HYDROGEN powered fuel cell vehicles are the future for Hyundai and Kia, the South Korean company has announced.

Setting out its FCEV Vision 2030 plan the Hyundai Motor Group - which makes Kia and Hyundai cars - said it would be investing more than £500 million in research and development for the project, creating some 51,000 jobs over the next 10 years.

It intends to expand its fuel cell programme beyond automobiles to include ships, trains, trucks and drones.

"Hyundai Motor Group, the global pioneer of the commercial production of FCEV, is taking a bold step forward to expedite the realisation of a hydrogen society,'' said Euisun Chung, executive vice chairman of Hyundai Motor Group.

"We will expand our role beyond the automotive transportation sector and play a pivotal role in global society's transition to clean energy by helping make hydrogen an economically viable energy source. We are confident that hydrogen power will transcend the transportation sector and become a leading global economic success."

Hyundai is at the forefront of fuel cell vehicles and will be launching its second hydrogen powered car, the Nexo, in the UK next year to succeed its largely experimental Tucson FCEV which was introduced in 2013.

Fuel cell vehicles are emission free and work by combining hydrogen with oxygen to generate electricity with water being the only waste product.

Hyundai plans to be building 500,000 FCEV units a year by 2030 and expects global demand for such vehicles to be around two million units a year within that timeframe.

As the first step to fulfill its FCEV Vision 2030, HMG's fuel-cell system manufacturing affiliate Hyundai Mobis, will be opening a second fuel-cell system plant in Chungju, South Korea.

The new factory will help Mobis increase annual fuel-cell system output to 40,000 units by 2022, up from the current 3,000 units.