According to data from the Association, retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles reached 532,000 units in June, up 130.8% year-on-year and 47.6% month-on-month. From January to June, domestic retail sales of new energy passenger cars were 2.248 million units, up 122.5% year-on-year. Under the "heavy pressure" of the epidemic, the new energy vehicle market can achieve such a good performance without its exogenous power, that is, the support of the general environment and people's gradual recognition of new energy vehicles; It is also inseparable from its endogenous power - the new energy vehicle market has formed a new competitive trend after the "fight", and various fields have gradually become benchmarks.
However, in the context of such a thriving Chinese automobile market, Toyota, which has previously relied on hybrid technology to "dominate" the field of fuel vehicles for many years, should smell the breath of the pure electric era, rely on its electric drive technology reserves, and replicate the explosive growth brought about by hybrid technology in China's new energy vehicle market, but the fact is that the sales list Toyota shows the Buddhist system. The reason may be that the profits of hybrid technology have not yet been exhausted, and in the field of pure electric technology, Toyota has not rushed into the market due to domestic policy support. Does this mean that Toyota is actually looking at the end of zero emissions – hydrogen energy?
Hybrid technology has put Toyota at the forefront of the traditional energy revolution
In 1997, the official launch of the Prius opened the curtain on Toyota's infinite glory in the field of hybrids, and now, 25 years later, toyota's global sales of electrified models have exceeded 20 million.
Also in 1997, Toyota applied for a patent for the core technology of the THS hybrid system, and the patent protection period was 20 years. After the protection period, Toyota did not continue to hide the secret of success.
At the end of 2018, Corun bought the core technology of Toyota THS for only 1 yuan, and Geely was the second largest shareholder of Corun; In 2020, Toyota Motor decided to provide its core hybrid technology to its joint venture partner GAC Group, and in 2021, the new GAC Trumpchi GS8 equipped with Toyota's fourth-generation THS hybrid system will be mass-produced and sold...
With a lot of technology opened up, how can Toyota find a new foundation?
The answer: hydrogen energy. Compared with pure electric vehicles, hydrogen energy is hydrogenated quickly, with a flash point of 527 °C (gasoline fuel 300 °C), and emissions of water... Overall, cleaner, safer and more convenient. Once the first success, perhaps the next two decades of new energy will still not be able to bypass Toyota.
However, at present, the trend of domestic new energy technology, if Toyota lays out hydrogen energy, it still needs to endure loneliness in the commercial market.
Toyota Hydrogen Has participated in the event and realized small-scale applications
Although mass production still requires a lot of effort, Toyota has never given up on research. According to the president of GAZOO Racing, Toyota will continue to challenge in the two fields of commercial and passenger, and is currently in the fourth stage of research and development and mass production.
On June 5, 2022, the second stop of the Japan Super Endurance Race, the Fuji 24 Hours of Endurance Race, was held at the Fuji International Circuit, and the TOYOTA GR86 equipped with the hydrogen fuel engine COROLLA and the carbon neutral fuel was successfully completed, which was also the second time that the hydrogen fuel engine COROLLA challenged the Super Endurance Race.
This event fully proved to the outside world the stability and power performance of Toyota's hydrogen energy vehicles, and also showed the outside world that its related technologies are rapidly advancing. According to Toyota's official data, in just one year from last year's Fuji 24-hour endurance race, the output power of the hydrogen fuel engine has increased by about 20%, the torque has increased by about 30%, the endurance has increased by about 20%, and the hydrogen refueling time has been reduced from the original 5 minutes to 1.5 minutes.
For the domestic market, Toyota has not yet launched a hydrogen production model. However, as the forerunner of hydrogen fuel cells, Toyota still sponsored 140 second-generation Mirai sedans and 105 Costa hydrogen engines during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which can be regarded as its hydrogen power has the ability to operate on a small scale.
In order to ensure this batch of hydrogen-powered models, Japan's JXTG Energy Group and Sinopec Group have reached a cooperation, and the two sides will jointly build hydrogen fuel refueling stations in third-party markets to enhance China's technical reserves in hydrogen energy development. Up to now, a total of 11 hydrogen plants have been put into use in and around Beijing. PetroChina and Sinopec also built more than 30 hydrogen refueling stations along the Olympic route.
Toyota for the "hydrogen" force "hydrogen" at any time to show black technology
The above has shown that toyota has made great strides in energy storage in terms of events and small-scale use. Recently, Toyota and its subsidiary Woven Planet Holdings, Inc. developed a prototype portable hydrogen cylinder that can provide hydrogen energy for a variety of scenarios. After the mass production of hydrogen energy vehicles, "hydrogenation anytime, anywhere" may no longer be a dream.
In the next step, Toyota will challenge the "use of liquid hydrogen". The current hydrogen energy vehicles still use gas hydrogen, compared with the two, liquid hydrogen energy density is higher, transportation costs are lower, the use of liquid hydrogen will greatly improve the mileage of hydrogen energy vehicles, can make hydrogen energy vehicles more advantageous after mass production.
As an advanced technology with carbon neutrality as the goal, the cost of hydrogen energy popularization is not very high, waiting for the industry to land, the technology is more mature, its cost will continue to decrease, and the realization of the "hydrogen energy society" is not out of reach. And this is not only Toyota's own war, but also requires the joint efforts of the entire industry chain.