

Hyundai is one of the leading global automakers to seriously embrace hydrogen as a key alternative fuel, along with Japan’s Toyota Motor. Its first hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle, the Tucson ix, was produced in limited volumes from 2013.  This was followed in 2016 by the Nexo FCEV, which has a range of over 600km.

The new target for hydrogen-powered vehicles represents a substantial increase on previously announced targets by the Government and also shows its support for Hyundai-Kia and its supply chain in their quest to become global leaders in this segment.

Last year, the government said it would provide grants worth KRW2.6 trillion (US$2.3bn) to support the development of a hydrogen fuel ‘eco-system’, initially targeting hydrogen-powered public bus services and the roll out of a network of refueling stations.

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