The Beijing Winter Olympics are in full swing, and the ice and snow athletes have worked tenaciously and go all out on the field, writing wonderful stories of challenging limits and surpassing themselves, vividly interpreting the Olympic spirit of "faster, higher, stronger - more united".
There is no doubt that this spirit of "saying no to the impossible" has touched countless audiences inside and outside the venue. Not only inside the arena, but also outside the Olympic Winter Games, this spirit of challenge is also reflected everywhere. In line with the concept of "green Olympic Games", the Beijing Winter Olympics promised at the time of bidding that the carbon emissions generated by the Games would be neutralized. Taking the event service car as an example, this Winter Olympics not only uses the market-wide hybrid and pure electric vehicles, but also advanced hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, such as Toyota's first large-scale use of FCEV "Mirai" in China and the "Costa Hydrogen Engine" developed for the conference.
(Toyota 2nd Generation MIRAI)
(Toyota Costa Hydrogen Engine)
As the first world-class sports event after the mainland put forward the goal of "2030 carbon peak, 2060 carbon neutrality", the degree of electrification of vehicles for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing has reached a new high, especially the large-scale application of hydrogen energy technology, which will not only help the Winter Olympics challenge "the most environmentally friendly Olympic Games in history", but also become an important milestone in the history of hydrogen energy development.
Driving the future with "hydrogen engine" technology
According to the official statistics of the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, among the transportation service vehicles used in the Winter Olympic Games, energy-saving and clean energy vehicles accounted for 100% of the passenger cars and 85.84% of all vehicles, which was the highest in the previous Winter Olympics.
As the only automotive company among the global partners of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Toyota escorts the athletes of the Winter Olympic Games with a full range of electrification technology. It is reported that during the Winter Olympics, Toyota provided a total of 2205 cars, most of which are FAW Toyota and GAC Toyota on sale, including hybrid vehicles, pure electric vehicles and so on. One of the most interesting is that the 2205 vehicle types also include 140 MIRAI and 105 Kosda, both of which are hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, of which mirai is used as a VIP car, the first large-scale introduction to the Chinese market; and the COSTA hydrogen engine is specially designed and developed for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, developed by Toyota China R&D Center, and produced in Sichuan FAW Toyota. This is also the first time that Toyota Motor has realized the "localization" of the whole process of hydrogen fuel cell technology from research and development to production overseas.
Since the Winter Olympics involve three divisions of Beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou, the road conditions in each area are completely different, both urban sections and rugged and steep winding roads, coupled with ice and snow weather, the road conditions are extremely complex and changeable, which undoubtedly puts forward strict requirements for the reliability and power performance of electrified vehicles, especially hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
It is understood that all the vehicles currently serving the Winter Olympics are running well. Toyota Costa Hydrogen Engine can start normally at a low temperature of -30 ° and the power characteristics of high torque output ensure stable driving in high slopes and slippery mountain roads, becoming a beautiful scenery outside the Winter Olympic Games. Coupled with the rapid refueling and long mileage of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, it has a unique advantage for meeting the commuting requirements of the round-trip between the arena and the station.
Since the opening of the Winter Olympic Games, Costa Hydrogen Engine has been operating as an athlete shuttle bus in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou areas, shuttling between the Winter Olympic Village and the venue group, with excellent performance and reliable stability, it has been fully affirmed by the Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, and the President of the International Olympic Committee, Mr. Bach, also expressed his satisfaction and gratitude for the transportation service of the Winter Olympics.
In fact, in the field of hydrogen fuel cell technology, Toyota began to develop as early as 1995, and then through continuous technological innovation, it has greatly improved in terms of power density, hydrogen cylinder quality, battery cell durability, and mass production quality. In 2014, Toyota launched the world's first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell model MIRAI, which has accumulated sales of more than 10,000 units in the world, while maintaining the achievement of zero accidents, further verifying that the advanced nature and safety of Toyota's hydrogen fuel cell technology represent the world's top level. At the end of 2020, Toyota launched the second generation of MIRAI, which has a power density of 1.5 times higher than the original generation, and a 5% increase in the quality and efficiency of hydrogen storage, making the vehicle a new high in terms of power and mileage.
From the initial concept display to today's large-scale use, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are showing a large-scale development momentum in international sports event services. According to the data released by the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, the Winter Olympics is the world's largest fuel cell vehicle demonstration, taking Toyota as an example, in addition to 140 second-generation MIRAI and 105 Costa hydrogen engines, as a joint cooperation between Toyota and BAIC and Yihuatong, the Winter Olympics use more than 200 Beiqi Foton hydrogen fuel cell buses equipped with Toyota's hydrogen fuel cell system. You know, at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, only 3 hydrogen fuel cell buses were put into use at that time. After more than ten years of development, mainland hydrogen energy and fuel cell vehicles have begun to usher in a new stage of development.
Welfare vehicles help the Winter Olympics demonstrate humanistic care
At the same time that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are put into the service operation of the Beijing Winter Olympics on a large scale, in order to better serve the Winter Paralympic Games, car companies represented by Toyota will also provide a variety of welfare vehicles for the disabled to use, and Toyota will bring a total of 247 welfare vehicles including Costa, Haiaishi, and Xena at the Winter Olympics.
In serving the Beijing Winter Paralympic Games, Toyota designs and develops products and supplies models for welfare vehicles based on the actual needs of athletes. Among them, the Xena Welfare Vehicle is the first welfare vehicle introduced by Toyota in China, and its second row of right-hand seats can be raised and lowered at an electric uniform speed, which is very suitable for athletes who can move themselves from the wheelchair to the seat of the vehicle.
(Xena Welfare Edition)
For athletes who cannot move from the wheelchair, toyota in order to minimize the burden of the organizer of the conference, according to the needs of these athletes, designed and developed the Costa welfare vehicle, using the back door to open the automatic lifting and getting on and off the car, the athletes in the wheelchair can be under the premise of not getting out of the wheelchair, directly sitting on the wheelchair to achieve rapid getting on and off the car, truly reflecting Toyota's humanistic care for specific groups of people.
(Costa Hydrogen Engine Welfare Vehicle)
Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles meet the policy outlet
In fact, in recent years, with the continuous help of favorable policies and the promotion of "double carbon" goals, the hydrogen energy industry has ushered in a development boom and has become a new outlet. In March 2021, hydrogen energy was officially included in the draft outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan. In December 2021, the Ministry of Finance and other five departments issued the "Notice on Launching a New Batch of Fuel Cell Vehicle Demonstration Application Work", hebei and Henan two urban agglomerations were officially approved, coupled with the first batch of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Shanghai and Guangdong city clusters announced earlier, a total of 5 major urban agglomerations will officially roll out the curtain of continental fuel cell demonstration applications in 2022.
It can be said that "the development of hydrogen energy, fuel cells and other new generation energy technologies" has become one of the important contents of the national innovation-driven development strategy, and various localities have also actively introduced policies to follow up and fully support the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. From subsidies to promotion demonstrations to promote the improvement of infrastructure, at different levels, the mainland is accelerating the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles through policy promotion, so that the domestic hydrogen energy industry has once again ushered in a development boom.
According to incomplete statistics, at present, 30 provinces and more than 150 cities in the country have mentioned hydrogen energy development in their "14th Five-Year Plan", and more than 50 cities have issued special plans for the development of local hydrogen energy industry. According to the planning goals of various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, by 2025, more than 1,000 hydrogen refueling stations will be built nationwide, and more than 54,000 hydrogen fuel vehicles will be promoted. According to the "China Hydrogen Energy Industry Development Report 2020", China's hydrogen fuel cell vehicle ownership will increase from 7352 in 2020 to 100,000 in 2025, and the market size of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is expected to reach 80 billion yuan by 2025.
In the face of the promising hydrogen energy market, many domestic car companies have also seized the opportunity to layout, including Yutong, SAIC, Foton, Great Wall, Geely Commercial Vehicles, etc. have been clearly planned, and increase investment in promoting the research and development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and the commercialization of products. Toyota is at the forefront of the industry, in recent years, it has continuously expanded its "circle of friends", such as the joint establishment of the "Tsinghua University-Toyota Joint Research Institute" with Tsinghua University to jointly explore the active use of hydrogen fuel cells; at the same time, Toyota has also cooperated with domestic commercial vehicle manufacturers FAW, Dongfeng, GAC, BAIC, and system integrator Yihuatong to actively contribute to China's carbon neutrality through the localization of hydrogen fuel cells research and development and production.
It is worth mentioning that after the Beijing Winter Olympics, Toyota will also actively promote the follow-up reuse of FCEVs in the transportation service vehicles of the Winter Olympics, and hopes to take this as an opportunity to continuously promote the development of China's hydrogen fuel cell industry.
Take the bZ4X as an opportunity to accelerate the spread of all-round electrification technology
In addition to continuing to cultivate in the field of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, the first model of Toyota's bZ pure electric exclusive series, the bZ4X, also appeared on the Stage of the Winter Olympics, escorting the Beijing Olympic torch relay, which attracted much attention. According to Toyota's plan, the bZ4X will be launched in China in the middle of this year, bringing Chinese consumers a pure electric travel life of "different freedom".
(Toyota bZ pure electric exclusive series of the first model - bZ4X)
bZ4X is based on the exclusive platform for e-TNGA pure electric vehicles, with the design concept of "Activity Hub", using X-MODE function jointly developed with SUBARU, and equipped with the newly developed "Grip-Control Intelligent Multi-road Adaptation System", while realizing the combination of steering-by-wire and the special-shaped steering wheel, in the 150kW DC fast charge mode, the power can be replenished to 80% in 30 minutes. In the future, Toyota will take the bZ4X as the starting point to comprehensively promote the continuous expansion of the BEV product lineup, and plans to sell seven models of the series globally by 2025, and the Chinese market will become the market with the largest introduction of the series, and it is expected to introduce 5 of them.
In fact, while developing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and pure electric vehicles, Toyota has always been committed to promoting the technological progress and popularization of HEV, PHEV, BEV and FCEV through all-round electrification technology, so that consumers can freely choose according to their different needs and contribute to the realization of "carbon neutrality". Taking HEVs as an example, since 1997, Toyota has sold more than 19 million HEVs worldwide, and its battery usage is equivalent to about 260,000 EV, but the CO2 emission reduction effect is equivalent to about 5.5 million EV.
Committed to carbon neutrality throughout the life cycle
If from the perspective of achieving carbon neutrality, in addition to production and manufacturing, new energy vehicles must also start from the perspective of the whole life cycle, thereby reducing carbon dioxide emissions in manufacturing, storage, use, recycling, waste treatment and other links, and Toyota undoubtedly has more say.
At the 4th China International Import Expo held in November last year, Toyota demonstrated toyota's various initiatives to build a low-carbon society in the process of promoting all-round electrification through hydrogen fuel cell technology. The first is manufacturing, Toyota hopes to expand the production of hydrogen energy from renewable energy production, to accelerate local consumption, promote the use of hydrogen energy in the entire region; secondly, storage, improve the storage performance of hydrogen storage tanks, achieve lightweight, while innovating the manufacturing technology of hydrogen storage tanks, reducing the use of carbon fiber, etc., to promote the popularization of FCEV; the third is the use, and jointly developed with Chinese partners a high-power, long-lasting hydrogen fuel cell system TL Power suitable for the use of commercial vehicles in China 100; Then there is recycling, Toyota and Chinese companies began to cooperate on the proper disposal of FCEV end-of-life vehicles and the recycling of core components; and finally, waste disposal, through the carbon dioxide recycling facility, to recover carbon dioxide from the exhaust gases of the factory for fuel production. It can be said that Toyota's full life cycle process of fuel cell vehicles has undoubtedly made useful explorations and attempts for the industry.
Toyota Motor President Akio Toyoda has said that to achieve carbon neutrality, it is not the internal combustion engine that needs to be eliminated, but carbon dioxide. There are many ways to achieve carbon neutrality, just like mountaineering, there are many paths to the top of the mountain, and there are many ways to achieve carbon neutrality. Therefore, to some extent, the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles put into use in batches at the Beijing Winter Olympics may be just a new beginning, and for the future, I believe that Toyota, which adheres to the spirit of "START YOUR IMPOSSIBLE (say no to the impossible)", will bring more surprises to the industry with practical actions, let us wait and see.