Hybrid: Automotive-Driven Investment Revolution

Hybrid, Hydrogen Fuel Cell builds the direction of the future of the car, and it also shows a magnificent picture of wealth.

The car goes to the era of hybrid

On February 24, 2006, the Cleveland Police Department of the United States received a special gift from the Ford Motor Company: a Mariner hybrid patrol car. This patrol car was donated to the Cleveland Police Department as a prize to reward them for their outstanding performance in promoting hybrid vehicles.

In the fall of 2005, Ford Motor Company conducted a nationwide hybrid vehicle promotion campaign in the United States. The event included a “fuel-saving challenge” attended by 38 police officers. The Cleveland Police Department was one of the winners of the fuel-efficient competition. The race uses Ford's Mercury Mariner hybrid SUV off-road vehicle. This hybrid SUV was fitted with a 2.3-liter Duratec engine and the average measured fuel consumption was 5.2 liters/100 kilometers. Correspondingly, the fuel consumption of a conventional 2.3-liter displacement SUV is usually 10 to 12 liters/100 kilometers.

Hybrid cars quickly occupy the market

The advent of the hybrid era is much faster than we think.

Due to increasingly stringent emission regulations, rising oil prices and the popularity of environmental protection concepts, hybrid vehicles have rapidly become popular in the United States and Japan. It seems that only in the twinkling of an eye, mainstream manufacturers in the market have started to offer hybrid models for best-selling products.

In the US market, competitors from Japan have taken the lead in mass production of hybrid vehicles. As early as 1997, Toyota Prius became the world's first mass-produced hybrid sedan. The Prius has less than 4 litres/100 km of fuel consumed on the city's roads.

Hybrid power uses a form of "engine + motor" drive. The electric motor and the internal combustion engine can respectively provide the power required by the vehicle under the most efficient conditions. When the vehicle power load is large, the motor is added as a supplement to the power; when the load is small, the excess power of the internal combustion engine can charge the battery, and the motor can also recover the energy when braking, downhill, and idle. In the bustling urban area, the internal combustion engine can be shut off and driven by the electric motor alone to achieve "zero emissions." The reservation of the internal combustion engine can be very convenient to solve energy-intensive air-conditioning, heating, defrosting and other problems.

GM is also actively promoting the practical application of hybrid power. At present, GM has 337 hybrid buses in 19 cities in the United States. If we could replace 13,000 buses in 9 of the largest cities with hybrid buses, we could save 182 million liters of fuel a year. GM plans to promote hybrid bus technology globally by 2010.

Hydrogen fuel cell emerges

In the power composition of a hybrid vehicle, the motor and battery are important auxiliary power. In the Ford Mercury Mariner hybrid SUV, 250 NiMH batteries were used. However, in the future, traditional nickel-metal hydride battery technology is likely to be quickly replaced by hydrogen fuel cells (FC). Hydrogen fuel cells will become the motor's source of power. This car is called a hydrogen fuel cell hybrid car (FCHV or FCV).

On April 1, 2005, a group of Chevrolet Silverado pickup trucks that were painted in matt camouflage were delivered to the US military for trial. The pickup trucks are new tactical vehicles developed by General Motors for the U.S. military. All of them are hybrid vehicles using hydrogen fuel cells and diesel engines. According to data provided by the U.S. military, it costs up to 400 U.S. dollars to transport 1 gallon of fuel to Afghanistan or Iraq. This new hydrogen-powered vehicle can greatly reduce vehicle dependence on logistical oil security and can save the military millions of dollars in transportation expenses.

On the same day, the first hydrogen fuel cell hybrid Ford Focus car arrived in Vancouver, the largest city on Canada's west coast. In the next few years, this batch of hydrogen fuel cell hybrid Fox will be tested in the real world.

Industry's new blood flow into hybrid

The four-stroke internal combustion engine used in cars today was invented by the French Auguste Otto in 1876. In the following 100 years or so, the internal combustion engine technology used in automobiles has not changed. However, this situation is likely to be broken in our time.

Technological changes often mean huge market opportunities. As new technology standards continue to emerge, the order of forces in the automotive industry is likely to reshuffle the brand due to hybrid power.

The involvement of electronics manufacturers has brought new blood to the automotive industry. The "Moore's Law" of electronic technology development has brought more room for imagination to the development of hybrid vehicles.

In the hybrid era, new technologies were mostly concentrated on fuel cells, hydrogen energy use, and motor technology, which meant that many of the original engine-based technology barriers became meaningless. Japan's Panasonic, Hitachi, Toshiba ... ... these well-known electronics manufacturers have changed, becoming a technology driver for hybrid vehicles. These Japanese companies have relied on the accumulation of technologies in batteries, motors, and other fields for many years, and have quickly become the "patent holders" of hybrid vehicle technology.

Chunlan, a household appliance manufacturer in China, has also entered the new energy automotive industry from the “Ni-MH battery” field. Chunlan invested 1.5 billion yuan to establish Chunlan Technology Research Institute. Among the 12 major scientific research projects that were launched at the same time, the NiMH battery project is an important one. On December 3, 2005, Dongfeng brand hybrid electric city bus with six commercial buses was installed on Wuhan 599 bus line of the first hybrid electric bus line in China, equipped with a power Ni-MH battery pack and its management system provided by Chunlan. Assembly. At present, Chunlan has more than 100 kinds of products with its core NiMH technology as its core technology. The "battery king" company BYD in Shenzhen also uses its advantages in battery technology to independently develop and produce the world's first lithium battery-powered hybrid car.

