South Korea’s auto giant Hyundai Motor Co. and its Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp. are in for a face-off in the hydrogen-fueled electric buses market next year.

Toyota Motor announced Sunday that it will start selling its fuel cell buses (FC bus) from early next year. By starting to offer two hydrogen-powered buses next year to Tokyo metropolitan government, it plans to introduce more than 100 FC buses before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics mainly in Tokyo.

Hyundai Motor Co. succeeded in mass-producing hydrogen-fueled cars for the first time in the world in March 2013. However it has just sold 570 units of its Tucson ix35 Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle so far, while its Japanese rival Toyota has sold more than 1,800 units of Mirai, its first commercial hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that was released much later than Tucson ix35 in November 2014.

The Japanese carmaker seemed to have decided to sell hydrogen buses because they would be a good promotional tool as mass transit. Despite being ahead of Hyundai, Mirai is expected to fail to meet its annual sales target of 2,000 units this year, and is far behind in achieving next year’s target of 3,000 units.

The Korea’s leading automaker announced early this year that it would replace the annual demand for more than 2,000 units of compressed natural gas (CNG) buses with hydrogen electric buses with an aim to get ahead in the eco-friendly public transportation market. Hyundai would introduce third-generation hydrogen buses for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

Hyundai and Toyota are in full gear to promote their hydrogen-powered vehicles in taxi and car-sharing industry. Hyundai plans to introduce 10 Tucson fuel cell taxis in Ulsan, South Gyeongsang Province in Novemmber this year and increase the number to 100 by 2018 in five regions. Toyota also introduced six Mirai fuel cell taxis in Tokyo.

By Park Chang-young

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