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New energy subsidies are accelerating the decline, the double-carbon strategy is accelerating penetration, technology and the market have become the core elements of the competition between new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles, and the inflection point expected by the industry will also really come.
Recently, weichai and Yuchai, giants of the traditional internal combustion engine industry, have successively released their own new energy deployments.
"Three ways to go hand in hand", the traditional internal combustion engine leader into the new energy
Under the strategic goal of "double carbon", the entire commercial vehicle industry is transforming into new energy.
As an industry leader, Weichai will take responsibility for the technological development of the carbon neutral and internal combustion engine industries. After achieving 50% thermal efficiency technology, Weichai is already moving to a higher level of technology. In addition to continuing to tackle traditional internal combustion engine technology, Weichai has also set its sights on new energy technology.
Since 2008, Weichai has begun to lay out and vigorously develop new energy technologies. According to the bus terminal network, Weichai has reserved batteries, motors, electronic control products and technologies in advance, and laid out a variety of new energy powertrains of "fuel cell + pure electric + hybrid" to go hand in hand.
In 2017, Weichai Group released the "2020-2030 Strategy". The new strategy includes "one goal" and "two phases". "One goal" is to achieve revenue of 100 billion US dollars; "two stages" is that by 2020, Weichai's traditional business will surpass the world-class level, and by 2030, Weichai's new energy business will lead the development of the global industry.
In order to achieve this goal, Weichai has invested a total of 4 billion yuan in the new energy sector for more than ten years, has more than 600 employees, and the proportion of doctors and masters in the R&D team is more than 70%.
According to the data, in the first half of 2021 alone, Weichai Power's plug-in hybrid new products have obtained 300 sets of orders, hydrogen fuel cell system supporting heavy trucks have received 130 sets of orders, and 28 hydrogen fuel cell bus lines have been opened in Shandong, with an operating mileage of more than 8 million kilometers.
Coincidentally, Yuchai has also begun to develop new energy power products since 2006, and launched a number of solutions such as parallel hybrid, hybrid hybrid and pure electric, which is not only based on the existing traditional models to upgrade and improve, but also committed to making breakthroughs in new energy power.
At present, Yuchai has complete R&D and manufacturing capabilities for core components of new energy power systems.
Staying ahead, Weichai Yuchai bets on hydrogen fuel
On December 21, 2021, Yuchai officially released what is called "China's first hydrogen-fired engine for commercial vehicles" at Beijing Institute of Technology, which is another milestone achievement in the application of hydrogen energy after the release of hydrogen fuel cells.
In fact, Weichai attaches more importance to the layout of hydrogen fuel cells. In terms of strategic layout, technology research and development, marketing and application, Weichai has been at the forefront of industry development.
In November 2016, Weichai Power subscribed for 33.5% of the shares of the new third board company Fersa, becoming the second largest shareholder of the company. Fersa is a company focusing on the research and development and production of fuel cells and integrated energy system equipment with gas energy as the core, which has undertaken and completed a number of national 863 and national science and technology support program research and development tasks, and has rich independent research and development experience.
In 2018, Weichai successively invested in the British Ciris Power Company and the Canadian Ballard Power Systems Company, respectively, in the field of solid oxide fuel cells and hydrogen fuel cells, and is currently the largest shareholder of the two companies.
In December 2019, Weichai completed the restructuring of Odex in Germany. The company has the ability to design, develop, and integrate systems for motor controllers, motors, fuel cell DC/DC converters and other products for new energy commercial vehicles.
In March 2020, Weichai's 20,000-unit hydrogen fuel cell engine plant was officially put into operation.
In March 2021, Weichai strategically joined hands with The Swiss Flying Group and laid out the fuel cell air compressor business in China.
From the start of strategic investment in Fersay, to the acceleration of cooperation with Syris and Ballard, to the commissioning of 20,000 production cell factories, Weichai's hydrogen fuel cell development path is "integrating global resources and international technology for my use", basically completing the layout of the whole industrial chain of hydrogen fuel cells.
At present, Weichai has mastered the key core technologies of hydrogen fuel cells such as stacks, air compressors, bipolar plates, motors, and electronic controls, established a complete fuel cell inspection and testing capability covering "basic materials - single battery - stack - key components - fuel cell engine - power system - vehicle", and carried out endurance tests for products for more than 8,000 hours to verify their reliability, fuel cell power range has covered 50-160kW, and the stack life can exceed 30,000 hours. It can achieve -30 °C low temperature start-up without auxiliary heat, and is in a leading position in the industry.
