The Gospel of the New Energy Vehicle Market, Global Fuel Automotive Ushered in Industrialization

"In recent years, with the joint efforts of governments, academia, and industry in countries around the world, hydrogen fuel cell technology has achieved major breakthroughs, basically fulfilling vehicle use requirements in terms of life, reliability, and performance, and hydrogen energy infrastructure is accelerating construction. Fuel cell vehicles have begun to be put on the market in large-scale, and a new era of industrialization has begun on a global scale, leading to a new journey of market development.” This is Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang at the Second International Conference on Fuel Cell Cars Made new judgments.

Although the development of fuel cell vehicles in our country started earlier, it seems that there is still a certain gap between the vehicle products, infrastructure construction, and government support, compared with Japan, South Korea, and the United States. Relative to the domestic, foreign enthusiasm for the development of fuel cell vehicles is also very high. For example, General Motors stated that it will promote the electrification process at the same time from two aspects: pure battery powered vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles; Hyundai Motor announced hydrogen fueled vehicle plans and is preparing to list in China this year; Toyota Motor Corporation also announced that in China Start the hydrogen fuel cell car program.

Foreign products have higher safety and reliability

Previously, reports showed that more than 5,500 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have been sold worldwide, and this number will soon exceed 6,000 vehicles. The current global hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market is dominated by Toyota, Honda and Hyundai Motor. Among them, Toyota's registration of Mirai with 2039 units has become the highest proportion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle companies with a market share of 88%; Hyundai ix35FC160 takes up 7% of the global market share; Honda Clarity with 113 units of registered capacity Ranked third, accounting for 5%.

At present, foreign fuel cell vehicles have made great strides in terms of product performance, safety, and durability. Take the Honda Clarity fuel cell car as an example. Its battery power is 103 kW. The 70 pa hydrogen tank can travel 750 km. The hydrogen filling time is only 3 minutes. Its volume power density is also greatly increased compared to the past, reaching 3.1 kW. /L. Like Hyundai Motors, Li Kexiang, senior vice president of Hyundai Motor Group's Environmental Technology Center pointed out that a series of fuel cell vehicle tests include pressure testing, free-fall landing, front and rear impact testing, gun testing, fire testing, and extreme environments. In the safety tests such as the cycle, the results prove that the products have high safety and reliability. It has been revealed that the new generation of fuel cell vehicles announced by Hyundai Motor (which was unveiled at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, named Nexo) can guarantee a durability of 160,000 kilometers within 10 years, which is equivalent to the current level of traditional fuel vehicles.

According to Yi Baolian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a researcher at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the performance of fuel cell vehicles at home and abroad is basically similar, and the greater difference lies in reliability and durability. In this regard, Yu Zhuoping, assistant president of Tongji University and director of the Collaborative Innovation Center for Intelligent New Energy Vehicles, bluntly pointed out: “We have invested a lot in the test platform for fuel cell vehicles, but it is still far from enough.” He had visited Toyota Auto Lab has more than 10,000 square meters of product testing space, which encompasses reliability, environmental adaptability, durability, and many other aspects. China's auto companies have limited investment in this area, which has a negative impact on technological progress. influences.

Abroad holds 97% of global hydrogen refueling stations

With regard to the construction of global hydrogen refueling stations, the latest data show that in 2016, 92 new hydrogen refueling stations were added worldwide, up 70% year-on-year, a record high growth rate. As of January 2017, the total number of hydrogen refueling stations in operation worldwide is 274 seats. According to Yibaolian statistics, China currently only has 9 hydrogen refueling stations. In addition to products, the number of infrastructure facilities is far from enough compared with foreign countries.

“U.S. hydrogen refueling stations are mainly built on the West Coast and East Coast regions. For example, California on the west coast has 30 open retail hydrogen refueling stations, and the northeastern region has planned 12 to 25 hydrogen refueling station construction plans. The scale of the hydrogen refueling station is expected to expand further, and Hawaii and Texas have already demonstrated interest in developing fuel cell vehicles," said Liu Dijia, chief scientist of the Armagh Lab in the United States.

