As the world's largest energy consumer, how to effectively ensure national energy security and effectively guarantee national economic and social development has always been the primary issue in mainland energy development.
This year's government work report of the two sessions of the National People's Congress mentioned energy issues many times, such as "the implementation of the carbon peak action plan." Promote the energy revolution, ensure energy supply, based on resource endowments, adhere to the principle of establishing first and then breaking, and comprehensive planning, and promote low-carbon energy transformation。 At the same time, energy security is still one of the topics discussed by the delegates, many of whom suggested the development of methanol vehicles and methanol fuel to achieve sustainable energy development.
At present, only a few domestic automobile manufacturers are involved in the research and development and production of methanol vehicles. In the commercial vehicle industry, remote vehicles became the only company to launch methanol commercial vehicle products. Under the influence of national policies, carbon neutrality requirements, technological development and other factors, methanol commercial vehicles are expected to usher in a blue ocean of development.
The pace of accelerating methanol application prospects are promising
The development of green energy technologies to achieve zero carbon transformation has gradually become the consensus of the world. In China, with the strengthening of national environmental protection efforts and the proposal of the goal of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality", new energy and clean energy vehicles have begun to become a new outlet for the development of the industry, and commercial vehicles as the top priority of the automotive industry to achieve the "double carbon" goal have attracted much attention.
It is not difficult to see from the production and sales of commercial vehicles in 2021 that although the overall sales volume of the market has declined, the production and sales of new energy commercial vehicles have been booming, and the annual sales volume has reached 197,000 units, an increase of 51.4% year-on-year. In the new energy product structure, although pure electric vehicle products have become the mainstream models, due to the problems of battery energy density not being revolutionarily improved, battery recycling, etc., as well as the energy strategy of the mainland's diversified layout, fuel energy diversification is still the focus of future development, and methanol fuel has also been put on the stage. As a cheap and clean fuel, methanol is widely used, not only high octane number, strong power, its raw material source is sufficient and easy to obtain, is the safest, most efficient and clean alternative fuel.
Remote methanol heavy truck
Wei Anli, secretary general of the Expert Steering Committee for the Promotion and Application of Methanol Vehicles of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, once said that methanol vehicles have four major advantages for China, such as ensuring national energy security, reducing the dependence of crude oil on foreign countries, being environmentally friendly, and maximizing the use of existing resources.
Not only are industry experts optimistic about methanol vehicles, but the state has also continuously introduced policies to actively promote them. In 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other eight ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Application of Methanol Vehicles in Some Regions", which pointed out that the application of methanol vehicles can be encouraged according to local conditions. In 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for Industrial Green Development", which officially included methanol vehicles in green products and proposed to promote the promotion of alternative fuel vehicles such as methanol vehicles.
At present, methanol vehicles have been carried out pilot operations in key provinces such as Shanxi, Guizhou and Shaanxi, which have comprehensively verified the environmental protection, applicability and reliability of methanol fuel and methanol vehicle applications, and it can be said that in the mainland, the prerequisites for methanol fuel in the field of commercial vehicles have matured.
The forward-looking layout leads the new track of the industry
Methanol vehicles have always been the focus of Geely's attention. In fact, Geely has also made huge investment in methanol vehicles, and is also the first enterprise in China to carry out methanol independent research and development and obtain the national methanol vehicle production qualification. Starting from energy security, green and low carbon, Geely has been deeply engaged in methanol fuel vehicles for 17 years and developed methanol fuel models including passenger cars and commercial vehicles. In the methanol vehicle pilot project of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the investment in methanol vehicles accounted for nearly 90% of the total number of pilots.
Relying on Geely's methanol technology accumulation, Geely's new energy commercial vehicle brand Remote Vehicle released the world's first remote M100 methanol heavy truck in 2019, which is the only brand that has launched methanol commercial vehicles.
As the first commercial vehicle brand in China to complete the multi-energy layout and the new energy of all products, after eight years of development, long-range vehicles take R&D as the guide and adhere to the technical route of multi-energy, and gradually form two core technical routes of "urban commercial vehicle system with pure electricity and extender electric driving force system as the core, and highway commercial vehicle system with liquid hydrogen energy methanol power and electric driving force as the core".
At present, long-range vehicles have launched a total of 7 methanol commercial vehicles and 4 methanol engines, and have applied for 80 patents. Among them, methanol heavy trucks are put into use in Xinjiang, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Gansu and other provinces and cities, and have been verified by the market.
Remote cars stand up to market validation
At the same time, long-range vehicles are also constantly expanding the ecosystem of methanol commercial vehicles. In November 2021, long-distance vehicles and China Railway Intermodal reached a strategic cooperation, the two sides will cooperate in the field of methanol new energy supply, and jointly develop and promote multi-trailer container new energy smart heavy trucks powered by methanol, methanol extended range and pure electric drive. At present, the two sides have jointly released the first methanol double-trailer train in China. On December 23, 2021, we joined hands with GCL Group again to jointly carry out comprehensive and in-depth cooperation in the fields of mobile energy market expansion, power exchange heavy trucks, methanol vehicles, carbon capture, and liquid sunlight.
It is reported that in terms of new energy, long-distance vehicles will continue to develop methanol liquid hydrogen power and electric drive systems, expand a variety of power forms, and improve power efficiency.
Multi-party efforts to promote the industry to blossom
Compared with the fast-growing new energy commercial vehicles, the market promotion speed of methanol commercial vehicles is significantly slower. The promotion of methanol vehicles, including commercial vehicles, is a systematic project, which requires the participation of many parties, and should adhere to the market-oriented, enterprise-oriented, industrial development as the goal, and adhere to the development of local conditions.
He Guangyuan, head of the methanol vehicle pilot work expert group of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and former minister of machinery industry, once pointed out that the current national rules and regulations restricting the development process of methanol vehicles should be accelerated, and many of the constraints caused by interdepartmental coordination problems need to be solved.
Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group, suggested that the application of methanol vehicles be fully promoted in the mainland, methanol vehicles should be included in the development system and management of new energy vehicles, and methanol vehicles should be given the same policy support as new energy vehicles, so as to drive more enterprises to invest in the research and development of methanol vehicles and accelerate the realization of carbon neutrality in the transportation field.
Cab for long-range methanol heavy-duty trucks
Industry commentators say the development of methanol alternative fuels is both an energy issue and an economic issue. In recent years, the policy orientation has revealed a positive signal, especially in the context of "double carbon", methanol commercial vehicles ushered in new development opportunities, and will continue to drive the accelerated maturity of the upstream and downstream industrial chains.
It is foreseeable that with the promotion of market demand and policies, methanol commercial vehicles will accelerate into a new stage of commercialization and industrialization development, providing a new important path for exploring diversified energy development, protecting national energy security, and broadening the space for industrial and economic growth.