Hydrogen fuel cell developer Weishi Energy received a Series A financing of 900 million yuan

"Independently master the core research and development technology, and empower the localization of hydrogen fuel cells at low cost."

Author: Hong Xiaoqin

Edit: tuya

Producer: Financial Graffiti

According to the official website of the hydrogen fuel cell R&D manufacturer Weishi Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Weishi Energy"), the company completed the A round of financing on December 14, 2021, and the current round of financing raised a total of 900 million yuan, which was jointly led by SDIC China Merchants and PICC Capital, and jointly participated in by a number of well-known investment institutions, and the company's post-investment valuation exceeded 4 billion yuan.

Weishi Energy was registered and established on April 15, 2019 with a capital of 450 million yuan by Great Wall Holding Group, positioned as a high-tech enterprise focusing on hydrogen energy and fuel cell technology and product research and development. At present, Weishi Energy has laid out five major R&D centers in Shanghai, Baoding, Japan, Germany and Canada, with a total of 514 R&D teams, and strictly follows the V model development process to create vehicle-grade fuel cell power systems and components. The main business covers the development of fuel cell engines and their core components, the integration of low-cost hydrogen refueling station solutions, and the testing of hydrogen energy & fuel cell products, and the main products cover fuel cell engines, stacks, 35MPa/70MPa on-board hydrogen systems, bottle valves and pressure reducing valves.

Chen Xuesong, president of Weishi Energy, said at the "2020 TEDA Automotive Forum" that since 2016, the company has insisted on deep ploughing in the field of key components such as fuel cell engines, fuel cell stacks and membrane electrodes, hydrogen storage bottles and valves, and has made a series of stage breakthroughs in core key technologies. For example, fuel cell stacks, the company has carried out the platform development of fuel cell stacks above 100 kilowatts, up to 150kW, as well as the company has been carrying out product research and development for commercial and passenger high-power fuel cell engines and core components, as well as the design and development of 70Mpa hydrogen storage cylinder valves and pressure reducing valves to fill the localization gap.

In terms of market application, Zhang Tianyu, chairman of Weishi Energy, said that the company has formed strategic cooperation with dongfeng commercial vehicles, Beiqi Foton, Dayun Automobile and other commercial vehicle companies, and successfully delivered the world's first 100-unit 49-ton fuel cell heavy truck project, and the demonstration operation of "zero carbon transportation" in Baoding to Xiong'an New Area has been launched. In the next step, we will focus on the development of logistics and transportation products and vehicles in various places, and open up the broad prospects of zero-carbon logistics and green transportation on a larger scale.

In terms of research and development mode, Chen Xuesong said that Weishi Energy adopts a "bottom-up" research and development method, through the identification and layer-by-layer decomposition of customer needs, and adheres to the research and development path from the underlying components to the system to the whole vehicle. For example, in terms of the safety of hydrogen energy, the company from the beginning of the product definition to the quality, life, safety indicators through the system to decompose layer by layer, and even set a certain application scenario, the final product material level, and the development process to have the means, methods and detection tools for all parts and components. Relying on Great Wall Motor's mature technology research and development and quality control system, Weishi Energy has strict processes, standards and systems to ensure the development of fuel cell vehicles to the engine, core components, control, and even the entire quality management. Because the supplier could not meet the performance and quality requirements required by the company, Weishi Energy had to participate in the development of some missing parts, such as fuel cell stacks, humidifiers, hydrogen pilots, CVMs, valves and other core components.

In terms of cost, the breakthrough and productization of key core technologies can bring about a significant reduction in costs after localization. Chen Xuesong said that one of the core components of the 70MPa hydrogen storage system, the bottle mouth valve, imported from abroad to spend 20,000 to 30,000, the delivery cycle is also very long, the high-pressure valve developed by Weishi Energy itself, in fact, the cost is far lower than that of foreign brand products. Other component companies such as hydrogen cycle systems and DC/DC are also improving performance and reducing costs through technology and process innovation.

In the future, Weishi Energy will focus on the core technology of hydrogen fuel cells that have been mastered to create internationally competitive products: high-performance membrane electrodes, high-power density stacks, high-efficiency fuel cell engines, high-pressure on-board hydrogen storage cylinders, high-integration bottle valves, etc., and is committed to providing customers with cost-effective hydrogen fuel cell technology solutions.

At the same time, Weishi Energy has launched the B round of financing plan synchronously, and the IPO compliance work is also steadily advancing.