The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics have come to an end in tension and intensity. Looking back at the entire Winter Olympic Games, in addition to the wonderful performance of athletes, the concept of "Green Winter Olympics" is also deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
It is understood that the Winter Olympics, whether it is a torch or a vehicle transporting the flame, use hydrogen fuel. Among them, hydrogen energy vehicles have become the new favorite. According to the data released by the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, the three competition areas are equipped with more than 30 hydrogen refueling stations and invest more than 1,000 hydrogen energy vehicles, breaking the record of using clean energy vehicles in previous Winter Olympics.
The large-scale use of hydrogen energy vehicles at the Beijing Winter Olympics not only allowed the world to see the determination of the mainland to use clean energy, but also made hydrogen energy products enter the public vision again. So, can hydrogen energy vehicles usher in the spring of 2022?
Foreign capital and independent brands have laid out hydrogen energy
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, as a car sponsor, Toyota not only provided hybrid vehicles and pure electric vehicles, but also provided FCEV "second-generation MIRAI" and "Costa hydrogen engine" two hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. According to Toyota China's official website, after the Winter Olympics, Toyota will actively promote the subsequent reuse of FCEVs in the transportation vehicles used in the Winter Olympics, and hopes to take this as an opportunity to promote the development of hydrogen energy vehicles in China. In fact, as early as 2017, Toyota has begun the empirical experiment of hydrogen energy vehicles, and actively deployed FC Costa hydrogen energy vehicles in China.
Of course, in addition to Toyota, as one of the earliest car companies to lay out the field of hydrogen energy, Hyundai Motor demonstrated a series of future-oriented hyundai motor mobility products such as hydrogen intelligent unmanned transport vehicles, high-performance concept sports cars, and emergency rescue vehicles in September 2021, and officially released its future vision for hydrogen energy and hydrogen energy society. Among them, in the Chinese market, Hyundai Motor has established the Group's first overseas hydrogen fuel cell production and sales base in Guangzhou, and plans to invest in the latest generation of hydrogen fuel cell SUV models NEXO in China in the future.
It is worth mentioning that domestic independent brands are not far behind and actively enter the field of hydrogen energy.
In 2020, SAIC Motor announced that by 2025, at least ten hydrogen energy products will be launched, and a fuel cell R&D and operation team of more than 1,000 people will be established, forming a production and sales scale of 10,000 fuel cell vehicles, and the market share is expected to reach more than 10%. At the same time, Great Wall Motor released its hydrogen energy strategy in 2021, announcing that it will invest another 3 billion yuan in research and development in the field of hydrogen energy, and the first hydrogen energy vehicle will be listed this year.
In addition, Haima Automobile's photovoltaic hydrogen production and high-pressure hydrogenation integrated station has been officially completed in Haikou on December 10 last year, and its third-generation hydrogen fuel cell vehicles plan to carry out simulation demonstration operations this year, and the follow-up Haima will also launch high-end intelligent pure electric vehicles, high-end intelligent plug-in hybrid vehicles and 800km long-endurance hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. In addition, Changan CS75 hydrogen fuel version, Hongqi H5 hydrogen fuel cell version and other models have also been officially unveiled, and GAC's first hydrogen energy vehicle Aion LX Fuel Cell has also begun demonstration operation in Guangzhou.
Policy support helps the development of hydrogen energy
In addition to foreign capital and independent brands entering the hydrogen energy market, the hydrogen energy part of our energy strategy policy is also clearer.
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 clearly stated that the promotion and application of fuel cell vehicles in mainland China will reach one million in 2030, and the construction of hydrogen refueling stations will exceed 1,000. In the future, gas stations will gradually transform into "oil, gas and hydrogen electric services" integrated energy stations.
In March 2021, hydrogen energy was officially included in the draft outline of the "14th Five-Year Plan"; in December 2021, the "14th Five-Year Plan for Industrial Green Development" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposed to accelerate hydrogen energy technology innovation and infrastructure construction, and promote the diversified use of hydrogen energy.
Under such a favorable policy, the demonstration and promotion of hydrogen energy vehicles have achieved good results. By the end of 2021, 16 provinces and cities across the country, including Beijing, Shandong, Hebei, Tianjin, Sichuan, Zhejiang and Ningxia, have formulated hydrogen energy development plans. Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Shanghai, Guangdong, Hebei, Henan and other urban agglomerations have become approved demonstration zones for hydrogen energy vehicles.
In 2025, the scale of hydrogen energy may reach 80 billion yuan
From the current stage, the prospects for hydrogen energy vehicles are very good, and there are many advantages over the current pure electric vehicles.
First of all, the replenishment time is short. Pure electric vehicles have a long energy replenishment time, in the fast charging mode, it generally takes 30 minutes from 20% to 80% charging; in the slow charging mode, it takes at least 8 hours. Different from the pure electric vehicle energy replenishment method, the hydrogen energy vehicle is hydrogenated, which only takes 3 minutes to achieve 800km endurance. The second is that it is less affected by the climate. Pure electric vehicles in cold weather, the endurance shrinkage is serious, seriously affecting the use. Hydrogen energy vehicles, on the other hand, are not affected by temperature and can achieve endurance even below minus 20 degrees Celsius.
Therefore, people in the industry have always believed that in the field of new energy vehicles, hydrogen energy vehicles have always been superior to pure electric vehicles, and the future is bright. Some industrial development reports predict that china's hydrogen energy vehicle ownership will increase from 7352 in 2020 to 100,000 in 2025, and the hydrogen energy vehicle market size is expected to reach 80 billion yuan by 2025.
On the whole, as one of the recognized clean energy sources in the world, hydrogen has clear development prospects, which is beyond doubt. Although subject to technical bottlenecks, expensive costs and other reasons, the current penetration rate of hydrogen energy vehicles is low, but it is undeniable that the future new energy applications will inevitably be multi-level, hydrogen energy vehicles will also accelerate the pace of trial operation into the public domain, and eventually enter the homes of ordinary people.