Due to the low emissions, low temperature resistance and long endurance of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, they are called "the ultimate environmental protection car". This also allows it to form a "hydrogen" relationship with the Summer Olympic Games and the Winter Olympic Games. From the operation of 3 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles at the Summer Olympics, which opened the demonstration of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles "from 0 to 1", to nearly a thousand hydrogen fuel cell vehicles put into the Winter Olympics to undertake the heavy responsibility of transportation, large-scale multi-scenario applications are promoting the development of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry.
However, due to the influence of many factors that are high in cost, there are not many hydrogen fuel cell vehicles with obvious advantages in the real sense of mass production and sale. The large-scale demonstration application of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles at the Winter Olympics has well verified their importance, accumulated experience for industrial development, and accelerated the landing of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry.
Mass admission to the Winter Olympics
As the first international large-scale event hosted by China after announcing its carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. The carbon emissions generated by the Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics will all be neutralized. In order to ensure the concept of the Green Winter Olympics, the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle known as the "ultimate environmental protection car" has taken on the heavy responsibility of transportation during the Winter Olympics.
It is understood that a total of 816 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were put into use as the main transport capacity to carry out demonstration operation services at the Beijing Winter Olympics, which is the largest investment in major international events so far. Among them, the number of buses set a record for the largest number of international sports events in the history of hydrogen fuel cell large buses serving.
As a global partner of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Toyota is a major vehicle supplier for the Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Vehicles launched include Toyota's new MIRAI second-generation passenger car, Toyota Costa Minibus, which has been developed and produced locally for the first time, and Toyota-Foton's first jointly developed coach, including one MIRAI special vehicle for IOC President Thomas Bach. Kenji Kwon Teng, Executive Deputy General Manager of Toyota Motor R&D Center (China), said: "The use of the vehicle includes being used as a VIP and athlete car between the high-speed rail station, the Winter Olympic Village, the Genting stadium group, and the big jump venue group, and auxiliary vehicles such as torch relay and awards. ”
In addition, as the "host", BAIC Group's models have also contributed to escorting the Green Winter Olympics. It is understood that during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, there are 1223 Foton Ouhui buses to provide support for the Winter Olympics, of which 515 are hydrogen fuel buses, accounting for 60% of the overall hydrogen fuel buses.
"These vehicles set a record for the largest and largest number of models ever recorded in the international sporting event for hydrogen bus services." Liu Jihong, vice president of R&D of Foton Motor's Ouhui Bus Division, said that the 212 Ouhui hydrogen fuel buses used in the closed loop of Yanqing Racing District are hydrogen fuel cell buses jointly launched by Foton Motor, Toyota and Yihuatong.
Accumulate application experience
Riding the "Dongfeng" of the Winter Olympics has also promoted the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry.
Because hydrogen fuel cell vehicles only discharge water during driving, they are called the "ultimate eco-friendly car". At the same time, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can achieve -30 °C low temperature start, -40 °C low temperature storage and automatic protection of shutdown, and the mileage of the bus can reach more than 400 kilometers. However, although the advantages of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are obvious, there are not many models on sale worldwide, which are basically commercial vehicles.
The data shows that the sales volume of fuel cell vehicles in mainland China in 2021 will be 1556. Yan Jinghui, a member of the expert committee of the China Automobile Dealers Association, said that fuel cell vehicles have begun to be applied in the field of commercial vehicles, but the technical threshold of passenger cars is relatively high, and it will still take time to form a scale. The research and development cost of fuel cell engines is too high, and there are many practical problems that need to be solved in each link of hydrogen storage, hydrogen transportation, and hydrogenation, and only when the constraints are gradually solved can industrialization be realized.
Although the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is still facing how to reduce costs and expand the scope of use, in the view of Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Passenger Car Market Information Joint Association, the large-scale demonstration application of the Winter Olympics is a good test for the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and it is also a test for the entire industry chain. It is conducive to improving product technology, improving the upstream and downstream of the industry, and enhancing the awareness and influence of the outside world on the industry.
