Korea to Test-Run Hydrogen Cars

Korea to Test-Run Hydrogen Cars

Korea plans to test-run fuel-cell cars which run on hydrogen by 2015 with the aim of launching eco-friendly cars commercially. The 16 member team headed by Deputy Prime Minister Kim Woo-sik has decided to run 14 fuel-cell cars on a trail basis. 13.6billion won (that is $14.6million) will be spend for this process. The country's top carmaker, Hyundai Motor, and its subcontractors in charge of developing the experimental hydrogen vehicles also plan to invest the same amount in 2007.

``Hyundai Motor has already developed five fuel-cell powered cars and nine more will be added next year for the test,'' said Lim Kwang-hun, a director at the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy. ``In 2008, 20 additional fuel-cell vehicles will be rolled out to check the viability of the futuristic automobiles, which have an exponential potential,'' Lim said.

The tests will be undertaken in Inchon and Taejon where hydrogen filling stations are established before going to other areas. Construction of the hydrogen stations is now underway in Seoul and Yongin, Kyonggi Province. ``The United States and Japan, which have advanced technologies to crank out vehicles, have gone all-out to come up with efficient hydrogen cars,'' Lim said. ``We also seek to position ourselves to capture the lucrative hydrogen vehicle market, which will blossom in about a decade both locally and globally, by building competitive hydrogen cars,'' he said.

It is very encouraging to see that such large scale trial runs have started on a new breed of cars of the future…the fuel-cell cars. Once such cars are commercially available in the market it will cut down on all the fossil fuel pollution greatly. Also this will result in less stress on the planets fuel supplies. Hope Korea gets the required positive result from these trail runs and this new breed of cars soon hits the street.

Hyundai FCEV