The author | Nie Yiyao
The source | Auto Grand view
The popularity of the Beijing Winter Olympics is probably more than any previous Winter Olympics, or even the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
Why? From the creative and beautiful opening ceremony that sparked heated discussions, to the genius girl Gu Ailing winning the championship for several consecutive days to dominate the hot search, to the Winter Olympic mascot ice pier sold out of stock, the order schedule until the end of April. You have to admit that the Beijing Winter Olympics is a super traffic pool and dissemination machine.
In fact, the topics or things related to the Beijing Winter Olympics have been well displayed and disseminated. Especially when the rising China intends to make this Winter Olympics a real "green Olympics" and show the determination and strength of "carbon neutrality" to the world, those seemingly inadvertent footnotes have received more attention and discussion in any case.
Take "hydrogen" as an example
You must remember the process of lighting the Olympic flame at the opening ceremony of this Winter Olympic Games. The main torch of the Olympic flame, which was lit without ignition, is in fact the first hydrogen fuel torch in the history of the Winter Olympics.
When the torchbearers Zhao Jiawen and Dinigal Yilamujiang ascended the steps, they inserted the torch in their hands into the center of the "snowflake", and the hydrogen in the pre-installed hydrogen storage tank spewed out from the torch center. A completely green, zero-emission Olympic flame ignition ceremony was completed, and the world sighed: Wonderful! Got a heart.
There is more than this, more than 1,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles shuttle to serve the mountain field of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which is also a beautiful landscape. This is the largest and most numerous hydrogen vehicles used in international sports events in history.
Between the weightlifting "hydrogen", China's determination to achieve "carbon neutrality" is very clear. So the question is, can the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles promoted by the Beijing Winter Olympics set off an industrial climax in 2022?
Who is pouring "hydrogen" to help the Olympics?
The Beijing Winter Olympics created the most used hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. 14 years ago, only 3 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were used at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games; at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, only 196 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were used. At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, more than 1,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have been put into demonstration operation. And these hydrogen energy vehicles that pour "hydrogen" to help the Olympics come from the following enterprises.
Toyota. As the first multinational car company to lay out and take the lead in mass production of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and perseverance in the hydrogen energy route, Toyota naturally will not miss the Beijing Winter Olympics, an excellent platform for promoting hydrogen energy vehicles. It is reported that Toyota has provided 107 Costa hydrogen engine minibuses and 140 second-generation MIRAI hydrogen fuel cell cars for the Winter Olympics.
Among them, the Costa hydrogen engine minibus is specially developed for the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games, developed by Toyota's R&D center in China, and produced by Sichuan FAW Toyota. The second generation of MIRAI hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, as the main brand of Toyota's hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, has been put into large-scale use in China for the first time.
Futian. The hydrogen fuel cell bus produced by Foton Ouhui Bus is the most used hydrogen energy bus in this Winter Olympic Games, reaching 515. It set a record for the largest and largest number of models in the history of hydrogen energy bus single-brand service international sports events.
Of the 515 Foton Ouhui hydrogen energy buses, 212 are equipped with Toyota hydrogen fuel cell systems, which is regarded as the result of a tripartite cooperation between Toyota, BAIC and Yihuatong.
Yutong. Yutong Bus is also an important provider of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for this Winter Olympic Games, with 185 Yutong hydrogen fuel cell buses serving the whole region of Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou.
In 2009, Yutong Began to develop the first generation of hydrogen energy buses. Today, Yutong has completed the development of the third generation of hydrogen energy buses, and the fourth generation of hydrogen energy buses is under development.
Geely Remote. Geely's commercial vehicle brand Remote Interstellar also provided 80 hydrogen fuel cell buses for the Winter Olympics.
In addition, Zhongtong Bus and Haige Bus, with 40 and some hydrogen fuel cell buses respectively, were put into service operation for the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
The hydrogen fuel cell snow wax vehicle developed and produced by Sinotruk, as the first intelligent snow wax car in China, has also been put into use in this Winter Olympic Games. Sinotruk's hydrogen fuel cell snow wax vehicle is a special support vehicle for snowboard waxing for skiers. Composed of the Yellow River hydrogen fuel cell semi-trailer tractor and the snow wax semi-trailer, it is the first intelligent snow wax truck with completely independent intellectual property rights in the mainland.
