Hydrogen energy vehicles to break through, where is the opportunity?

Xing Xiaojing, Special Correspondent for the Global Times in Xiamen Pan Xiaotuo, Special correspondent for the Global Times in Japan, "Creating a win-win Situation - China-Japan Hydrogen Energy Industry Cooperation Forum" was held in Xiamen University recently, and people from all walks of life in China and Japan gathered to discuss topics such as hydrogen energy vehicles and hydrogen energy technology cooperation. The Global Times reporter learned at the scene that both China and Japan continue to invest in industrial research and development in the field of hydrogen energy to open up market applications. Hydrogen energy as a "green zero carbon" important clean renewable energy, because of its use process almost without any pollution, in recent years has attracted attention from all walks of life, is considered to be the most ideal new energy and renewable energy, is one of the future of energy. In the current new energy vehicle revolution, hydrogen energy may become another potential track in addition to electric vehicles, and Japanese industry insiders believe that Chinese and Japanese companies have great room for common development here.

At present, the proportion of hydrogen vehicles in Japan is only 0.01%

According to Japanese media reports, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry recently announced the goal of increasing the supply of hydrogen to 20 million tons by 2050, and the annual revenue of the global hydrogen market is expected to reach 2.5 trillion US dollars by then. To this end, Japan plans to invest 15 trillion yen (about $107.5 billion) in hydrogen energy projects over the next 15 years to establish a hydrogen-related supply chain.

A hydrogen refueling station in Tokyo. (Visual China)

Due to energy shortage, Japan proposed to build a "hydrogen society" as early as the 1990s, hoping to achieve overall efficient use of energy through more use of hydrogen energy. Motoki Yinxiong, chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Japan Chuang Research Company, served as deputy director of the international strategy Department of Osaka Gas Group Consulting Company, engaged in fuel cell, hydrogen production, new energy and other fields of research, in an interview with the Global Times reporter, he introduced the basic situation of hydrogen energy in Japan from the upper, middle and lower reaches of the industrial chain.

Motoki Yinxiong said that in the upstream hydrogen production link, Japan has a variety of ways to purchase hydrogen directly from overseas and domestic hydrogen production. In the middle stream hydrogen storage and transportation links, on the one hand, in order to break the limitation of transportation space and reduce the volume of hydrogen, Toyota and other companies compress hydrogen by high pressure to improve transportation capacity; On the other hand, Japan implements "self-production and self-marketing", that is, hydrogen production at the user end, avoiding the process of mass storage, transportation and release of hydrogen, and reducing costs. In the downstream application of the industrial chain, in addition to hydrogen energy vehicles, which are widely concerned by the outside world, Japan has actually applied more mature hydrogen energy technology to a number of scenarios, including residential communities.

Motoki Yino said that the Japanese government hopes to maintain a leading position in the hydrogen energy car circuit, and then transfer the technology overseas and expand its influence in overseas markets, which can benefit enterprises and be conducive to environmental protection. However, despite the mature technology and rich experience, the disadvantages of hydrogen energy vehicles in Japan are also obvious. Hampered by large infrastructure investment and traditional industrial interest groups, the industrialization of hydrogen energy technology in Japan is slow.

Marukawa Zhixiong, a professor at the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Tokyo and an expert on China's economy, recently told the Global Times that the Japanese government has long looked forward to the prospect of the hydrogen energy vehicle market and has provided subsidies, but the development of hydrogen energy vehicles is still very slow in these years. A Toyota hydrogen car called mirai costs about 7.5 million yen (about 382,000 yuan), and the Japanese government provides 1.5 million yen to buy the car subsidy, but it is still weak in the car market. Due to large investment, large area, financial constraints and other factors, Japan can not intensive construction of hydrogen refueling stations, this model is very inconvenient to use. There are currently only about 8,000 hydrogen vehicles in Japan, accounting for 0.01% of all vehicles.

Workers are filling the vehicle with hydrogen fuel. (Visual China)

Even so, Japanese car companies still want to continue to deepen the field of hydrogen energy vehicles. On June 15, Toyota said in a technical briefing that in 2026 Toyota will launch a new generation of commercial vehicle fuel cells with a 20% increase in driving distance.

"Huge market size is China's biggest advantage"

In recent years, as a "latecomer" in the field of hydrogen energy application, China has continued to explore, so that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have ushered in rapid development, and are expected to become a "dark horse" in the field in 2023. China Automobile Association data show that from January to December 2022, China's hydrogen fuel cell vehicle production and sales have completed 3,626 and 3,367, respectively, an increase of 105.4% and 112.8% year-on-year.

