Hyundai might be a little late with introducing its hybrid cars, but it is one of leaders when it comes to fuel-cell powered vehicles.

According to the latest information we just received, the company will speed up its research and development of fuel cell powered vehicles by investing even more money as it did until now. As a part of this strategy, Hyundai Motor Company announced it plans to unveil a commercial version of its first mass-production hydrogen fuel-cell (FCEV) vehicle by 2012.

In the first year, Hyundai plans to build about 1,000 units and then slowly increase the number each year until it meets the goal of 30,000 units by 2018. In the long term, Hyundai expects initial demand for its FCEV cars to rise to as much as one million units a year by 2030.

Just recently, Hyundai celebrated a very successful completion of a thirteen-day road trip across USA, where two Tucson SUVs, powered by in-house developed fuel cell stacks, traveled more than 4000 miles. Hyundai participated in the event with other eight automakers (BMW, Daimler, GM, Nissan, Honda, Volkswagen and Toyota) as a part of the Hydrogen Road Tour 2008.

Performance of both fuel cell powered Tucsons exceeded expectations throughout the event, demonstrating that zero–emission vehicles can operate in real world driving conditions. The vehicles recorded an exceptional range of 185 miles per refueling and achieved top speeds of 95 miles per hour.

Hyundai has been developing FCEV cars since 2001 when it partnered with Sacramento based California Fuel Cell Partnership, a group of organizations that promote commercialization of fuel cell electric cars.