The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are in full swing, and in addition to the fierce events, the automotive circle is most concerned about the automotive products that appear at the venue. It is understood that among all the vehicles guaranteed during the race, energy-saving and clean energy vehicles accounted for 84.9%, the highest in the previous Winter Olympics. Among them, there are more than 1,000 hydrogen energy vehicles, and are equipped with more than 30 hydrogen refueling stations, including hydrogen fuel cell buses, hydrogen fuel cell cars, hydrogen fuel cell special vehicles such as snow wax cars, etc.
Obviously, as an important part of green energy, hydrogen energy has been fully demonstrated in this Beijing Winter Olympics, which is not only due to the fact that hydrogen fuel vehicles have many advantages such as high efficiency, long endurance, and fast hydrogen filling speed, but also because a large number of competition venues of the Winter Olympics are located in alpine cold areas, and hydrogen fuel vehicles can better adapt to the extremely cold external starting environment than electric vehicles, so hydrogen energy models have become the home of the winter Olympics automotive products.
However, due to the limitations of supporting facilities, hydrogen production costs and other issues, hydrogen energy vehicles are not popular in the market, and it is extremely rare in the field of pickup trucks. When can we see hydrogen pickup trucks at large events?
In fact, the development and popularization of hydrogen energy vehicles, a problem that cannot be solved for the time being in the field of passenger cars, is indeed a bit ahead of the pickup truck. In the past year, the international pickup truck market has fully invested in the development of the electric field, the domestic market has continued to deepen the cultivation around the transformation of passengers, hydrogen power is rarely involved in the pickup truck industry, but as an important clean and environmentally friendly fuel, hydrogen power products have been included in the future development strategy of more car companies, and forward-looking enterprises have begun to do the corresponding power reserves.
As early as 2017, foreign media exposed a set of photos of Toyota Tantu using hydrogen fuel cells, but the car was not officially recognized by Toyota, and due to the unique structure of hydrogen energy, the rear cargo box of the car was changed to a gas tank loaded with fuel, which made the pickup truck lose its own characteristics and has always been difficult to overcome for hydrogen fuel cells.
Last October, Nikola, a U.S.-based startup, announced that it would open reservations for its electric pickup truck, Badger, powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, the first hydrogen pickup on the market. It is understood that the car's power system is composed of four drive motors, each wheel corresponding to a drive motor to achieve a four-wheel drive mode, the system can provide the vehicle with a maximum power of 676 kilowatts, as well as a peak torque of 1329 Nm, 0-96km/h acceleration time of 2.9 seconds.
Earlier, SCG announced that its zero-emission Boot pickup truck will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells and will participate in the 2022 Baja 1000 cross-country event. In January, the company officially unveiled an improved version of the hydrogen-powered pickup truck called hydrogen Boot, which also solves the fuel storage problem by equipping the rear of the cargo compartment with a huge hydrogen storage tank and adding a protective cover made of metal steel pipes on the outside, which looks very personal.
While the international market is gradually paying attention to hydrogen energy products, domestic pickup truck companies are also accelerating the research and development of hydrogen energy power technology. It is understood that the Great Wall will further expand the camp of rich pickup models, in the field of new energy, in addition to pure electric pickups, the Great Wall also plans to launch hydrogen pickup trucks and hybrid pickup trucks. In March last year, Great Wall Motors held a strategic global conference for the hydrogen energy sector, one of its core business segments, and it is clear that the hydrogen energy strategy of the whole industry chain that Great Wall Motors is focusing on will accelerate the landing of hydrogen pickup trucks.
At the same time, SAIC Maxus, which also has advantages in the field of fuel cells, is also interested in making efforts in hydrogen pickup trucks. According to the official, the consumption of fuel by traditional pickup trucks is very strong, and SAIC Maxus masters advanced fuel cell technology, and the pickup product SAIC Bull will not only carry SAIC's latest electric drive system, but also carry a hydrogen energy system after that, which can achieve 3 minutes of hydrogenation, the maximum speed reaches 160, 170 km / h, and the acceleration of 100 kilometers is about 10 seconds.
At the launch of the Foton General Diesel 8AT at the beginning of this year, Fang Yishi, secretary of the party committee and president of the pickup truck division of Foton Motor Group, said that new energy products will be one of the focus of Foton pickup truck research and development in the future, "In addition to electric pickups, we have planned diesel 48V light hybrid, gasoline hybrid and even hydrogen fuel models. "As we all know, Futian Group is at the forefront of the industry in the field of hydrogen energy, and in the ongoing Beijing Winter Olympics, there are more than 500 Futian brand hydrogen fuel buses to provide services for the event, which means that in the development of hydrogen energy products, Foton pickup trucks have a more competitive resource advantage."
In addition, another heavy new force in the field of domestic pickup trucks, Sinotruk VGV, also has long-term planning and layout in new energy products. At present, Sinotruk VGV has completed the construction of 3 major technology platforms, namely U+ platform, R platform, F platform, the product is positioned in the high-end and high-end pickup trucks, the scope covers a full range of pickup truck models, including bearing body, non-bearing body, front-drive, rear-drive, four-wheel drive, "energy forms include fuel, pure electric, hybrid, hydrogen energy, etc." Yang Xu, general manager of light vehicle marketing of China National Heavy Duty Truck Group, said.
It can be seen that the pickup truck industry has put the research and development of hydrogen energy products on the agenda, and we are also looking forward to the appearance of a hydrogen pickup truck. It is worth mentioning that in the hydrogen fuel cell industry, commercial vehicles are the best vehicle platform for hydrogen fuel cells, and the advantages of their body size are convenient for the deployment of hydrogen fuel cell systems, and the driving path is relatively remote and unified, which will help the deployment of hydrogen refueling stations. In addition, at the policy level, the domestic market will mainly drive infrastructure through commercial vehicles, and then drive the development of the entire industry through infrastructure, which means that the development of pickup trucks in the field of hydrogen energy will have a better policy environment, which will be a new development opportunity for enterprises.
The use of hydrogen fuel vehicles at the Winter Olympics will make hydrogen energy models more understood and recognized by consumers, and the support for the hydrogen energy vehicle industry at the policy level will also promote it to enter the fast lane of rapid development. For pickup truck models that have not made much achievements in the field of pure electric, the emission of cleaner hydrogen energy may be another good attempt, once the problems such as energy storage and manufacturing costs are solved, hydrogen energy vehicles are expected to expand in more fields of application scenarios, and we also look forward to the pickup truck industry to make a breakthrough in this new energy outlet.