In Motoki's view, China's biggest advantage lies in its huge market size and the objective conditions for the application of the latest hydrogen energy technology. Before the widespread use of hydrogen energy, Japan once relied on natural gas power generation and established the corresponding infrastructure, which cannot be immediately phased out after the introduction of new technology, while China can "put in place" in supporting infrastructure. In addition, China also has the decision-making advantage of "concentrating power to do big things", which has been fully reflected in the photovoltaic, LED, liquid crystal and other industries.

"China's huge market size, inclusive and open environment, positive attitude towards innovation and investment, allowing enterprises to make bold research and development trials and errors, and promoting rapid growth of enterprises are very obvious advantages compared with countries such as the United States and Japan. It can be said that China is the best country in these aspects." Masaya Kato, director and deputy general manager of Toyota Tsusho (China) Co., LTD., said in an interview with the Global Times reporter that China has developed rapidly in the field of hydrogen energy in recent years, superposing the above advantages, including new industries including hydrogen energy vehicles will be rapidly promoted in China, which will also create more space for future cooperation between China and Japan.

Panasonic's research and development of stationary fuel cells has more than 20 years of history, Panasonic China Northeast Asia company vice president Zhao Bingdi said in an interview with the Global Times reporter, in February this year, Panasonic Wuxi battery factory to create a hydrogen fuel cell cold, hot and power triple demonstration project, pure hydrogen as energy, While fuel cells provide green electricity for some facilities of the factory, the waste heat generated by power generation is recovered and utilized, combined with the characteristics of hot summer in the southern region, and the refrigeration unit is used for cooling in summer. This is the first time in the world that Panasonic has achieved the practical application of hydrogen energy fuel cell cold, heat and electricity triple supply.

Discussions around whether China can achieve corner overtaking in hydrogen energy vehicles occur from time to time, Motoki Yinxiong believes that corner overtaking needs strong enough technical support, Japan in the field of hydrogen energy vehicles "go early" and "go far", the same track is more important to think about how to "develop strengths and avoid weaknesses", and give full play to the unique advantages of Chinese enterprises.

Cooperation is the main theme

For some time, Japan has followed the United States in strengthening restrictions on China in areas such as chips. Will it repeat the same trick in hydrogen energy? Motoki Yinxiong told the Global Times reporter that the complementary advantages between China and Japan are obvious, and the effective docking of China's market, capital and Japanese technology is conducive to the rapid industrialization of new technologies, to achieve a real "win-win", and can also contribute to improving the environment of all mankind.

"The potential for China to use hydrogen for energy transition is huge, and Panasonic is optimistic about China's development." Zhao Bingdi told the Global Times that Chinese and Japanese companies each have their own advantages, and exchanges and cooperation are the main theme of China-Japan cooperation in the future. Hydrogen energy industry is an industrial chain, hydrogen production, hydrogen storage, hydrogen transport, application and other links complement each other, in general, Chinese and Japanese enterprises are highly complementary, synergistic industry, jointly create the industrial chain is the future of the new development trend, Panasonic is optimistic about the future of the Chinese market.

In terms of market potential, domestic hydrogen commercial vehicles are mainly medium - and long-distance, medium - and heavy-duty application scenarios, which can meet the green and clean transportation needs of ports, steel, coke, cement and other industries. The second is the logistics transport scenario with high added value such as cold chain and express delivery.

"Hydrogen energy in China has a better future." Marukawa Chiao told the Global Times reporter that Chinese companies have already taken some different paths from Japanese companies, and the possibility of cooperation between China and Japan in this field is higher than competition in the future. At present, Japan mainly uses gas to produce hydrogen, so its contribution to Japan's "emission reduction" is relatively limited. China, on the other hand, can use its abundant wind and solar energy resources to produce hydrogen, so it has greater "emission reduction" significance. In this context, in order to invest in the development of hydrogen energy, many Japanese companies hope to resell hydrogen products, equipment and technology to Chinese companies to obtain research and development returns.

On June 15, Toyota said that in order to reduce the cost of hydrogen energy vehicles by expanding mass production, it will establish development and production bases in countries with markets, including China, and cooperate with powerful European and Chinese car companies in industrial standardization. On March 24, Toyota Motor signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Haima Motor to carry mature components and systems, including Toyota's second-generation Mirai reactor, on the third-generation hydrogen fuel cell vehicles of Haima Motor. In January this year, Honda and Dongfeng Motor launched Honda fuel cell system technology verification cooperation in the field of commercial vehicles.