What are the reasons why Japanese hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are faster?

With the gradual maturity of the new energy automobile industry, the development of electric vehicles is gradually facing the bottleneck of the battery. On a global scale, fuel cell vehicles have become the new energy source that is recognized as the most suitable alternative to traditional fuel vehicles in addition to electric vehicles.

Even compared with the battery recycling problem that electric vehicles are facing in the future, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are considered to be an important technical path to achieve “zero emissions” during the vehicle use phase, and low-emissions throughout the life cycle, and also the future automotive industry. The commanding heights of technological competition.

In recent years, every time at a large-scale auto show at home and abroad, the Japanese hydrogen fuel cell car is always indispensable. At the Beijing Auto Show and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macau International Auto Show, the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles of the Toyota booth attracted many fans' attention.

Japan comprehensively develops the strategic layout of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles!

In May of this year, Premier Li Keqiang visited the Toyota Motor Factory in Hokkaido, Japan. Toyota has demonstrated a range of self-developed high-tech products, including the fully automated electric vehicle “e-Palette concept car” and the fuel cell car Toyota Mirai.

As the world's first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, Mirai is the product of Toyota's flow control valve (fuel cell vehicle, fuel cell vehicle) program. It is clear that Japan is interested in the impact of fuel cell technology on the automotive industry and energy landscape.

On December 26, 2017, the Japanese government officially released the “Basic Strategy for Hydrogen Energy”. The main objectives include commercialization of hydrogen energy by 2030 and future reduction of hydrogen power generation costs to LNG power generation through technological innovation. The same level.

It is understood that Japanese auto companies have jointly invested in the construction of hydrogen refueling stations in Japan. Japan's three major auto giants - Nissan, Toyota, and Honda have also begun to work together to build hydrogen fuel cell vehicle infrastructure, hydrogen refueling station. Last year, 11 Japanese companies will jointly set up a new company to carry out the strategic layout of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (FCEV) hydrogen refueling station in Japan.

According to the data of the OFweek Industry Research Institute, from 2015 to 2018, the global sales of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are increasing exponentially year by year, from 253 in 2015 to 3,828 in April 2018, of which mass production is currently in progress. In the sales ranking of the model, Toyota Mirai topped the sales list, with 1,858 vehicles sold in three years. The production models are mainly Toyota Mirai, Honda Clear, and Hyundai ix35, Hyundai Nexo. These models are mainly distributed in the United States, Denmark, Japan. And Korea and so on.

From the perspective of the global car companies, it can be said that no company like Toyota, Honda is generally so obsessed with fuel cell cars. In the past, there was a wave of Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Later, Honda’s third generation clearly promoted the wave. What attracted the Japanese car companies to make them so enthusiastic about hydrogen fuel cell vehicles?

Toyota executives: fuel cell vehicles are the ultimate green car

In terms of energy structure, Japan’s resources are scarce and the power is even more so. The accident at the Fukushimaspecial power plant has caused Japan to abandonspecial power and increase its investment in thermal power. This move has led to a further expansion of demand for fossil fuels in Japan. At the same time, Japan has become increasingly dependent on energy imports. Putting your own destiny in the hands of others is obviously not what Japan wants to see. Therefore, finding a clean and efficient energy source that can be prepared locally can be the first goal of Japan.

From the perspective of environmental sustainability, Toyota Motor announced the “Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050” target on October 14, 2015, proposing “zero” sales of cars that were driven by engines only by 2050. The plan aims to increase the ratio of hybrid vehicles (high pressure) and fuel cell vehicles (flow control valves), so that the new car's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are reduced by 90% compared to 2010. Therefore, Toyota has been in new energy vehicles in recent years. In particular, a large amount of research and development funds have been invested in fuel cell vehicles. In the long run, Toyota's R&D expenditure is currently at a historically high level. It can be considered that Toyota Motor attaches great importance to scientific research and will continue to have a large number of new energy technologies and products to be launched in the future.

