Hyundai and Ineos announce hydrogen co-operation

New manufacturer of Ineos 4x4 and Korean company will share technologies

Hyundai and Ineos have teamed up to explore new ways to accelerate growth in hydrogen technology, especially with regards to creating a hydrogen fuel cell version of the upcoming Ineos Grenadier off-roader.

The non-exclusive agreement means that Ineos will be able to tap into Hyundai’s knowledge around fuel cell technology in cars, a field the Korean firm has been at the forefront of, as seen with its Nexo SUV.

Equally, Hyundai will benefit from Ineos’s vast experience around the infrastructure of hydrogen and how to produce it cleanly.

Mark Tennant, commercial director of Ineos Automotive, told us: “What we really like about Hyundai is that we’re bringing together both sides of Ineos: the vast petrochemical side that already produces hydrogen as a byproduct, along with investigating more into the specific application with regards to the Grenadier.”

As a long-term solution, Ineos is focusing on hydrogen fuel cell technology for the Grenadier, rather than battery power, because of the nature of where the car will spend most of its time.

Tennant continued: “We’re looking to build a very functional, utilitarian 4x4 that can work in the middle of nowhere. To take up a useable payload with a battery pack that would make the range adequate for those sorts of applications doesn’t make sense. That’s why we’re looking at hydrogen fuel cells."

As for the Grenadier, he said: "We’re still on track and happy, with a view to production starting at the end of 2021. We’re testing now and have got prototypes running around. We’re looking to put 1.8 million aggregate kilometres on the vehicles during the testing.”

Some 20,000 expressions of interest have been received so far, with most coming from Europe, the US, Australia and South Africa.

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