Unprecedented market space

With higher and higher oil prices, consumers began to switch to more fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly hybrid vehicles. This led the United States and Japan’s hybrid vehicle market to experience the first “blowout” growth.

The Prius has been flat after it was listed in Japan in 1997. In 2002, it sold less than 40,000 vehicles. In the second half of 2003, the second-generation Prius went public. Due to the great improvement in technology, the sales volume increased rapidly to 120,000 units, and in 2005 it increased to 450,000 units, nearly four times that of previous years.

In the U.S. market, hybrid sales were only 50,000 units in 2004, and sales in 2005 soared to 200,000 units, expanding the market size by four times. Analysts predict that the growth rate of hybrid vehicles in the United States in 2006 may exceed 100%. Toyota predicts that hybrid vehicles will account for 25% of the total sales of cars in the United States within 10 years.

At present, the global automobile has more than 800 million vehicles, and more than 60 million new cars are sold every year. Analysts pointed out that if 10% of cars produced globally use hybrid and hydrogen fuel cells, the development, manufacture and manufacture of electric motors, batteries, fuel cells, and intelligent control technologies will lead to the purification, storage and transportation of hydrogen fuels. As well as related services, the market size will be as high as trillions of dollars.

Choose the investment path that suits you best

Although many Chinese auto makers have already begun research on hybrid power, the development of hybrid vehicles in China is not satisfactory. In fact, during the “10th Five-Year Plan” period, the country’s investment in electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles reached 880 million yuan. Together with local and corporate funds, the total investment amounted to 2.4 billion yuan. However, these investments need to be distributed to auto enterprise groups and related scientific research institutions. On average, each research and development fund received is very limited. According to an old Dongfeng expert of science and technology, Dongfeng has engaged in electric vehicle research for 10 years, and only has a few million yuan of funds each year. For hybrid research, this money is simply a glass of water.

For automakers, transforming existing cars into hybrids is the best investment route for less investment and quick results. Toyota, Honda, Ford and General Motors do this. In 2006, Toyota Motor Corporation introduced four models of hybrid cars converted from existing models in the US market at a glance. The appearance, control, and equipment of the hybrid vehicles are exactly the same as those of ordinary cars. These include the Lexus LS600, the GS450 luxury sedan, the best-selling Camry sedan and the Highlander sport utility vehicle (SUV). Toyota’s goal is to eventually launch a hybrid version of almost all of its models, and in 2012 it will increase the production of hybrid vehicles to 1 million.

This hybrid vehicle has two major advantages. The first is that the manufacturing cost is low. This hybrid vehicle is based on existing models and shares the chassis, body and interior with existing models. It only adds motors, batteries and corresponding electrical systems inside. The manufacturing cost is much lower than that of a vehicle that requires a special mold. Second, this hybrid technology is stable and has little market risk. The technologies of nickel-metal hydride batteries and motors currently in use are relatively mature, and their quality is relatively reliable, and they are born out of models that consumers already know. Therefore, they are more easily accepted by the market.

Many research results of hybrid vehicles in China are still in the laboratory stage, and domestic companies need to consider industrialization issues as soon as possible. In response to this situation, in addition to the government’s investment, it is necessary to mobilize various funds to develop the Chinese indigenous hybrid automobile industry.

In terms of hydrogen fuel cells, there are still a number of unsatisfactory technical weaknesses that need to be resolved. Who can take the lead in completing the research and development of these technologies, who will have the initiative in the hybrid era.

To date, General Motors has invested more than $1 billion in hydrogen fuel cell projects. In a joint project between GM and the U.S. Department of Energy regarding fuel cell vehicles, General Motors also received approximately US$90 million in financial support for hydrogen and fuel cell integrated projects. The technical documents from General Motors show that the current R&D focus of hybrid and hydrogen fuel cells mainly focuses on the following four aspects:

Hydrogen storage

2. Reduce costs

3. Persistence

4. Infrastructure construction (eg hydrogen refueling station)

Of these four aspects, some can be resolved by the manufacturers themselves, while others are comprehensive issues that require joint efforts and collaboration from the government, energy companies, car companies, academic institutions, and other related parties.

General Motors China President and General Manager Gan Wenwei emphasized the importance of infrastructure construction because it is a prerequisite for the popularization of hydrogen-powered vehicles. The industrialization and marketization of hydrogen power must solve the problems of hydrogen production, hydrogen refueling stations, and hydrogen storage. Gan Wenwei said: "Strengthening the infrastructure construction to facilitate the refueling of fuel cell vehicles is a very important part of realizing the hydrogen economy." In 2003, General Motors and Shell Hydrogen Energy Company formed a partnership to develop hydrogen energy supply. The internet. In 2006, General Motors will build a hydrogen refueling station in the center of New York City. At present, the plan of General Motors and its partners in the United States is to select a conditional community, build a small hydrogen energy supply network, and finally form a complete hydrogen energy supply network.