Hyundai asks for predictability, not more subsidy

The industry usually asks governments for bigger subsidies and higher targets. At a hydrogen forum in Seoul last week, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice President Shin Seung-kyu asked for something else: 10 to 20 years of consistent policy. Opaque or shifting policy, he said, makes long-term investment hard to justify, and the group's commitment to hydrogen holds firm even as it scales up physical AI and robotics.

Korea's own record gives the request its dimension. According to HyResource, the policy survey run by Australia's CSIRO, Korea's clean hydrogen power auction, in force since May 2024 under the Hydrogen Economy Promotion Act, contracts for 15 years, yet the annual volume offered fell from 6,500 GWh in 2024 to 3,000 GWh in 2025, with 500 GWh proposed for 2026.

The contrast is the point. The contract runs 15 years; the decision on how much to auction is remade every year. For anyone investing in fuel cells or an ammonia plant, the risk is not the price but the offer window, which can shrink before the project reaches the auction.

According to the post, Korean lawmakers are debating a Hydrogen Business Act. That text and the next auction volume are where the consistency Hyundai asked for shows up, or does not, as a contractable number.