Recently, the stingy Li Xiang has become involved with the public for the sake of marketing, talking about the superior and inferior technical routes. In fact, whether it is a plug-in hybrid, a micro-hybrid, or a pure electric vehicle, in the new energy vehicle industry cluster, when it comes to environmental protection, no one can compare with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
At present, except for Japan, Hyundai, and Honda, there are not many "hydrogen" players in the world. On the contrary, there are a lot of them in the Chinese market. In addition to a few state-owned enterprises that concentrate their efforts on big things, private enterprises like Great Wall also have their own independent hydrogen energy research and development companies, and many local enterprises have also emerged companies owned by hydrogen energy technology leaders.
On September 13, SAIC Group officially released its first fuel cell MPV, SAIC MAXUS EUNIQ 7, and also announced the first "hydrogen strategy" in the Chinese automotive industry.
Before 2025, at least ten fuel cell vehicle products will be launched. SAIC Jet Hydrogen Technology (a high-tech enterprise that provides fuel cell products and engineering services to the industry) will reach a market value of tens of billions and establish a It has a fuel cell R&D and operation team of more than 10,000 people, forming a production and sales scale of 10,000 fuel cell vehicles, with a market share of more than 10%.
Policy ripening agent
At the press conference, some media felt that it was very sudden. Why is there so much emphasis on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles during this period?
Readers who have been paying attention to the hydrogen energy industry for a long time must be familiar with the following policy. At the end of April this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Notice on Improving Financial Subsidy Policies for the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles", which ushered in a drastic change in hydrogen fuel cell subsidies.
The financial incentives for fuel cell vehicles in the "Notice" will be narrowed and concentrated nationwide to "some qualified cities." The promulgation of this policy means that the popularization of hydrogen fuel vehicles will no longer cast a wide net, but will be "targeted". This will be able to control the inoperability of bus lines due to insufficient supporting facilities. .
After about four years, the hydrogen energy and fuel cell vehicle industry chain has been established, key core technologies have achieved breakthroughs, and a good situation of reasonable layout and coordinated development has been formed.
On September 8 this year, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology released the "Beijing Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Industry Development Plan." It is divided into two stages, three-year and five-year plans, respectively setting goals for leading enterprises in the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry chain, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and industry chain output value.
He also stated that by 2023, we will cultivate 3-5 leading enterprises in the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry chain with international influence, promote 3,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and increase the cumulative output value of the entire hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry chain. Break through 8.5 billion yuan; before 2025, cultivate 5-10 leading enterprises in the industry chain, strive to achieve more than 10,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and the cumulative output value of the entire industry chain exceed 24 billion yuan.
At this time, SAIC will certainly not miss this opportunity. You must know that SAIC has carried out nearly 20 years of research and development experience in the field of fuel cells, has made sufficient technical reserves, and actively participated in the formulation of 15 projects. National standards for fuel cells, and took the lead in realizing the commercial application of hydrogen fuel cell passenger cars and commercial vehicle products in China.
Wang Xiaoqiu, President of SAIC Motor, said: "Today, the world's automobile industry and the global energy field are experiencing "big changes unseen in a century." The rapid rise of new energy technologies is profoundly changing human production and lifestyles. , and has become an important part of the national strategy.”
Their press conference even seemed to be a bit of a “show off”.
As the first automobile company in China to carry out research and development of fuel cell technology, SAIC launched the Phoenix One fuel cell vehicle project in 2001. In the past two decades, SAIC has accumulated R&D expenses of more than 3 billion yuan and has obtained 511 patents related to the fuel cell field.
Jie Hydrogen Technology, a subsidiary of SAIC, has mastered full forward development capabilities from stack core component development, stack integration, fuel cell system integration to power system integration and vehicle integration, and has complete Independent intellectual property rights. The PROME?P390 fuel cell system it launched has approached the global level represented by Toyota and Hyundai in various technical indicators.
“Comparable to Toyota” is also the most frequently mentioned sentence in technology sharing.
The "win-win cooperation" hydrogen energy industry
So, under the stimulation of a new round of policies, SAIC Group also has the grand plan at the beginning of the article. "Ten cars, tens of billions, thousands of people, ten thousand cars", what needs to be emphasized here is the concept of ten thousand cars.
Under the previous series of grand plans, only 10,000 cars were finally implemented, which makes it sound a bit top-heavy. For now, among the single markets in the world, with the exception of Japan and Hyundai, no region has produced and sold more than 10,000 vehicles. Different from fuel vehicles, "10,000 vehicles" is equivalent to scale and market position.
Data show that the global production of hydrogen energy vehicles in 2019 was approximately 10,600 units, including 7,578 passenger cars and 3,022 commercial vehicles, mainly concentrated in China, Japan and South Korea. Among them, the domestic production of hydrogen energy vehicles was 3,022 units, including 1,340 hydrogen energy buses, an increase of 630 units compared with 2018, and 1,682 hydrogen energy trucks, an increase of 773 units compared with 2018.
I have to admit that no matter how high the development of domestic hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is, it is really impossible to advance. After so many years of development of pure electric vehicles, infrastructure construction has still not kept up. The popularity of charging piles has become the biggest obstacle to the advancement of pure electric vehicles.
Currently, there are only two viable hydrogen refueling stations in Shanghai, one in Jiading and the other in Fengxian. Because of the special nature of hydrogen refueling stations, they will not enter urban areas until the processes such as hydrogen storage and transportation are relatively safe.
Foreign media reported that an explosion occurred at a jointly owned hydrogen refueling station on the outskirts of Oslo, the capital of Norway, on June 10, 2019, local time. The accident did not cause direct casualties, but the shock wave of the explosion was so huge that the air bags of two non-fuel cell vehicles near the hydrogen refueling station were triggered and ejected, injuring two people.
Due to the paralysis of the gas filling network, Toyota Motor and Hyundai Motor announced at the same time that they would suspend the sale of hydrogen energy vehicles in Norway until the investigation of the incident is completed. Although the exact cause of the accident was finally found, there is still a lot of resistance to hydrogen energy vehicles and hydrogen refueling stations in the eyes of local consumers or residents.
User psychology also determines that the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles at this stage has considerable limitations. Its application scenarios can only tend to be simple, repeating monotonous routes in a closed environment.
For this reason, SAIC Motor has started with this, joining forces with Baowu Group, Shanghai Airport Group, Shanghai Chemical Industry Zone, and Jiading District to create China’s “Hydrogen Friends Group” and actively participate in the “Yangtze River Delta Hydrogen Corridor” ", "Yangtze River Economic Belt Hydrogen Energy Ecosystem" and other platform construction.
It is said that the automobile industry will stay together as a team, but for the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry group, they were born and grew up together. From the earliest source of battery R&D and production, to the implementation of the complete vehicle, to the application scene supporting facilities, hydrogen energy is a complete ecosystem.
In June this year, six companies with the same concept, including FAW, Dongfeng, GAC, BAIC, Beijing Huatong, and Toyota, signed a joint venture contract today to establish "Joint Fuel Cell System R&D (Beijing) Co., Ltd. company". The company's main business is to carry out research and development of commercial vehicle fuel cell systems in China that can contribute to building a clean and environmentally friendly mobility society. Toyota and SinoHytec are the main companies, and are jointly funded by each company.
The high probability is that Toyota and Yihua will provide technology, and the four automobile companies will provide money to enjoy the results. As you can see, there is no SAIC in the middle. Now, SAIC itself has jumped out and announced a huge hydrogen energy strategy. Where will it take this market? We'll see.
Text/ALTTT
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.