At present, Toyota is the car manufacturer with the highest sales volume of electric vehicles. The cumulative sales volume of electric vehicles has exceeded 10 million. The representative model Prius has launched its fourth-generation model, and the cumulative sales volume of single models is 3.846 million (February 2017). In November 2016, Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio Toyoda was directly responsible for the electric business, showing Toyota's emphasis on electric vehicles.

Despite this, due to the limitations of traditional battery technology, Toyota executives believe that fuel cell vehicles are the ultimate green car, Toyota has gradually shifted its future research and development focus from mature hybrid vehicles to fuel cell vehicles. Toyota began developing fuel cell vehicles in 1992, and in October 1996 released the first fuel cell vehicle FCEV. In the following ten years, Toyota Motor has introduced FCHV-3, FCHV-4, FCHV-5, Toyota FCHV, Toyota FCHV-adv and other models, but it is subject to expensive unit price and insufficient infrastructure. Battery cars are not mass-produced and commercialized.

What kind of car is Mirai?

Until December 15, 2014, Toyota Motor released the world's first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell vehicle Mirai in Japan. After the government subsidy, the actual price is about 520 yen (about 310,000 yuan), Mirai's hydrogen storage tank can store 5 kilograms of hydrogen, it takes only 3-5 minutes to fill up the hydrogen, and it can travel 650 kilometers after the filling. At the current level of hydrogen storage and mileage, they have reached the top level.

Due to the limitations of battery technology, the current range of pure electric vehicles is generally around 250 kilometers, and it takes several hours to charge. Since hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have the same life and fueling time as ordinary internal combustion engine vehicles, many people think that the advantages are greater than pure electric vehicles.

The fuel cell system used by Mirai (Toyota Fuel Cell System, referred to as Transportation) is independently developed by Toyota Motor and consists of six subsystems: fuel cell stack, energy storage battery, high voltage hydrogen storage tank, drive motor, computer boost converter and power. Control devise.

According to official data, Mirai has a cruising range of 502 km, a maximum output of 114 kW and a top speed of 175 km / h. The performance is similar to the current commercial car, even beyond the current part of the electric car mileage.

Mirai's fuel cell is a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell (solid polymer electrolyte FC) with a maximum output of 118 watts and consists of 370 cells. The volumetric power density and mass power density are 3.1 kW/L, 2.0 kW/ Kilogram, at the world's leading level. In addition to powering the car, Mirai's fuel cell stack can also power other equipment, and Mirai can be used as a backup generator. In order to improve efficiency, there is a nickel-hydrogen storage battery in the Mirai trunk to absorb the remaining energy output from the fuel cell stack and the energy recovered during the vehicle's driving, for the car to accelerate or use the car battery.

The safe storage of hydrogen fuel is the most important issue for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Mirai high-pressure hydrogen storage tanks that can withstand up to 70 MPa pressure. The outer casing is made of carbon fiber and Kevlar, which can resist general light weapons attacks.

However, for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, the construction of infrastructure such as hydrogen refueling stations is a difficult future development. In order to make more hydrogen fuel cell vehicles on the road, Toyota has also disclosed more than 5,000 fuel cell related patents free of charge, hoping to encourage other auto manufacturers to introduce fuel cell vehicles and reduce the construction and use costs of infrastructure such as hydrogen refueling stations.

Summary

Japan’s development in the fields of hydrogen fuel vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells is one step ahead. In fact, for Japan and other countries, the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is, on the one hand, the need for energy security, and on the other hand, the environment. The need for sustainable development.

China's research and progress in the field of fuel cell vehicles is no later than that of foreign countries. The government also attaches great importance to the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and regards it as an important direction for China's automotive power system transformation and upgrading and new energy vehicle strategy. At present, the National Energy Group is accelerating the deployment of the entire industrial chain of hydrogen energy from hydrogen production to hydrogen refueling stations, and participates in the research and development of hydrogen fuel cells. The national policy will be based on demonstration, and the region with good industrial technology in the future will naturally seize the opportunity and divide more market cakes. At a time when the charging infrastructure is difficult and the battery energy density is limited, fuel cell vehicles are also welcoming more development opportunities.

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