"New energy" vehicles are not only electric vehicles, from a general point of view, pure electric seems to be more environmentally friendly than fuel vehicles, but it is far from being called clean energy.
How advanced a civilization is depends fundamentally on its ability to access and use energy. For a long time in the past, energy technology revolved around burning fossil fuels with limited reserves. But people who have experienced several energy crises and environmental crises urgently need a new energy source that is abundant and environmentally harmless, so "hydrogen" has become the most ideal energy model.
Hydrogen energy can be obtained through electrolyzed water, and the discharge of hydrogen after combustion is only water, which can be said to be inexhaustible and harmless to the environment, which has been well known to us in junior high school chemistry classes.
Hydrogen energy is not far away
During this year's Beijing Winter Olympics, Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have been really on fire, toyota as a pioneer of hydrogen fuel cell technology, its mass production models have also been put into use in many parts of the world. Put into operation at the Winter Olympics is the second generation of the Mirai series, which also represents Toyota's latest achievements in hydrogen fuel cell technology.
However, the first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that can be legally put on the road is indeed the modern NEXO, and hydrogen energy has quietly come to us.
The modern NEXO vehicle design language is derived from the FE Fuel Cell concept car, the real car is not as sci-fi as imagined, and it is not much different from the pure electric car we usually see. The difference is that NEXO has equipped a hydrogen fuel reactor with a maximum power of 95 kilowatts inside the front cabin, which can redox hydrogen and oxygen to generate water and electricity, which can be used to drive the vehicle.
The Chinese version of nexo is equipped with a hydrogen storage tank with a capacity of 3.99 kg and a pressure of 35 MPa of liquid hydrogen. In the state of full load of hydrogen storage tanks, according to CLTC test standards, it can provide vehicles with an endurance of 596 kilometers. Modern NEXO hydrogen fuel cell vehicles take less than 5 minutes to replenish fuel, and their ease of use is infinitely close to that of fuel vehicles, which is beyond the reach of pure electric vehicles that require long-term charging.
What other brands are making hydrogen vehicles?
In fact, in addition to the Toyota Mirai and Hyundai NEXO that we are familiar with, BMW has also launched a hydrogen version of the X5 in overseas markets - iX5 Hydrogen. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have better work efficiency in alpine regions and extreme environments where the climate is not suitable for the current mainstream pure electric vehicle models.
Although hydrogen energy is good, its research and development threshold is also very high, it is difficult to make a substantial breakthrough in building cars behind closed doors, so domestic car companies such as FAW, Dongfeng, GAC, BAIC, Yihuatong and Toyota have actively cooperated, and great wall, Changan and other brands have also reported news about hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
In March this year, the National Development and Reform Commission has officially announced the "Medium and Long-term Plan for the Development of hydrogen energy industry (2021-2035)", which for the first time clarified that hydrogen energy will become an important part of China's future energy system, and determined that renewable energy hydrogen production is the main development direction.
Now, the Chinese version of the hyundai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle NEXO has officially obtained the domestic new energy vehicle license, the car will be classified as a non-pure electric new energy vehicle, giving priority to the use of the letter F as the first sign of the license. This means that Hyundai NEXO is the first hydrogen energy vehicle in China that can be legally put on the road. In addition, Hyundai Group's first overseas hydrogen fuel cell system production and sales base "HTWO Guangzhou" will be officially completed and put into production in the second half of the year.
In terms of hydrogen energy supporting facilities, photovoltaic hydrogen production has been confirmed to be feasible. Sinopec plans to establish 7,000 distributed photovoltaic power generation stations across the country and add 1,000 hydrogen refueling stations during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. At that time, the cost of hydrogen energy use will be further reduced, and after the Winter Olympics, Beijing's hydrogen energy industry will usher in rapid development and play a demonstration role in national promotion.
What do you think of this modern hydrogen fuel cell vehicle NEXO? If the supporting facilities are perfect, will you consider starting a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle? Feel free to leave your opinion in the comments section!