During the Spring Festival holiday, I played cards with my old friends and talked about the world, so unhappy. In their spare time, you can also watch the Winter Olympic Games, feel the charm of sports, appreciate the heroic posture of athletes, and enhance national pride.
Who ever thought that in addition to the champion, the mascot could also become the top of the Winter Olympics, "I just want an ice pier" has become a new generation of social language. In the face of the dilemma of "a pier is difficult to find", I began to ask for help from my relatives and friends, who not only did not help me, but also turned to me and asked me a sharp question:
"The Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing and China, so why not use domestic cars like BYD, but instead use Japanese Toyotas?"
The Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee raised a total of 4,090 vehicles of various types. Among them, 2205 vehicles were provided by Toyota, accounting for nearly 54%, and the rest of the vehicles were provided by BAIC BJEV, Foton Motor, Sinotruk and other companies.
As a world event, the Winter Olympics can show the style of our country, but it is also very expensive. Venue construction, event services, athletes' food, clothing, housing, etc. all cost a lot of money, and even many countries have caused huge financial deficits due to hosting the Olympic Games in recent years.
How to balance the line and even make money is a problem, in addition to the sale of television rights, the sale of licensed goods, ticket revenue, etc., commercial sponsorship accounts for a larger proportion.
There are a total of 45 sponsors at all levels for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, including Bank of China, Yili, ANTA, PetroChina and other well-known enterprises.
It is also a sponsorship of the Olympic Games, but the difference is like a cloud of mud. Olympic sponsors are divided into three levels: Olympic Partner Program (TOP Sponsor), current Olympic Sponsor and National Olympic Sponsor.
Among them, the TOP sponsor level is the highest, there are only 13 in the world at this stage, and there is only one in each industry, namely Airbnb, Alibaba, Allianz Group, ATOS, Bridgestone, Coca-Cola, Intel, Omega, Panasonic, Procter & Gamble, Samsung, Toyota and VISA.
Toyota is used because it is the highest level sponsor of the Olympic Games, can use all Olympic-related symbols worldwide, and has exclusive access to the Olympic rings. Toyota has paid more than $800 million for this, with a partnership of 2016-2024.
Other industries have similar problems. "Why did the Beijing Winter Olympics use Samsung phones as gifts instead of Huawei phones?" At the beginning of the opening, it also triggered a heated discussion among many netizens, for no other reason than him, Samsung is also one of the TOP sponsors of the Olympics.
Instead of asking such questions, we should expect the country to prosper, and we should also give support and encouragement to Chinese companies such as BYD and Huawei. If, one day, they become the top sponsors of the Olympic Games, it will not only be the Beijing Winter Olympics, but even the Olympic Games held by other countries, and our Chinese products will be able to show their style.
Based on the goal of "2030 carbon peak, 2060 carbon neutrality", the Beijing Winter Olympics put forward the concept of "green Olympic Games" at the beginning of the bid. In addition to low-carbon venues and low-carbon offices, the "Olympic Flame" also uses hydrogen as fuel, of which the torch of Zhangjiakou Competition Also uses green hydrogen, which is the first time in the world.
At this stage, the focus of mainland support policies and development is on the hydrogen energy industry in the field of transportation.
According to the official statistics of the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, energy-saving and clean energy vehicles in the vehicles used in the Winter Olympics account for 100% of the passenger cars and 85.84% of all vehicles, of which hydrogen fuel cell vehicles account for a considerable proportion.
A total of 816 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were invested in the Beijing Winter Olympics. Some of them are provided by Chinese enterprises such as Futian, Yutong, Zhongtong and Geely. Toyota, as the forerunner of hydrogen fuel cells, provided 140 second-generation Mirai and 105 Costa hydrogen engines for the Winter Olympics.
In order to ensure the normal operation of these 816 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, a total of 11 hydrogen plants have been put into use in and around Beijing. PetroChina and Sinopec also built more than 30 hydrogen refueling stations along the Olympic route.
Moreover, the large-scale centralized use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will make the hydrogen energy industry's related technologies, upstream and downstream supporting facilities and infrastructure develop rapidly. Beijing will rely on the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympic Winter Games to establish a demonstration project for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
From a technical point of view, hydrogen is an internationally recognized ideal form of energy at this stage, and the source is rich and pollution-free. Its application is hindered because of safety and cost issues in the process of hydrogen production, hydrogen storage, transportation, etc.
Therefore, the discussion of "ultimate energy" has always been a hundred schools of thought. Is it electricity? Is it hydrogen? Is it nuclear? Everyone was not convinced by each other, and no one could convince anyone.
Under the main theme of "overtaking in curves", the rapid development of the mainland's electric vehicle industry has achieved remarkable results, and it is more necessary to support hydrogen energy at this time.
As an industry leader, Toyota has hoarded a large number of technologies and patents. The introduction of Toyota, just like the introduction of Tesla, has formed a catfish effect in the hydrogen energy industry.
For example, the Costa Hydrogen Engine is developed by Toyota China and produced by FAW Toyota at its Chengdu plant. This is also the first time that Toyota Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technology has realized a complete process from R&D to production overseas.
After the Winter Olympics and Paralympics, these hydrogen fuel cell vehicles provided by Toyota will continue to be used on the mainland. Leaving aside the identity of the Olympic TOP sponsor, this is the deeper reason why the Beijing Winter Olympics used Toyota.
Through the Winter Olympics, Toyota will accelerate the landing of hydrogen fuel cell technology in China. Together with FAW, Dongfeng, GAC, BAIC, Yihuatong and other groups, it has jointly established a commercial vehicle fuel cell system research and development company. For example, the Foton Ouhui hydrogen fuel cell bus used in the Winter Olympics is the result of the joint cooperation between Toyota, BAIC and Yihuatong.
In addition, Toyota and Tsinghua University jointly established the "Tsinghua University-Toyota Joint Research Institute", one of the research directions is hydrogen energy and fuel cells.
We learned the technology, Toyota got the market, and it was a win-win situation.
The above is not to prove that "hydrogen" is the "ultimate energy", but only to show that the continent is achieving the "double carbon" goal through multiple paths.
This has also been reflected in recent policies: 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 jointly issued the "Notice on Launching a New Batch of Fuel Cell Vehicle Demonstration Application Work", which also carried out relevant deployments.
Policy, market, technology, all three are indispensable. We are the world's largest single car market, and we believe that the hydrogen energy industry in the mainland can be greatly developed. There is still a long way to go.