Can hydrogen energy vehicles usher in rapid development?
Undoubtedly, while the Beijing Winter Olympics show the country's determination to "carbon neutrality" to the world, it has also become a show for hydrogen energy vehicles to show their strength and outlet to the outside world.
When electric vehicles are climbing to a penetration rate of more than 20% and becoming a booming new energy vehicle in the mainland, is it the turn of the spring of hydrogen energy vehicles? With the demonstration and promotion of hydrogen energy vehicles on the Beijing Winter Olympics, can hydrogen energy vehicles soon usher in rapid development?
At present, at least from the national policy, the support and expectations for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have specific plans and goals.
In October 2016, the Society of Automotive Engineers of China issued the "Energy-saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap", proposing the development goals of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, that is, the application of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles should reach 5,000, 50,000 and 1 million vehicles in 2020, 2025 and 2030, respectively; the construction targets of hydrogen refueling stations are 100, 300 and 1000 respectively.
During the two sessions in 2019, hydrogen energy was written into the "Government Work Report" for the first time, and a wave of hydrogen energy development was set off across the country.
In August 2020, the Party Central Committee and the State Council issued the "Outline of the National Innovation-driven Development Strategy", which clearly mentioned the need to vigorously develop hydrogen fuel vehicles. By 2030, the mainland will achieve the goal of 2 million hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
In September 2020, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the National Energy Administration officially jointly issued the Notice on the Demonstration and Application of Fuel Cell Vehicles, and the demonstration period was tentatively set at four years. During the demonstration period, the five departments will adopt the method of "substituting awards for compensation" to reward the shortlisted demonstration areas according to their goals.
In October 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released version 2.0 of the "Energy-saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap", once again clarifying the goal, by 2030, the promotion and application of fuel cell vehicles in the mainland will reach one million, and the construction of more than 1,000 hydrogen refueling stations will be built.
In addition, in the Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Printing and Distributing the Development Plan for the New Energy Vehicle Industry (2021-2035) in November 2020, in the outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan, in the "14th Five-Year Plan for Industrial Green Development" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in December 2021, the important goals of hydrogen energy as a future potential industry, accelerating hydrogen energy technology innovation and infrastructure construction, and accelerating the promotion and application of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have been continuously emphasized.
Such a strong and intensive policy is favorable, so that the demonstration and promotion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have achieved good results. Up to now, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Shanghai, Foshan City, Guangdong Province, Hebei Province, and Henan Province have become officially approved demonstration areas for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
Taking the Beijing Winter Olympics as an example, Beijing and Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, as demonstration cities for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, have built more than 30 hydrogen refueling stations. The Zhangjiakou Green Hydrogen Energy Integration Demonstration Base also began to produce green hydrogen during the Winter Olympics. The project is one of the world's largest hydrogen production plants for water electrolysis, providing about 50% of the supply of green hydrogen for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in Zhangjiakou during the Winter Olympics.
The hydrogen fuel cell bus serving the Winter Olympics will continue to provide the public with a safe, comfortable and environmentally friendly travel experience through various passenger service provider systems such as Beijing Bus and Zhangjiakou Bus after the Winter Olympics.
The technical difficulties of the core components of hydrogen fuel cell systems, such as the breakthrough of key technical difficulties in stacks and membrane electrodes, are currently the main technical factors hindering the development of domestic hydrogen fuel cell systems.
However, although a considerable number of key components have a certain level of technology, there is still a certain gap with the international leading level, or it is still in the stage of laboratory research and development and small-scale specimens. However, at present, China already has the localization capability of system integration and key component integration, and some single key components also have localization capabilities.
With the promotion and demonstration of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the Beijing Winter Olympics, many people in the industry predict that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in 2022 will usher in a small peak of obvious volume, with hydrogen fuel cell buses and heavy trucks as the promotion focus, and the construction of hydrogen refueling stations is also expected to be moderately advanced.
However, the development and utilization of hydrogen energy is still a long-term process, and the promotion and use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will not be achieved overnight. A beautiful vision is still moving forward in the future.