From demonstration operation to large-scale application, the development of other new energy vehicles has brought five enlightenments to the development of hydrogen fuel cells: 1, the technical route selection of products is in line with market trends; 2, the input of technology is the precursor of market prosperity; 3, cost reduction is an important task for the development of new energy; 4, vehicle-level application and large-scale production is an important challenge for the popularization of new energy technology in the automotive field; 5, local enterprises with innovative ability are one of the main forces in the development of new energy.
At the 2021 Annual Meeting of Gaogong Hydrogen Power, Dr. Zhou Lei, General Manager of Huajian New Energy, delivered a keynote speech on "Fuel Cell Air Compressor: From Demonstration Operation to Large-scale Application". "Over the years, if you want to say the hottest words in the automotive industry, the three words of new energy must be one of them." Zhou Lei said in his speech that among all kinds of new energy vehicles, hydrogen energy vehicles appeared the latest. Like pure electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, etc. appeared earlier in history, and also experienced the practice from demonstration operation to industrialization earlier.
Subsequently, Zhou Lei combined the development characteristics of the fuel cell automobile industry and deeply analyzed the market characteristics faced by fuel cell air compressors, which were described by four words: small, fast, high and large.
First, fuel cell vehicle sales are small compared to conventional vehicles. Last year, the country sold more than 20 million motor vehicles, but there are only more than 1,000 hydrogen energy vehicles, this year's number will be a little higher, but if you put it in the entire car plate, this number is still very small; second, the fuel cell industry scale has grown rapidly since 2015; third, the industry has high expectations for the future scale of the fuel cell industry; fourth, the trend of system development to high power is obvious, and commercial vehicles are the main application scenarios.
"Among the characteristics just mentioned, 'small' is the current situation of the industry, 'fast' is the development trend of the industry, and 'high' and 'big' are the future of the industry." The rapid development of the entire industry from small to high and large is actually a practical process of the industry from demonstration application to industrialization operation. Zhou Lei said that this practical process, like pure electric, hybrid vehicles, has been experienced in the past decade or so.
From January to November 2021, domestic sales of new energy vehicles will be close to 3 million units, and it is expected to reach 3.4 million units in the whole year. This figure will make many fuel cell industry chain companies very envious, but if you turn back the clock, looking back at the past decade, the new energy vehicle market size in 2010 was only 7,000-8,000 units, and there was not much more. Analyzing how new energy vehicles have grown from the scale of thousands of units to the scale of millions of units can get some enlightenment, which will be of some help to fuel cell industry chain enterprises.
First of all, the product technology route selection must be selected in line with the market trend. If you go back to 2006, when talking about new energy vehicles is more about hybrid, at that time pure electric and hydrogen fuel cells are relatively niche research, and even some liquid electricity, gas and electricity hybrids, but by 2020, talking about new energy vehicles, the market first thought of pure electric, unplugged hybrids are not part of the new energy team. From this to the other, the current fuel cell vehicles are developing rapidly, and the future space is very large.
As a fuel cell compressor supplier, the choice of technical route is also very important for subsequent development. Huajian new energy team in-depth investigation of this market, found that different players of the technical solutions are not the same, after comprehensive analysis, centrifugal air compressor is in line with the development direction of the fuel cell industry one of the technical solutions; moreover, for the fuel cell industry oil-free requirements, the choice of air bearing technology route. It's a tough path, but it's a hard and right choice.
The second enlightenment based on the development of new energy vehicles is that the input of technology is the precursor to the prosperity of the market. Looking at the changes in sales of new energy vehicles, it can be seen that around 2015 is the tipping point for rapid sales growth. In addition, from the trend of new energy vehicle sales over the years and the number of new energy vehicle CNKI paper retrievals, the surge point of the number of papers published and retrieved and the surge point of new energy vehicle sales are about 7 years apart (as shown in the following figure). These two curves explain well the relationship between the explosion of technology into the market and their sluggishness in practice.
It is very interesting that if you search for papers with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as keywords, you can also see a curve, around 2015 this curve began to go up, if you refer to the previously mentioned 7-year time difference to predict the starting point of the hydrogen energy market surge, it will be in 2022.
Based on the analysis and prediction of industry trends, thanks to the group company in the bearing development, blade development and other core areas to provide strong basic technical support, Huajian New Energy team layout fuel cell air compressor, in some basic materials, basic coatings to do a lot of work, such as based on different bearing coating schemes, Huajian New Energy tested the rotor-bearing system wear index; groped for the bearing single start-stop test in the optimal radial loading force.
Based on the precipitation in the early stage and the application of Huajian New Energy's unique Walson technology, the current number of start-stop times of Huajian New Energy air compressor can reach more than 500,000, which is 5 times the start-stop life expected by the industry.
The third enlightenment based on the development of new energy vehicles is that cost reduction is an important task for the development of new energy. As we all know, with the rapid increase in sales of new energy vehicles, the cost of power batteries has dropped to about 10% in ten years, and this declining task is also one of the important issues facing the current hydrogen fuel cell industry.
The fourth enlightenment is that the application of vehicle regulations and large-scale production are important challenges for the popularization of new energy technology in the automotive field. Looking back at 2006, when doing new energy vehicles, there were not many suppliers in China, almost what was used, but now, the development of pure electric vehicles is completely specialized, integrated power unit, the entire parts and vehicle production have achieved scale, which is also the only way for the fuel cell vehicle industry.
Huajian New Energy inherits the automotive genes from the Group, using the experience of large-scale production and the development process of vehicle regulation level to develop the parts and components required for the scale of hydrogen energy systems.
The fifth enlightenment is that local enterprises with innovative capabilities are one of the main forces in the development of new energy. Looking back at 2006, when talking about new energy vehicles, we thought of some foreign brands, but now when it comes to new energy vehicles, the first thing that comes to mind is generally the OEM of domestic independent brands or suppliers of core components, of course, there will be some foreign brands, but the activity of independent brands is completely different from more than a decade ago.
Based on the practical experience and experience of the development of complete vehicles and parts, Huajian New Energy's fuel cell air compressor has five advantages: H: High pressure and flow with small size, that is, high pressure than small size - a top-level design that is more in line with industry trends; A: Automobile background, that is, the background of the automotive industry - more accumulated system foundation; O: Oil-freedesign, that is, oil-free design - Cleaner air supply; M: Material development experience, that is, material development experience - more solid basic technical capabilities; I: Independent Local Innovation, that is, independent local research and development forces - more perfect technology application capabilities.
"Putting together the English letters of these product features is HAOMI, so our slogan is 'rice is good, rice is good.'" Zhou Lei said.
Huajian New Energy belongs to Huapei Power, which is a listed company that does auto parts, and its advantages are strong R&D and manufacturing capabilities in high-end materials, surface treatment, precision machining and other fields. Relying on the advantages of the group company, Huajian New Energy carries out the development of new components for mechatronics, and the fuel cell air compressor is a typical representative. The company's factories are mainly concentrated in Shanghai, Nantong, Wuhan and other regions.