Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea’s largest automaker, said Friday it has agreed to join Denmark’s efforts to promote clean energy cars in a move to tap the fast growing market for green vehicles in Europe.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) to that end was signed Wednesday in Denmark between the South Korean automaker and the city of Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, Hyundai Motor officials said.

Copenhagen seeks to replace 85 percent of its official vehicles with green cars, such as electric vehicles, by 2015 and is set to stop purchasing any vehicle with internal combustion engines from this year, they said.

Hyundai Motor also introduced its fuel-cell electric vehicle, the ix35, to the European country, holding test-drive events in various cities of Denmark and then proving the vehicle’s performance by driving the entire distance of 340 kilometers from the country’s western city of Holstebro to Copenhagen.

Two ix35 cars will continue to be used by Denmark’s leading fuel-cell developer H2 Logic to help promote green cars there.

“The test-drive event and the MOU will be a chance for Hyundai Motor to concretize its plans to advance into the European and global markets with its fuel-cell vehicles,” said Yang Woong-cheol, Hyundai Motor vice chairman for development. 

(Yonhap News)