Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), a leading car maker in India, is investing ₹180 crore in establishing a dedicated hydrogen innovation centre in Chennai.

The hydrogen innovation centre, which will be set up in association with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) and Guidance Tamil Nadu, supported by the Government of Tamil Nadu, will span across 65,000 sq ft within the IIT-Madras’ Thaiyur campus in Chennai.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin kickstarted the work for the centre on Wednesday. “This facility will serve as a key enabler to advance hydrogen as an eco-friendly, emission-less future source of propulsion for mass-mobility solutions,” Gopalakrishnan Chathapuram Sivaramakrishnan, Whole-time Director and Chief Manufacturing Officer (CMO), HMIL, said in a statement.

The hydrogen innovation centre, which is expected to be operational by 2026, will house a host of facilities and include an electrolyser test rig for electrolyser development for the generation of green hydrogen, an electrolyser/fuel cell fabrication line for localisation of manufacturing and supply chain, fuel cell test station, operational and diagnostic digital twin for hydrogen infrastructure, pilot demonstrators using electrolysers and fuel cells and hydrogen refuelling station — for hydrogen mobility research, among others.

Renault Nissan tech arm adds 2000-people facility

Renault Nissan Technology & Business Centre India Pvt Ltd (Renault Nissan Tech) has expanded its infrastructure with a seating capacity for an additional 2,000 people. The new workspace boasts a modernised layout of 1.38 lakh sq ft. This was virtually launched by Stalin. The new workspace is located in the same premises as the company headquarters in Ascendas IT Park, Mahindra World City SEZ near Chennai.

The Mahindra City campus focuses on simulation, after-sales engineering, software validation, AI, Cloud migration and more deep-tech areas.