Toyota Refueling Station Introduces to China: Japan, South Korea, and Automotive Companies Grab the Fuel Cell Car Initiative

On October 30, Toyota Motor Corporation started the demonstration experiment of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle “MIRAI FUTURE” in China. At the same time, Toyota Motor R&D Center (China) Co., Ltd.'s first hydrogen refueling station in China was also completed in Changshu. Toyota may become The first multinational car company to introduce fuel cell vehicles in China.

At the 5th China-Korea Automobile Industry Development Seminar on November 2nd, Hyundai Motor Group announced that Hyundai's new generation of hydrogen fuel cell passenger vehicles will be launched next year and will land on the Chinese market. A new generation of fuel cell buses will also be planned at Pyeongchang. Winter Olympics officially put into use.

Fuel cell vehicles, which were once considered to be far away, are no longer castles in the air, and the development of fuel cell vehicles has become an important breakthrough in the transformation and upgrading of the global automotive and energy industries.

Under the impetus of the Japanese and South Korean government and automobile giants, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have taken the lead in the world. In terms of research and development and infrastructure construction, there is a certain gap between China and Japan and South Korea.

“The technological system of the fuel cell vehicle industry in China is not perfect, and there is a gap between the core technology and the international advanced level, failing to break through the bottleneck of scientific research and industrialization technology transfer.” On November 2nd, the Dean of the School of Automotive Engineering at Tongji University and the National Intelligent New Energy Source Yu Zhuoping, director of the Automotive Collaborative Innovation Center, said in an interview with a 21st Century Business Herald reporter.

He believes that the two most important issues affecting China's fuel cell industry toward commercialization are the lack of clear industry guidance and the lack of support from large companies and industrial platforms.

Japanese and Korean companies are in a leading position

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles do not emit carbon dioxide when they are driving a car, and they have an advantage over electric vehicles in terms of hydrogenation time and cruising range. Therefore, they are considered as the ultimate solution for energy saving and emission reduction.

However, this does not mean that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will completely replace pure electric vehicles. Some experts believe that for a long period of time, these models will coexist and meet different needs.

"The relationship between fuel cell vehicles and pure power vehicles is not an antagonism, but a difference in application scenarios. They are the main directions for the development of new energy vehicles in the future. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be used on long-distance passenger trucks in the future. Make up for the mileage deficiency of electric vehicles, said Yu Zhuoping.

In addition, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can also be widely used in taxis and shared cars. Hyundai Motor Group piloted a hydrogen-fueled taxi in Paris in December 2015 and opened a shared-car business in Munich in June last year.

Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai took the lead in realizing the power. Toyota's Mirai, Honda clarify, and Hyundai Tucson FCEV are among the models for mass-market fuel cell passenger cars. Moreover, these three car companies also released hydrogen fuel cell vehicle related strategies and product plans.

“There is no response to the changes in the Chinese electric vehicle market. This is a very big strategic mistake in Hyundai Motor,” said Li Kexiang, chief representative of Hyundai Motor Group's Environmental Technology Center.

Compared with Toyota, Hyundai Motor's development of hydrogen fuel cells is somewhat passive. Li Kexiang bluntly stated that Toyota’s increasing influence on fuel cells prompted Hyundai to decide to increase its publicity on relevant senior technologies and hope to prove the technical strength of modern fuel cells.

It is worth mentioning that Toyota’s attempt to promote hydrogen storage and hydrogen production provides a possible path for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to promote the entire industrial chain from hydrogen production, hydrogen storage, and hydrogenation.

Taking Toyota's HamaWing wind power station as an example, it uses wind energy to generate electricity, then uses electrolysis water to make hydrogen, and it uses hydrogen storage to fill hydrogen refueling stations and finally completes hydrogenation. Although Hama Wing’s staff interviewed 21st Century Business Herald’s reporters, the power generation rate of HamaWing is actually only 12%, which is actually very high from an efficiency point of view. However, Toyota hopes to enhance urban wind power systems through empirical experiments. Energy efficiency.

The mainstream car companies invested too little

According to the "China Blueprint for Hydrogen Energy Infrastructure Development (2016)", by 2020, the number of hydrogen refueling stations in China will reach 100 and fuel cell vehicles will reach 10,000; by 2030, the output value of the hydrogen energy industry will exceed 100 billion. Yuan, the number of hydrogen refueling stations reached 1,000, and the number of fuel cell vehicles reached 2 million. By then, China is expected to become the world's largest market for fuel cell vehicles.

The introduction of dual-integration policy and subsidy retreat has also driven Chinese auto makers' investment in fuel cell vehicle R&D. At the 2017 China Automotive Industry Development (TEDA) International Forum held on September 9 this year, the Deputy Director of the Department of High-Technology Development and Industrial Culture of the Ministry of Science and Technology continued to publicly announce that in the future development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, China will Strengthen innovation coordination, deepen international cooperation, and speed up the process of industrialization.

However, hydrogen fuel cells are still facing many difficulties from the laboratory to commercialization. "The two most pressing issues facing the commercialization of fuel cells are the government's industry orientation and the company's development efforts. Now that mainstream car companies have invested too little, the government should clarify the status of hydrogen energy as soon as possible," Yu Zhuoping said.

In fact, some local governments have introduced relevant policies to promote the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. In September this year, the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information, and the Shanghai Municipal Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the "Shanghai Fuel Cell Vehicle Development Plan", which will develop fuel cell vehicles as the leading project for the transformation and upgrading of the Shanghai automobile industry. , To establish a leading domestic and world-class fuel cell vehicle technology chain and industrial chain, and build Shanghai into a world-class fuel cell vehicle innovation center and industrial highland.

By 2020, Shanghai will build industrial clusters that include key components, electric stacks, system integration, test and certification services, and vehicle development, and gather more than 100 fuel cell vehicle related companies. At the demonstration operation and promotion level, the construction of 5-10 hydrogen refueling stations and 2 demonstration zones for passenger vehicles will be completed, and the scale of operation will reach 3,000. The pilot fuel cell bus and logistics vehicles will be actively promoted.

China's difficulties in building hydrogen refuelling stations are still difficult to overcome. “In big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, due to the requirements of site selection and safety, approvals are very difficult. Other cities also need special approvals. There are still many difficulties in the construction of hydrogen refueling stations. Of course, this is all over the world. General issues," said Wang Ju, director of the Technical Department of the China Automotive Engineering Society.

In November last year, China's hydrogen energy auto industry alliance was officially established. The establishment of this alliance will accelerate the introduction, development and application of foreign advanced hydrogen energy fuel cell technology, significantly reduce the cost of hydrogen energy fuel cells; at the same time, it will continue to integrate the entire hydrogen energy upstream and downstream industrial chain and coordinate major cities. Or regions to promote the large-scale commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in China.

Consumer psychology will also affect the commercialization of fuel cell vehicles, and consumers’ concerns about the safety of hydrogen fuel will be difficult to change in the short term. "Although the safety of hydrogen fuel cells has been proven to be guaranteed, there are still concerns in the minds of Chinese consumers," said Xu Changming, deputy director of the National Information Center.