Seoul places massive FC bus order with Hyundai

South Korea’s capital Seoul wants to replace a total of 1,300 existing buses with new fuel-cell buses from Hyundai by 2026. This was agreed upon by Hyundai Motor, the Seoul city government, the South Korean Ministry of the Environment and the companies SK E&S and Tmap Mobility.

The concrete plan is to replace 1,000 city and commuter buses as well as 300 airport buses. By 2030, all of Seoul’s 451 airport buses are to be replaced by hydrogen-powered buses. Seoul had converted all 7,400 city buses to run on natural gas by 2011. Since then, about 830 of these have been replaced by battery buses and 27 by H2 buses. The South Korean city of Incheon, located near Seoul, also plans to introduce a total of 700 Hyundai fuel cell buses by the end of 2024, as reported.

The port cities of Busan and Ulsan as well as the province of South Gyeongsang are planning to use a total of 624 Hyundai hydrogen buses as a replacement for combustion engines by 2025. And on the South Korean island of Jeju, hydrogen infrastructure is being built to operate a total of 1,700 fuel cell vehicles by 2030. The 1,200 passenger cars, 200 rubbish trucks and 300 public transport buses will also come from the Hyundai Group.

Seoul’s ultimate goal with the initiative is to achieve a complete replacement by 2030. Additionally, the city plans to replace around 1,000 city and commuter buses with hydrogen buses by 2026, while establishing dedicated refilling stations in public garages. By 2025, Seoul also doesn’t want any diesel vehicles present in public sector fleets. Since 2020, Hyundai Motor has been supplying hydrogen buses to Seoul and has further plans to introduce high-floor hydrogen airport limousines this year. That is also the year when Seoul declared its goal to become carbon-neutral by 2050.

“Hyundai will continue to develop hydrogen-powered commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks to introduce various portfolios to the market,” said Hyundai Motor CEO Chang Jae-hoon.

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