In addition to technology, the landing of hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles, Weichai Weichai with the help of its own associated heavy trucks, Shaanxi Automobile, Zhongtong buses, etc., is also steadily advancing.
According to the bus terminal network, Weichai has promoted 300 hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles, with a cumulative operating mileage of more than 13.5 million kilometers, and has taken the lead in undertaking the construction of the National Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Center, the batch demonstration operation of hydrogen energy heavy truck products, and the research and development of the world's first hydrogen energy ore card.
At present, Weichai has built three hydrogen refueling stations in Jinan, Weifang and Liaocheng. In November 2021, the country's first high-speed hydrogen refueling station, Sinopec Shandong Zibo High-speed Hydrogen Refueling Station, was officially put into operation. This is an important task for Weichai to "build a hydrogen energy high-speed" in the national "Hydrogen into Ten Thousand Homes" project.
At the leading cadre mobilization meeting held on November 17, 2021, Tan Xuguang, chairman of Weichai Group, issued a mobilization order of "six walking in the forefront" to 100,000 employees around the world on behalf of the group. Tan Xuguang said that the development of new energy represented by hydrogen energy is an important way to achieve the goal of "double carbon". Weichai should be at the forefront of the world in the field of new energy power systems, especially in the field of fuel cells.
Facing the future market development, Weichai will build the world's largest production and manufacturing base for fuel cells and key components and an after-sales service network covering the whole life cycle of products. According to the bus terminal network, in 2022, Weichai will focus on the market-oriented operation of hydrogen fuel cells.
From low-carbon to zero-carbon, hybrid and pure electric development
The internal combustion engine is by no means a sunset industry, and its low-carbon development has become the consensus of the industry. Improving the thermal efficiency of diesel engines is an inevitable choice for low-carbon green development of diesel engines.
Some experts said that improving the thermal efficiency of the internal combustion engine needs to start from two aspects, one is to focus on the internal combustion engine itself, and continuously improve the combustion efficiency through technologies such as thin combustion; the other is to change the matching mode of the engine, such as through hybrid and other technologies to improve efficiency.
Tong Dehui, deputy general manager of Weichai Power, once said: "From the perspective of the internal combustion engine, hybrid power is a direction. Hybrids are complementary, like adding a helper to further enhance the reliability of the internal combustion engine. ”
Recently, on the investor platform, Weichai announced that the company has laid out a hybrid technology route.
According to the bus terminal network, in terms of hybrid power, Weichai can provide heavy trucks, light truck parallel hybrid systems, as well as complete software such as HCU/TCU/MCU and Zhiduoxing and after-sales diagnostic tools.
At present, the heavy truck equipped with Weichai hybrid system has completed the supporting of a number of automakers and begun to be verified in small quantities; the muck truck equipped with the company's heavy truck hybrid system has been unveiled; and the light truck logistics vehicle equipped with Weichai hybrid system has passed the announcement certification and has obtained batch system orders.
Compared with hybrids, Weichai's pure electric layout is relatively small. However, in order to achieve zero-carbon development, the layout of pure electric Weichai has also been launched.
It is reported that Weichai is committed to providing industrial vehicles, non-road customized battery solutions and electric drive system solutions such as motors, motor controllers, drive axles, and all-in-one controllers. At present, battery PACK is supporting industrial vehicles, trucks, buses and construction machinery in batches, achieving a cumulative matching capacity of 1GWh for battery PACK and more than 10,000 units for electric drives.
Similar to Weichai, on May 28, 2019, Yuchai officially launched four major new energy powertrains at the new energy power strategy and product conference, namely IE-Power, e-CVT power shunt hybrid powertrain, integrated electric drive axle assembly, and fuel cell system, marking the formation of a comprehensive layout of product strategy in which traditional power and new energy power go hand in hand.
Among them, the integrated powertrain of the power generation engine, IE-Power, realizes the fully integrated design of the motor and the engine under the premise of limited volume, and is highly integrated. In addition, the e-CVT power shunt hybrid powertrain is also one of the solutions developed by Yuchai in the hybrid system. The e-CVT powertrain is currently the most operationally efficient hybrid system solution and the only power-split hybrid system in the world that is suitable for multiple uses.
Yuchai eCVT power shunt hybrid powertrain
Better tools make good work!
Weichai announced that by 2030, weichai's new energy business will lead the development of the global industry, and the layout and results of the new energy technology route will become another heavy "weapon" for Weichai to face the global market in the future! At the same time, Yuchai also said that it will continue to exert efforts on new energy technologies to contribute to the early realization of the "double carbon" goal.