Beijing Business Daily reporter learned that in order to ensure the smooth progress of the Winter Olympics, the company has made perfect preparations for multi-party debugging of products, thus accumulating experience. Liu Jihong said that Futian had previously completed an extremely cold test in Hailar and passed the first domestic hydrogen bus side impact test. The use of electric safety technology, hydrogen safety technology, hydrogen-electric coupling safety system, all-round guarantee of hydrogen fuel cell bus safety.
Not only car companies, Beijing Tianhai Industry Co., Ltd., which is responsible for the on-board hydrogen storage system, the 70MPa hydrogen storage bottle developed before the Winter Olympics broke through the blockade control of imported high-strength carbon fiber, realized alternative applications, and solved the "card neck" technology of fiber. Yue Zengzhu, chief engineer of Beijing Tianhai Hydrogen Energy Equipment Co., Ltd., said: "During the Winter Olympics, we took the lead in applying 140 hydrogen fuel buses that realized the batch operation of 70MPa hydrogen fuel vehicles as commuter vehicles. Yan Jinghui believes that the scenario-based application of the Winter Olympics has promoted the improvement of the industry in products and supply, paving the way for the later development of the industry.
In terms of policy, the Winter Olympics also promote the revision of the industry standard for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. It is understood that in order to realize the use of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the Winter Olympics, promote the revision of standards such as "Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle HydrogenAtion Port", "Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Vehicle Hydrogen System Test Method" and "Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Vehicle Hydrogen System Technical Conditions".
Car companies have entered the game
The hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry is becoming an outlet. In March last year, hydrogen energy was officially included in the draft outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan. As of 2021, the mainland government has supported hydrogen energy and fuel cell research and development funds of more than 2 billion yuan; in December last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for Industrial Green Development" also proposed to accelerate hydrogen energy technology innovation and infrastructure and promote the diversified use of hydrogen energy.
"Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are an important direction for the development of new energy vehicles and one of the important application scenarios for hydrogen energy." Wu Zhiquan, deputy director of the Automobile Transportation Department of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, said that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are an important direction for the development of new energy vehicles and one of the important application scenarios of hydrogen energy. Beijing is implementing the development plan for the hydrogen energy and hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry, and actively promoting the construction of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei fuel cell vehicle demonstration city cluster.
In addition to the local stepped up layout to introduce favorable policies, under the billion-level base plate of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, car companies have also entered the game. 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.
Seeing the market prospect of tens of billions, the layout of car companies is also accelerating. SAIC Motor plans to launch at least 10 fuel cell vehicle products by 2025, and form a production and sales scale of 10,000 fuel cell vehicles, with a market share of more than 10%. SAIC's Jet Hydrogen Technology said that it is expected that hydrogen fuel cells will usher in the first inflection point in 2025, with the number of hydrogen fuel cells or reach 100,000 vehicles; in 2030, the second inflection point will be ushered in, and the ownership of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will increase to 1 million.
In addition to SAIC Motor, Great Wall Motor's hydrogen energy strategy mentions that it plans to launch the world's first C-class hydrogen fuel cell SUV in 2021, landing the world's first 100 49-ton hydrogen energy heavy trucks; in 2022, parallel hydrogen fuel cells a variety of cleaning application project groups. SAIC Motor plans to launch at least 10 fuel cell vehicle products by 2025, and form a production and sales scale of 10,000 fuel cell vehicles, with a market share of more than 10%. In addition, among multinational companies, Hyundai Motor Group is developing a tractor based on the hydrogen fuel cell heavy-duty truck XCIENT FUEL CELL, which is scheduled to be released in 2023. The BMW Group will also produce the BMW iX5 Hydrogen hydrogen fuel cell vehicle on a small scale, or officially mass production in 2025.
In Liu Jihong's view, the popularization of hydrogen fuel buses will accelerate and gradually become the main choice for long-distance suburban public transportation and long-mileage intercity buses. In the future, with the further improvement of the hydrogen energy industry chain, hydrogen fuel buses will also expand to more fields with the advantages of safety, comfort and low carbon.