SEOUL-- Hyundai Mobis Co. said Thursday it will invest 1.3 trillion won (US$1.09 billion) to expand its fuel cell production facilities in line with its parent group's future mobility plans.
South Korea's biggest auto parts maker will build two additional hydrogen fuel-cell plants -- one for the manufacture of fuel-cell stacks in Incheon, just west of Seoul, and the other for the assembling of the systems in Ulsan, 414 kilometers southeast of Seoul -- by the end of 2022, the company said in a statement.
"The company made the investment decision in order to preemptively prepare for growing demand for hydrogen fuel-cell systems in the automobile market," the statement said.
Hyundai Mobis plans to produce 100,000 units of the fuel-cell systems in the Ulsan plant, scheduled to start production in late 2023, for hydrogen-powered vehicles made by Hyundai Motor Group, it said.
It has operated one fuel-cell plant in Chungju, North Chungcheong province since 2018. The plant is capable of producing 23,000 units of fuel-cell systems a year.
Hyundai Motor Co., the main affiliate of Hyundai Motor Group, sells the Nexo hydrogen fuel-cell model on the passenger vehicle side.
In September, Hyundai Motor it will apply the hydrogen fuel-cell system to all of its commercial vehicle models by 2028 as it seeks to gain a leading status in the hydrogen vehicle market.
The country's biggest carmaker plans to release all of its new heavy-duty trucks, buses and other commercial vehicles as hydrogen fuel-cell electric models, with some of the hydrogen models to be also available as battery-powered ones.
Source: Yonhap News Agency