In the US, California leads the hydrogen highway. But, globally, the countries at the forefront include Japan, Norway, and South Korea. A new announcement by the Norwegian ambassador in Seoul, Jan Grevstad, makes it sound like those last two countries should think about Voltron-ing it up to promote H2 cars. The ambassador was speaking at the Korea-Norway Economic Cooperation Council at the Federation of Korean Industries.
“A great example of the Norwegian–South Korean energy cooperation can be found in the transport sector,” he said, according to
Yonhap News. “South Korean engine technology is paired with Norwegian hydrogen production and infrastructure technology to create hydrogen driven cars.” Grevstad said that the two countries could also work together on solar, wind, and other energy efforts, but didn’t get into more detail about what he meant by this.
The first Toyota Mirai hydrogen car was
just delivered to Norway, but other H2 vehicles have been on the roads there for many years. Back in 2009, for example, as part of the 24th Electric Vehicle Symposium (EVS24), some hydrogen cars
road tripped from Oslo to Stavanger. That same year, Mazda
delivered 30 hydrogen-powered RX-8 RE vehicles.
Hyundai – a South Korean company, of course – has been leasing its Tucson Fuel Cell (also known as the ix35 Fuel Cell) in hydrogen-friendly areas and believes that hydrogen-powered cars
have a bright future. There’s even a
Tucson Fuel Cell car-sharing program operating in Germany. As gung-ho as Hyundai is, it’s only sold 26 Tucson Fuel Cells in Norway so far, out of a total of about 500 around the world,
Yonhap News says.
Related Video:
