Under the concept of "Green Winter Olympics", the Beijing Winter Olympics are not only a venue for global ice and snow athletes, but also a show for clean energy hydrogen energy and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (that is, hydrogen energy vehicles). It is understood that in addition to achieving the goal of zero carbon emissions for the first time in the history of the Winter Olympics, the Beijing Winter Olympics have also achieved the world's first large-scale fuel cell vehicle demonstration investment.
In terms of building a low-carbon transportation system during the games, the content of the "Beijing Winter Olympics Low Carbon Management Report (Pre-Competition)" shows that in accordance with the principle of "plain electricity and mountain hydrogen", electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are promoted in various competition areas. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles as the "protagonist" of low-carbon transportation in this "Green Winter Olympics", including Yutong Bus (600066. SH), Geely Interstellar Bus and Toyota Motor have participated in it.
According to the Society of Automotive Engineers of China, by 2030, the annual output value of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry in mainland China is expected to exceed the trillion yuan mark. Yang Dongchuan, an analyst in the hydrogen energy industry, told the China Business Daily that as early as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, there were many hydrogen fuel cell buses put into operation, but the application scale at that time was very small. "The Beijing Winter Olympics are running more than 1,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, which means that after 14 years of development, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are already in a different stage of development and are ushering in new development opportunities."
Hydrogen trucks drive into the Winter Olympics
As one of the sponsors of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Yutong Bus provided 950 buses to participate in traffic protection work. These include 185 Yutong hydrogen fuel cell buses (100 in Beijing and 85 in Zhangjiakou) serving the entire beijing, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou regions.
In addition, Geely Interstellar Bus also provided 80 hydrogen fuel cell city buses to ensure the smooth progress of the transportation connection work of the Beijing Winter Olympics. In order to improve the quality and level of service, Geely Interstellar Bus also supported a full-time service Winter Olympics support team to carry out two-month support services.
For the reasons why hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have achieved large-scale demonstration applications in this Beijing Winter Olympics, the relevant person in charge of Yutong Bus told reporters that this is because hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have the advantages of long endurance and fast fuel refueling, and have the environmental protection characteristics of pure electric vehicles. "Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have the characteristics of zero emission, long endurance and high convenience, which is the most environmentally friendly energy source at present, and the ultimate development direction of new energy vehicles."
However, the above-mentioned person in charge of Yutong Bus also admitted: "The biggest challenge of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in this large-scale participation in the Winter Olympics comes from the guarantee of vehicle operation stability. ”
"For a world-class event like the Winter Olympics, the task of vehicle service support is extremely arduous, and hydrogen fuel cell buses can be said to be 'novices' in this service guarantee." The above-mentioned person in charge further explained that on the one hand, the low temperature around the Winter Olympics area has increased the difficulty of vehicle operation stability, and how to ensure that the performance of the vehicle in the low temperature environment is still stable and reliable is a challenge for the service guarantee team. On the other hand, the operation of hydrogen fuel cell buses requires higher requirements for related supporting facilities, such as hydrogen reactors, hydrogen refueling stations and vehicle accessories, etc., which need to be fully prepared.
The relevant person in charge of Geely Interstellar Bus also said that the Zhangjiakou competition area of the Beijing Winter Olympics is mostly alpine mountainous, with large road slopes, many curves, and harsh climatic conditions, which has put forward great challenges to the vehicle operation and service guarantee team. Geely Interstellar Bus provides professional and detailed pre-job training for vehicle drivers in view of the characteristics of hydrogen fuel cell buses, so that drivers can systematically understand the vehicle configuration, working principle and operation method of hydrogen fuel cell buses. "And the service support personnel are stationed at the race station, from the departure to the receipt of the car to provide the team with fine service work."
The relevant person in charge of Yutong Bus said that for the challenges faced, the company carried out "front-end after-sales service", comprehensive planning and careful deployment from the aspects of parts protection, full vehicle inspection, stationed service, driver safety training, emergency treatment, etc., and strived to be foolproof.
Many places have introduced policy support
"The development of technology and the iteration of products require feedback from practical experience, and this time thousands of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were centrally operated at the Winter Olympics, providing a very important stage for the large-scale demonstration application of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles." In addition, showing applications in high-profile competitions will also increase public attention and acceptance of hydrogen energy fuels. Yang Dongchuan said.
The relevant person in charge of Yutong Bus also said: "Through the Winter Olympics to show the public hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in an all-round way, improve the public's awareness of the feasibility and reliability of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and help the promotion of hydrogen energy models." ”
In fact, in the context of the era of "double carbon", hydrogen energy, as a clean and low-carbon energy, is constantly ushering in a bright moment, and the policy is continuously favorable. At the same time, a number of cities in the mainland have issued special hydrogen energy overall industrial development policies and special policies for the subdivision of hydrogen fuel vehicles.
Taking Shanghai as an example, by 2023, Shanghai plans to have nearly 100 hydrogen refueling stations and will complete and operate more than 30, forming an output scale of about 100 billion yuan and promoting nearly 10,000 fuel cell vehicles.
Soochow Securities Research Report pointed out that since November 2021, Inner Mongolia and Zhejiang and other provinces have successively introduced relevant policies to encourage the development of hydrogen energy and hydrogen fuel cell industries, and Wuhan, Chengdu and Shijiazhuang have also added new hydrogen bus purchase orders.
When cities around the world are entering the game, major car companies are also increasing the layout of the hydrogen energy field. SAIC Group (600104. SH) as an example, the company officially released the industry's first "hydrogen strategy" in 2020: before 2025, it will launch at least ten fuel cell vehicle products, establish a fuel cell R & D and operation team of more than 1,000 people, and form a production and sales scale of 10,000 fuel cell vehicles, with a market share of more than 10%.
Dongfeng Motor (600006. SH) announced that its Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the State Power Investment Group to jointly promote the marketing of hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles. "Since 2016, the company has been deploying hydrogen fuel buses and chassis products. As of now, the sales of hydrogen fuel buses are very small, most of which are hydrogen fuel chassis. The company is developing 8.5 tons and 12 tons of hydrogen fuel logistics vehicles and 18 tons of hydrogen fuel sanitation vehicles according to the research and development schedule. On January 14, the relevant person in charge of Dongfeng Motor also said in response to investors' questions.
In fact, the use of hydrogen energy is by no means limited to the automotive sector. Yang Dongchuan said that at the beginning, hydrogen energy was developed as a new energy angle, and later under the influence of the energy revolution, it began to change to the perspective of energy.
"The proposal of the 'double carbon' goal has expanded the imagination space of the hydrogen energy market to a greater extent, no longer limited to the automotive field, in the fields of electricity, energy storage and chemical industry, hydrogen energy can be used to replace, and the market size of hydrogen energy has also expanded from the trillion-level automobile field to the entire industrial system of tens of trillions." Yang Dongchuan added.
Commercialization is waiting to be broken
The China Hydrogen Energy Alliance predicts that by 2025, the output value of the mainland hydrogen energy industry will reach 1 trillion yuan; by 2050, hydrogen energy will account for more than 10% of the mainland terminal energy system, and the annual output value of the industrial chain will reach 12 trillion yuan.
Although the future development prospects of hydrogen energy are broad, from the current point of view, the marketization of hydrogen energy is still in its early stages. Taking the automotive field as an example, at present, China's mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are mainly buses, and the mass production applications in the passenger car field are still very few.
Yang Dongchuan said that from the perspective of foreign experience, hydrogen fuel cell passenger cars can be developed, and some domestic car companies are already making relevant attempts. "But the cost of vehicle acquisition and hydrogenation is very high, and it is still difficult for consumers to accept it now."
The reporter noted that in addition to the high cost of hydrogen energy use, safety issues in the process of hydrogen production, hydrogen transportation, and hydrogenation are all factors restricting the large-scale promotion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
The relevant person in charge of Yutong Bus also said: "The mainland took the lead in starting from the research and development demonstration of hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles, and has made rapid progress in the economy and reliability of fuel cell buses in recent years, but there is still a certain gap compared with the global advanced level in terms of vehicle integration, core components and key materials." ”
In the face of the industry problem of hydrogen fuel cell promotion, all sectors of society are also actively taking countermeasures. The "Energy-saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap" formulated by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China clearly states that by 2030, the promotion and application of fuel cell vehicles will reach one million, and the construction of hydrogen refueling stations will exceed 1,000.
The above-mentioned person in charge of Yutong Bus said that in view of the three major problems such as insufficient competitiveness of the industry's vehicles, low autonomy of key components and non-coordination of the hydrogen energy industry chain, the company will jointly carry out technical research with universities, research institutes and advantageous enterprises in the industrial chain inside and outside Henan Province.
Yang Dongchuan believes that the cost of using hydrogen fuel should be reduced from the technical and model level. "If we want to really promote the substantial development of the hydrogen energy industry, we also need to cooperate with other measures, such as the implementation of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle demonstration city cluster policy, which is larger in scale, longer in time, more supportive, and more obvious."
"For the government, the first is to introduce appropriate industrial support policies, do not let car companies rush up because of subsidies; second, increase support for technology research and development, there are still many core technical problems that have not been overcome, there is still a certain gap from the advanced level of foreign countries, and relevant departments need to provide scientific and technological support; the third is to carry out science popularization at the control level to eliminate the public's cognitive fear of hydrogen energy." From a technical point of view, the safety of hydrogen energy can be guaranteed. Yang Dongchuan further said.