President Moon Jae-in waves his hand aboard Nexo, Hyundai Motor's fuel cell electric car, in an expressway rest stop.[Yonhap News Photo]
SEOUL, Feb. 02 (Aju News) -- President Moon Jae-in shook off the dissuasive arm of his security team Friday to take an unheralded test ride of Nexo, Hyundai Motor's new hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle which features Level 2 autonomous driving, assisting a driver with automated parking and lane keeping.
The hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) carrying Moon and a senior Hyundai official made an accident-free 10-kilometer run on South Korea's main highway near Seongnam, one of Seoul's southern satellite cities.
"It is quite natural to concentrate our national capability on developing future cars," Moon said, urging South Korea to speed up the distribution of electric cars from 25,000 units as of now to 350,000 in 2022 and three million in 2030.
Eco-friendly cars are an excellent countermeasure for fine dust and hydrogen fuel-cell cars are more effective in reducing air pollution because they can absorb atmospheric air, he said, suggesting self-driving cars should be put into commercial operation on expressways and smart roads by 2022.
At a separate session, government officials called for an investment of 35 trillion won (32.7 billion US dollars) in private and public sectors to build infrastructure for autonomous driving by 2022.
Like other carmakers competing to gain core technologies related to next-generation vehicles, Hyundai has focused on hydrogen fuel-cell cars. Nexo can travel up to 600 kilometers (372 Miles) with a full single charge, and it takes only about five minutes to fully charge it.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
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