Hyundai's hydrogen-powered Nexo gets 'nostalgic' makeover

Hyundai plans to launch a new hydrogen-powered SUV, inspired by retro designs, in the first half of next year.

Hyundai Motor President and CEO, Chang Jae-hoon, left, and Lee Sang-yup, Executive Vice President and Head of Hyundai and Genesis Global Design Center, third from left, pose for the camera with the Initium hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle concept on Thursday. [CHO YONG-JUN]

Hyundai Motor will release a successor to its hydrogen-powered Nexo SUV in the first half of next year — and while it's powered by future-oriented technology, its design will evoke the past.

The vehicle, which the company unveiled in concept form on Thursday, previews the company's new “Art of Steel” styling. In contrast to the Nexo's signature curves, the upcoming model takes cues from the company's N Vision 74 supercar concept — famously inspired by the 1974 Pony coupe — featuring a more traditional boxy body with square, pixelated designs and an angled roof. While the interior was not shown, Hyundai described it as “comfortable” with reclining rear seats and “luggage space for everyone in the family.”

Ironically, the automaker believes the new look is the key to courting younger buyers.

Hyundai Motor's hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle concept, Initium [CHO YONG-JUN]

“Despite everything being digital and high tech, people naturally are nostalgic about the past,” Lee Sang-yup, head of Hyundai and Genesis Global Design Center, told the Korea JoongAng Daily after Thursday’s unveiling at the Hyundai Motorstudio in Goyang, Gyeonggi.

“The design was unfamiliar when we introduced it six years ago, and now we see other manufacturers copying us.”

He presented, as an example, “kids, nowadays, who have access to everything high-tech but still decide to play simple block-based games like Roblox.”

The concept “Initium” — Latin for “beginning,” though Hyundai Motor President and CEO Chang Jae-hoon caveated that the final release would return to the Nexo branding — will offer an estimated range of 650 kilometers (403 miles), higher than its predecessor's 609 kilometer maximum, and an 150-kilowatt motor that outputs 200 brake horsepower, a step up from the 151 brake horsepower motor available on the 2018 trim and with a more “optimized” architecture.

Hyundai Motor's hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle concept, Initium [CHO YONG-JUN]

Its estimated range exceeds those of comparable battery electric vehicles (BEV), but the torque and power on offer remain slower than those of many dual-motored EVs.

The model also includes a Route Planner that automatically analyzes which hydrogen refueling station a driver should use in a long journey and vehicle-to-load charging, which allows owners to power items such as household appliances through the car's wall socket. Hyundai did not confirm whether the upcoming Nexo would maintain its predecessor's front-wheel drive system and said it was “still running toward the goal” of powering the vehicle with its third-generation fuel cell.

The release signals Hyundai's continued determination to popularize the hydrogen-powered passenger vehicle despite slowing EV sales and the technology's increasingly evident challenges.

Hyundai Motor's first hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle displayed at the Hyundai Motorstudio in Goyang, Gyeonggi, on Thursday. [CHO YONG-JUN]

The company has been releasing fuel cell-powered vehicles for years and vowed that hydrogen would play a prominent role in its broader goal to go carbon neutral by 2050 earlier this year. But many automakers in the space have faced many headwinds while attempting to market the technology. A lack of hydrogen recharging infrastructure in many countries has limited the product's market, while the comparative complexity of the fuel-cell EV's (FCEV) architecture and climbing hydrogen prices make them more challenging to mass-produce than BEVs.

Nevertheless, Chang maintains that a future of widespread hydrogen-powered vehicles is “inevitable.”

“The two pillars of our electrification strategy are EV and FCEV, and we are now expanding hydrogen technology from being limited to vehicles into an entire ecosystem,” Chang said, referring to the group’s plan to produce, store and transport hydrogen through HTWO, the hydrogen fuel cell system brand it launched in 2020.

Hyundai emphasized that it will work with governments around the world to build out infrastructure for hydrogen vehicles. It did not, however, specify the upcoming FCEV's target markets — or its price. “We don't consider it a profitable vehicle,” Chang said. “We treat it more as a mission."

Hyundai Motor's hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle concept, Initium [CHO YONG-JUN]

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]