Hyundai has announced that its heavy-duty, hydrogen-powered XCIENT Fuel Cell truck is entering Israel, its first Middle East market, to establish a hydrogen value chain in the region.
Hyundai Motor supplied three XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks to Israel as part of a partnership between its Israeli agency Colmobil, hydrogen producer Bazan and hydrogen refueling station operator Sonol to form a hydrogen value chain in Israel. The three heavy-duty trucks will be handed over to Colmobil, Bazan and Sonol, respectively, and will be put into commercial operations in the first quarter of 2023.
The launch event took place today in Tel Aviv, attended by Shmuel Harlap, Chairman of Colmobil, Asaf Almagor, CEO of Bazan, and Sonol CEO Nir Galili, CEO of Sonol.
The first vehicle to be used for commercial operations in the Middle East is a 4x2 XCIENT Fuel Cell truck delivered to Colmobil, equipped with a 180-kW hydrogen fuel cell system that can travel over 400 km on a single charge. It will be used to procure parts for Colmobil, with a daily operation range of about 330 km.
XCIENT Fuel Cell is the world’s first mass-produced heavy-duty hydrogen electric truck and is currently being used in real-world commercial operations in Germany, Switzerland, Korea and New Zealand. The 47 units operating in Switzerland since October 2020 have achieved a cumulative mileage of over 5 million km through October this year, proving the truck’s reliability. Additionally, Hyundai Motor will deploy five XCIENT Fuel Cell trucks for the 2021 Targeted Airshed Grants (TAG) program and 30 units for the NorCAL ZERO project, both in the U.S., during the third quarter of next year.
