The Beijing Winter Olympics have been in full swing for a week, and what do journalists, athletes and staff in a "closed loop" parallel world far from the public rely on to travel every day? Will it be the hot electric car of the moment?
Answer: No.
However, the "Green Winter Olympics" is one of the themes of this Winter Olympic Games, and the transportation travel of the Beijing Winter Olympics can certainly not be based on fuel vehicles. Those who pay attention to the TV reports may have noticed that the large-scale use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, hydrogen energy buses, hydrogen energy drone power inspection, and hydrogen energy logistics vehicle distribution facilities will be used on a large scale.
According to the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, energy-saving and clean energy vehicles will be applied to the greatest extent during the Winter Olympics, accounting for 85.84% of the planned proportion, surpassing last year's Tokyo Olympic Games as the highest in previous Winter Olympic Games.
Why use hydrogen fuel cell vehicles?
There are three divisions of the Winter Olympic Games, namely Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou. Among them, the scenes in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou are mostly alpine mountains, with large road slopes and curves, and the temperature in many places is even as low as minus 30 degrees, the climatic conditions are relatively harsh, and it is about 200 kilometers away from the center of Beijing, which poses a great challenge to the low temperature resistance of the vehicle, as well as the control and power output.
We all know that whether the electric vehicle is equipped with a ternary lithium battery or a lithium iron phosphate battery, even if it is equipped with a thermal management system for protection, at such a low temperature, the performance of its power battery will still be affected to varying degrees, and even a large amount of attenuation, while hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can better adapt to high altitude, low temperature and mountainous undulating environment, can achieve rapid cold start within 120 seconds in the -30 ° C environment, and truly achieve "all-climate operation". Therefore, the heavy responsibility of reducing carbon emissions in the Winter Olympics falls on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
At present, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are generally equipped with three hydrogen storage tanks, which can be understood as the "fuel tank" of hydrogen fuel vehicles. It only takes a few minutes to fill hydrogen fuel like refueling, and the cruising range can reach 500KM, which solves the problem of long charging time and range anxiety of electric vehicles. Therefore, hydrogen energy vehicles were focused on applications during the Beijing Winter Olympics.
According to official data, more than 1,000 fuel cell vehicles will be operated in demonstration operation during the Winter Olympics, and more than 30 hydrogen refueling stations have been built. In Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, more than 700 hydrogen fuel buses will be put into use, and at least 30 hydrogen fuel cell buses will be responsible for the transportation of spectators and staff during the race. Companies that provide vehicles include Toyota Motor, Beiqi Foton, Yutong Bus, Zhongtong Bus, Geely Commercial Vehicle, etc.
Therefore, the Beijing Winter Olympics is the world's largest demonstration of fuel cell vehicles. This also makes hydrogen fuel cell vehicles a bright color in the green Winter Olympics, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles from Toyota Motor, BAIC Group, Yutong Bus, Foton Motor and other car companies have actively invested in the Beijing Winter Olympics.
What are the main hydrogen energy vehicles?
Toyota is one of the sponsors of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Toyota has served more than 2,200 vehicles for the Winter Olympics, including 107 Costa hydrogen engine minibuses and 140 second-generation MIRAI hydrogen fuel cell sedans.
Toyota MIRAI 2 debuted at the 2021 Expo, the car uses hydrogen fuel energy, based on the new GA-L platform, can carry three high-pressure hydrogen tanks, the vehicle's cruising range and fuel capacity compared with the first generation of models 30% more, cruising range of 402 miles (about 647 kilometers), in this Winter Olympics to undertake the Transportation task of spectators and staff in Yanqing and other mountain competition areas. At present, the car has been listed in Japan, and it is reported that it is expected to be listed in Japan this year.
The first domestic hydrogen kinetic energy vehicle built by Costa Hydrogen Engine based on Toyota's electrification technology, specially developed for the Winter Olympic Games, developed by Toyota's R&D center in China, and produced by Sichuan FAW Toyota. The power system of the new car consists of a 70MPa high-pressure hydrogen storage system and a 74kW hydrogen fuel cell, which can store 8kg of hydrogen and has a comprehensive cruising range of up to 600km.
Ouhui hydrogen fuel bus is the most used hydrogen energy bus in this Winter Olympic Games. 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. It is reported that Ouhui BJ6122 can achieve the function of automatic protection at minus 30 °C extreme cold low temperature start and minus 40 °C extreme cold low temperature storage and shutdown automatic protection, a hydrogen injection only takes 15-20 minutes, can last more than 600 kilometers.
Yutong Bus provided 185 hydrogen fuel cell buses for the Winter Olympics, serving the entire beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou regions.
Geely's commercial vehicle brand Remote Interstellar also provided 80 hydrogen fuel cell buses for the Winter Olympics.
Hydrogen energy vehicles have broad prospects
In order to ensure the demand for hydrogen fuel vehicles, the hydrogen refueling station assumes the responsibility of energy supply for the Winter Olympics. Among them, the hydrogen refueling station is mainly built by energy companies such as PetroChina, Sinopec, Guodian Investment, Yihuatong, etc., and the hydrogen refueling station is built around Daxing Airport - Beijing Urban Area - Changping - Yanqing - Zhangjiakou. According to statistics, the Winter Olympics have a total of more than 30 hydrogen refueling stations, which can serve more than 2,000 vehicles to refuel, and provide hydrogen refueling services for hydrogen energy fuel vehicles along the Zhangjiakou, Chongli and Yanqing race areas.
Some of the hydrogen storage cylinders used in these hydrogen energy vehicles are from Sinoma Technology (Chengdu) Co., Ltd., and the 165L hydrogen storage cylinder group developed by the company can achieve a cruising range of 630 kilometers, and has a super temperature resistance, which can achieve normal driving under the cold of minus 25 ° C. Not only that, Sinoma Technology has also specially customized and developed a hydrogen storage bottle with a capacity of 53L, which is used in the hydrogen fuel cell police patrol car, fire patrol car and postal car used in the Winter Olympics.
Although the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle Beijing Winter Olympics has achieved large-scale operation, from the current point of view, no matter which country in the world, to achieve large-scale industrialization of fuel cells, a series of problems need to be solved, including hydrogen energy facilities, transportation and refueling. But with the help of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, it is certain that fuel cells will be further developed.
At present, in the context of "carbon neutrality and carbon peaking", hydrogen energy has been included in the development plan of many provinces and cities across the country. In October 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released version 2.0 of the "Energy-saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap", which also clearly defined the goal of promoting and applying fuel cell vehicles in mainland China to reach one million by 2030, and the construction of more than 1,000 hydrogen refueling stations.
It is understood that the hydrogen fuel cell bus serving the Winter Olympics will continue to provide the public with a safe, comfortable and environmentally friendly travel experience after the Winter Olympics through various passenger service provider systems such as Beijing bus and Zhangjiakou bus. With the continuous advancement of policies, events and car companies, hydrogen energy vehicles are expected to become the next development inflection point after pure electric vehicles.