On March 24, Haima Motor and Toyota Motor (China) signed the Framework Agreement on Strategic Cooperation in the Field of R&D and Industrialization of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles, under which the two parties will carry out extensive strategic cooperation in the field of R&D and industrialization of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and jointly promote the rapid popularization and industrialization of hydrogen fuel cell passenger vehicles.
It is worth mentioning that this cooperation will be the first time Toyota will supply hydrogen energy power systems to Chinese passenger car manufacturers. It should be noted that Toyota did not cooperate with FAW and GAC, which had better cooperation before, but chose Haima Motor, which has not cooperated, which may be due to Haima Automobile's investment in hydrogen energy.
The reason why Toyota will find Haima is also to take advantage of this opportunity to find new market growth points in the field of fuel cell vehicles. The same is true of Haima Motor's purpose, hoping to accelerate the pace of product launch with the help of Toyota's hydrogen energy technology and dominate the new product field.
Heavy cooperation
Judging from the photos of the signing ceremony, the signing representative sent by Toyota Motor Corporation is Tatsuro Ueda, executive director of Toyota Motor Corporation, head of the China Headquarters and chairman of Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd., and the signing representative sent by Haima Motor on the other side is Jing Zhu, chairman of Haima Motor Co., Ltd.
Not only that, in addition to the two leaders, Ni Qiang, vice governor of Hainan Province, Zhang Bin, director of the Provincial Department of Commerce, Liu Liwu, director of the Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, and Deng Lisong, executive vice mayor of Haikou City, all attended the signing ceremony, that is to say, this project cooperation is not only the technical research of the two car companies in hydrogen energy, but also an industrial layout in the national strategic direction.
In a previous interview, Lu Guogang, vice chairman of Haima Motor, said that Haima Automobile began to invest in the research and development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles since 2013, and has developed the fourth generation of hydrogen fuel cell passenger vehicles that can be used for demonstration operation, the pressure of the on-board hydrogen storage tank has been increased from 35MPa to 70MPa, the power of the stack has been increased from 30kW to 100kW, a hydrogen refueling can travel 800 kilometers, and it only takes 3-5 minutes to refuel, which is almost the same as the refueling time, and it saves a lot of time compared with pure electric models.
For Toyota, hydrogen energy is one of its development routes. Tsuneji Sato, the new president of Toyota Motor since April 1, said that hydrogen energy will remain one of the company's development priorities, and Toyota's focus by the end of 2030 will be on expanding hydrogen energy infrastructure.
The two companies have one thing in common, that is, the research on pure electric vehicles is not in-depth, and both take "hydrogen energy" as the future development goal, and the cooperation between the two is a like-minded two-way rush. Tatsuro Ueda, Chairman of Toyota Motor (China) Investment Co., Ltd., said: "As a partner, we can see Haima Motor's layout in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen production, and we can feel Haima Motor's determination in innovation. ”
The cooperation between Toyota and Haima has not had much news leaking out before, which can be regarded as an emergency, but combined with the goals of the two companies, this cooperation can be regarded as a two-way rush with the same goal.
Moreover, Hainan Province is also working hard to establish a clean energy island, and this cooperation between the two sides is expected to achieve the plan of "Hainan Banning the sale of fuel vehicles on the whole island by 2030".
Niche is also the future
According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in 2022, the cumulative production and sales of domestic hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be 3,626 and 3,367 units, respectively, an increase of 105.4% and 112.8% year-on-year.
The annual sales figure of just over 3,000 vehicles has doubled, so if hydrogen energy vehicles can be produced and manufactured on a large scale, this market is also promising.
In last year's Beijing Winter Olympics, the Olympic Organizing Committee used Toyota's hydrogen energy vehicle MIRAI for low-carbon travel, to some extent, the Olympic Organizing Committee's views on hydrogen energy and pure electric travel are still different, so at that time did not hesitate to directly import Toyota's hydrogen energy models from Japan, but not very cold to domestic pure electric products.
This import seems to have stimulated domestic auto companies, just like the introduction of Tesla that year, the purpose is not simply to introduce production, but to allow independent brands to see the market clearly and work harder to build cars.
In fact, whether it is pure electric products or plug-in hybrid products and hydrogen energy products that are vigorously developed in China, they are collectively referred to as new energy vehicles, but there is also a contempt chain between each other, of course, the top of the contempt chain is actually hydrogen energy vehicles.
However, although hydrogen energy vehicles are the most promising and environmentally friendly, production, storage, transportation and other problems have always limited its development, and Haima Automobile's appetite is not large, but now the Hainan market as the focus of hydrogen energy vehicle development, and does not take the national market as the first goal, so the step-by-step slow way allows Toyota to see Haima's steady progress "steady." ”
"Hydrogen Age"
It is understood that as part of the agreement, the hydrogen passenger car 7X-H jointly created by Haima and Toyota Motor has completed engineering design and is equipped with Toyota's high-performance stack system, and is expected to complete the trial production of functional prototypes in April this year. Judging from the time when today's products are off the line, the two sides have actually had contact for a long time, but the current cooperation method is more like Haima making cars, and Toyota provides technical support.
Previously, Toyota Motor has carried out large-scale hydrogen energy product layout in Japan, and has a relatively advanced core technology of hydrogen energy battery vehicles, and also controls the supply chain of key components of hydrogen fuel cells, which will also accelerate the production and product development of Haima Motor.
Therefore, the cooperation between the two sides is favorable to the time and place, and the time represents that most products in 2023 are reducing prices to survive, giving space for the development of hydrogen energy products, and the location is located in Hainan Island, which gives a large number of promotion environments, and people coincide with the two car companies, hoping to create a "hydrogen era." ”
This cooperation with Toyota Motor can actually be seen as Haima Motor continuing to bet on hydrogen fuel cell passenger cars, and Toyota Motor can also take this opportunity to go out of the Japanese market and vigorously promote the research and development of products and technologies in Hainan Province, China.
However, how to commercialize the market on a large scale and make further breakthroughs in hydrogen energy will be a difficult point for Haima Motor and Toyota Motor to break through, and policy and financial support is also essential. In general, this market is still full of potential, but there are certain limitations and difficulties in the initial stage, and the responsibility of breakthrough has been placed on the shoulders of Haima and Toyota.