The South Korean government has committed to an ambitious plan to significantly increase the presence of hydrogen buses across metropolitan areas by 2030.
The Ministry of Environment together with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport’s Metropolitan Area Transportation Committee (METC) recently detailed strategies to achieve a target of 21,200 hydrogen buses, accounting for 25 percent of the metropolitan fleet by the end of the decade.
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Intercity buses, along with city and charter buses, are the main targets for conversion, as hydrogen buses are ideal for the extended routes common in metropolitan areas.
The Metropolitan Transportation Policy Bureau are currently working to recruit transportation operators into introducing hydrogen buses into their fleets. They hope to introduce hydrogen buses for three routes (23 units) out of the ten routes (77 units) of the newly established semi-public metropolitan buses this year.
Fittingly, Hyundai — currently the only hydrogen bus maker in South Korea — stated in April that it was ramping up hydrogen bus production capacity at its factories in the city of Jeonju from 500 a year to 3,000.
Doosan’s HiExium Motors division is also due to start producing hydrogen buses in South Korea by the end of this year.
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