Hyundai to offer eco-friendly fleet for use during World Cup 2022

South Korean automaker Hyundai will promote its eco-friendly fleet vehicles at the FIFA World Cup 2022 next month, as FIFA aims to go carbon neutral. The FIFA World Cup 2022 is scheduled to take place starting on November 20 and ending on December 18.

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Hyundai's hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) will be on hand alongside electric city buses. The automaker will also provide EV chargers and fleet services on-site, so vehicles are always fully charged and ready to go. There will be a total of 616 fleet vehicles available for use during the event in late November - 446 passenger vehicles and 10 electric buses, according to Hyundai.

The eco-friendly vehicles will be responsible for around half of transportation during the event.

As noted by Jaehoon Chang, president and CEO of Hyundai: "Hyundai Motor and FIFA share a strong commitment to make this year's event a sustainable success through the use of clean mobility. By providing our eco-friendly hybrid and battery electric vehicles as ground transportation, we expect to achieve our shared goal of making the World Cup in Qatar a win-win for planet Earth and humanity."

FIFA will see the Hyundai IONIQ 5, Sonata HEV, Tucson HEV, Genesis G80 EV, and GV70 EV in Qatar. The Elec City buses will be used to transport members of the press around. Hyundai is working with drivers as part of a training program focused on HEVs and BEVs that will be used during the tournament.

Of course, not everyone is on board with FIFA's aim towards being carbon neutral, with Greenpeace accusing the organization of "greenwashing" its effort. Besides travel to and from Qatar, the host nation is responsible for building at least eight stadiums and multiple training sites - and supporting each facility.

Doug Parr, UK Policy Director at Greenpeace, had this to say when speaking with Newsweek: "FIFA's claims of a carbon-neutral event are highly misleading and can be considered greenwashing, not least because they appear to have grossly underestimated the emissions the World Cup in Qatar will actually cause."