| Emeryville, Calif. (December 14, 2005) - Hyundai Motor Company
delivered the first of 10 Hyundai and Kia Fuel Cell Electric
Vehicles (FCEV) to the Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC
Transit) today. The ceremony took place at AC Transit´s Emeryville
Bus Division and marked the beginning of a five-year demonstration
and validation project designed to evaluate fuel cell vehicles and
hydrogen infrastructure technologies. |
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| "Hyundai´s partnership with AC Transit represents the first time
that a third-party has been involved in our fuel cell vehicle
research, and it marks another milestone in our effort to bring this
technology to commercialization," said Dr. Won Suk Cho, president,
Hyundai America Technical Center, Inc., which is responsible for
alternative fuel research in the United States. "Our vehicles will
be operating in real-world working environments everyday proving the
viability of this technology." |
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| Hyundai, Chevron Corporation and UTC Power were awarded in April
2004 a U.S. Department of Energy grant to support research into
hydrogen-powered fuel cell technology for automotive applications.
The team officially began testing in February 2005 when Chevron
opened its first-ever hydrogen energy station at the Hyundai America
Technical Center (HATCI) in Chino, Calif. In addition to HATCI and
AC Transit, fleets will also be placed at Southern California Edison
(an energy utility company) and the U.S. Army facilities in Detroit
to develop and implement a practical, business-based hydrogen energy
infrastructure and associated technologies as a part of the
five-year program. |
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| AC Transit and its more than 2,300 employees are very proud to
join with Hyundai, Chevron, and UTC Power in this extremely
important demonstration. The use of Hyundai fuel cell vehicles by
our staff to support our bus operations in densely populated urban
areas will be an excellent operating environment to test the
capability of zero-emission vehicles under rigorous conditions,"
remarked Rick Fernandez, General Manager of AC Transit. |
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| Hyundai plans to place two additional Tucson FCEV with AC
Transit in early 2006, and will round out the fleet with six Kia
Sportage FCEV models in late 2006 and 2007. In addition, HATCI
engineers will support and monitor the AC Transit fleet vehicles for
the duration of the program. |
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