Japan has become the country with the largest number of hydrogen refueling stations in the world. According to Hiroshi Takashi, the chief researcher of Honda Automobile, there are 91 hydrogen refueling stations in use in Japan and 9 are planned to be built. However, the construction of Japan's hydrogen refueling stations does not rely solely on the government's power. Recently, Toyota, Honda and Nissan announced the establishment of a new company jointly with eight other energy and financial companies. They plan to build more hydrogen refueling stations in Japan and provide maintenance. Service, initially planned to build 80 new hydrogen refueling stations within 4 years. This means that many car companies will invest huge amounts of money and manpower, because the cost of building a hydrogen refueling station in Japan is much higher than in Europe. Shougu Takashi said that the construction cost of a single-seat hydrogen refueling station in Japan is approximately 360 million yen (approximately RMB 20 million), and the annual operating cost is as high as 40 million yen (approximately RMB 2.33 million).

Therefore, in order to reduce the high cost and investment in the construction of hydrogen refueling stations, Bill Elrick, the executive director of California's fuel cell partners, introduced a more practical, convenient, and economical method of construction in the region, adding additional hydrogenation equipment to existing gas stations. It will also provide a new idea for the laying of fuel cell vehicle infrastructure in China.

However, from a global perspective, the number of hydrogen refueling stations has been continuously increasing. The government and companies have given strong support, but overall, it is still difficult to meet the demand for fuel cell vehicle industrialization.

Full support from top to bottom

I am afraid there is no country in the world that can support fuel cell vehicles to rival Japan. In June 2014, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan formulated the "Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Strategy Roadmap; in December 2017, the Japanese government released the "Hydrogen Energy Basic Strategy," which raised the "hydrogen energy society" to the national strategic height. From purchase to use, the Japanese government has introduced a package of preferential policies, for example, from 2015 to 2017, companies and individuals other than taxi companies will purchase fuel cell cars for free hydrogen; from 2015 to 2020, they will not go to fuel cells. Auto users charge highway tolls until 2025. Consumers will also receive a government subsidy of about 2 million yen (about 120,000 yuan) for the purchase of fuel cell vehicles. In terms of infrastructure construction, the Japanese government has not only incurred costs. In June of last year, the government also introduced a policy to withdraw some regulations and restrictions on existing hydrogen refueling stations in order to speed up its popularization and promotion.Shoujo Takashi pointed out that apart from this, the Japanese government is also actively working on hydrogen power generation. Machines, large-scale hydrogen supply, and verification of hydrogen production from renewable energy provide comprehensive support and assistance.

In fact, the government’s support for financial subsidies for fuel cell vehicles is not small. In the relevant policies announced by the ministries and commissions for jointly promoting financial support for new energy vehicles, from 2017 to 2020, the subsidies for new energy vehicles in China will decrease year by year, with the exception of subsidies for fuel cell vehicles. However, in the construction of hydrogen refueling stations, China still lacks support and encouragement from local governments. Qi Zhigang, CTO and IEC International Standards Convener of Xinyan Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd., bluntly stated that local government concerns have caused various problems such as excessive approval process, fear of liability, and numerous restrictions. This is the result of the construction of hydrogen refueling stations. Not the root cause.

It is worth emphasizing that China's fuel cells are also lacking in popularization and promotion in areas other than automobiles. Liu Dijia said that currently there are more than 40 states in the United States that use fuel cells to use fuel cells to power the telecommunications industry, government departments, ports and the military, and supply more than 235 megawatt-hours of electricity. Use public facilities, such as increasing the use of passenger buses and power supplies, to reduce or even eliminate local government and public fears and concerns about hydrogen fuel cells. Perhaps, this should also be one of the strongest efforts for China to promote the development of fuel cell vehicles.