Every once in a while, domestic methanol cars have become the focus of attention, and recently methanol cars have caught fire again.
So, does this mean that methanol cars have ushered in the wind? In fact, methanol vehicles are not a new thing, it has been developing in the mainland automobile manufacturing industry for more than 40 years. So why is the enthusiasm of most car companies for methanol vehicles at present not high, and what is the development status of methanol vehicles at this stage? It's worth exploring.
"Methanol" with a huge advantage
As the name suggests, a methanol car is a car that uses methanol as an energy source, which converts the chemical energy generated by the methanol reaction into mechanical energy to propel the vehicle. Although the popularity of methanol and the popularity of technology application are very low, it has its own advantages, which has the characteristics of clean emissions, convenient storage and use, rich resources and wide range of uses.
Let's talk specifically about its advantages. First of all, green environmental protection. Compared to fossil fuels, methanol is too clean. Methanol emits carbon dioxide and water after combustion, and methanol vehicles are about 21% more energy efficient and about 26% less carbon dioxide emissions than gasoline vehicles. From the perspective of environmental protection, it is simply a reduction in dimensionality to hit fossil fuels.
Second, raw materials are readily available. Methanol as a renewable energy source is extensive, methanol manufacturing process has a variety of, the most common are low-carbon methanol, electric methanol, biomass methanol these three. Among them, the most valuable low-carbon methanol is said, because the mainland energy structure is mainly based on coal, of which high-sulfur and high-ash inferior coal account for more than 40% of coal resources, these coals are not suitable for making fuel, but it is a good choice for the production of methanol. The use of high-sulfur and inferior coal to produce methanol can not only maximize the rational use of resources, but also reduce air pollution, and at the same time have very important practical significance for achieving energy structure diversification and ensuring energy security.
In addition to comparing fuel vehicles, methanol vehicles also have unique advantages over other new energy vehicles. Compared with the hot pure electric vehicles at this stage, methanol vehicles have high energy efficiency (it takes only three minutes to fill a tank of oil), and the endurance is not affected by the weather; compared with hydrogen fuel vehicles, the extraction and production of methanol vehicle raw materials are not too high requirements, and both the cost and promotion difficulty will be lower.
Methanol cars face the double heaven of ice and fire
It sounds like methanol cars have all kinds of advantages, but why haven't they been fully promoted? In fact, the promotion of methanol vehicles at this stage is not small, but the current methanol vehicles are facing the embarrassment of "applauding but not calling".
First of all, methanol vehicles still have technical constraints. At present, there are problems such as low product maturity, complex system, long start-up time, and small system power that need to be broken. According to the feedback of methanol car users, the experience effect of methanol cars is not good, due to the shortcomings of methanol corrosive and poor low temperature startability, users reflect the need to replace the injector often. In addition, because the calorific value of methanol is much lower than that of gasoline, the overall endurance needs to be improved. Of course, this is a matter of early user feedback, and now the technology of methanol vehicles is constantly improving.
Secondly, the geographical relevance of methanol fuel is too strong, making it difficult for methanol vehicles to be replicable in other markets across the country. The preparation of methanol is mainly in areas with better coal resource conditions, which is a practical problem for the convenience of use of methanol vehicles, the transportation and safety of methanol. At present, many areas in China have not yet fully popularized methanol filling stations, which is one of the reasons why methanol vehicles cannot be promoted on a large scale, and now related companies are constantly seeking breakthroughs and landing solutions.
The lack of explicit support from the policy is also the reason for the lagging development, although methanol vehicles were supported by the relevant ministries and commissions of the state a decade ago. From 2012 to 2022, the relevant departments in the mainland not only issued various documents to support the development of methanol vehicles, but also led the organization of large-scale methanol vehicle pilot operation projects. However, compared with the support policy for pure electric vehicles, the policy support for methanol vehicles is still insufficient. Fortunately, in recent years, the national policy has become more inclined to methanol vehicles, and industry insiders have also paid great attention to it, and methanol vehicles are expected to enter the fast lane of development.
Will Geely become the "catfish" that activates methanol cars?
Although the national policy began to tilt towards methanol vehicles, it still needed a "catfish" to drive the development of the market, and this "catfish" was none other than the Geely Group. As the player who attaches the most importance to methanol fuel in China, Geely Group began to develop methanol alternative fuels as early as 2005, successfully developed the first generation of Geely methanol vehicles in 2006, and became the first methanol automobile manufacturing enterprise to receive the methanol automotive product announcement of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2012.
Up to now, Geely Group has invested more than 3 billion yuan in the methanol automobile industry, has more than 200 core technology patents for methanol vehicles, and has methanol fuel models in passenger cars and commercial vehicles. One of the most interesting is geely's recent launch of the Emgrand methanol hybrid version, the new car uses Geely's latest methanol hybrid system, by a 1.8L alcohol electric hybrid engine and 3-speed hybrid electric drive DHT PRO transmission composed of powertrain, pollutant emissions less than 5% of gasoline vehicles, 100 km alcohol consumption as low as 9.2L (equivalent to fuel vehicles 100 km 3L, methanol 1L price of about 3 yuan), quite competitive.
In addition to continuous investment in technology and marketing, Geely Group has also made efforts in various aspects. Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding Group, also put forward proposals and suggestions on methanol vehicles during the two sessions many times, and made suggestions and suggestions for the development of methanol in mainland China. With the "catfish" of Geely Group, if more other car companies can enter the methanol automobile industry in the future, it will help accelerate the cluster development of the methanol automobile industry in mainland China. Coupled with the support of national policies and the improvement of consumer awareness, it is believed that the spring of methanol vehicles will be getting closer and closer.
Looking back throughout the text, the superiority of methanol cars is clear at a glance. If methanol cars really solve the pain points of excessive oil prices, but also let consumers have one more choice, and can reduce carbon emissions, I believe there will be many people willing to choose. However, "applause is not a seat" is the current dilemma faced by methanol vehicles, subject to many reasons, methanol vehicles want to large-scale promotion and landing still faces many obstacles. In any case, we still have reason to believe that the future prospects of methanol vehicles are still good.