Key components of hydrogen fuel cells rely on imports: localization will reduce costs by up to 80 %

On the morning of May 11, Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council, accompanied by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan, visited the Toyota Motor Company parts factory in Tomakomachi, Hokkaido, according to the Xinhua news agency. One of the projects visited by Prime minister Li Keqiang is Toyota's hydrogen fuel cell car "MIRAI".

According to statistics, since the commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in 2013 to the end of 2017, a total of 6,475 hydrogen fuel cell passenger vehicles have been sold worldwide, of which Toyota's sales accounted for more than 75 %.

Toyota in the hydrogen fuel cell passenger car, China's hydrogen fuel cell car is the first to land in the field of commercial vehicles. Last year, Dongfeng, Fukuda, Yutong and other eight car companies produced a total of 1,272 hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles.

However, for a long time, the core technology of key components of hydrogen fuel cells has been controlled and monopolized by a few developed countries, and China mainly relies on imports.

"Most of the catalyst for these 1,272 vehicles is imported, and the membrane electrodes are almost all imported. The development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles must not be technically hollow, and the industry must be done. Imports lead to high costs, but the cost of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can not be scaled up without a reduction. On May 11, Wangcheng, director of the hydrogen fuel cell laboratory at Tsinghua University, said in an interview with the 21st Century Economic Report reporter.

Significant cost reduction for domestic components

On May 10, the "2018 China International Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Station Equipment Exhibition" was opened at the Beijing China International Exhibition Center(new museum) and more than 500 companies from more than 30 countries and regions participated in the exhibition. The main exhibitors are upstream companies of hydrogen fuel cells, including parts and components such as hydrogen bottles, reactors, membrane electrodes, and bipolar plates.

With the promotion and support of relevant national policies, China has initially formed an industrial chain in various key materials areas of hydrogen fuel cells, but the technological maturity gap is large.

"At present, most of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles loaded in China use foreign power reactors and technologies, and their proportion is estimated to reach more than 70 %. On May 11, Xiejinshui, chief engineer of Wuhan Himalaya Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., told the 21st Century Economic Report reporter.

Therefore, only by encouraging the complete localization of fuel cell components, reducing dependence on imports, further reducing the cost of fuel cell engines, and making fuel cell vehicles reach or close to the cost of fuel vehicles, can hydrogen fuel cell vehicles be popularized and people-friendly.

In 2015, the Institute of Nuclear Energy and New Energy Technology of Tsinghua University and Wuhan Himalaya Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. established the Fuel Cell Engineering Technology Center to jointly develop hydrogen fuel cell technology. Over the past two years, the Technology Center has conquered the production technology of fuel cell catalysts, as well as the research and development of key materials such as membrane electrodes and bipolar plates, and has achieved the localization of key materials and parts of hydrogen fuel cells.

It is reported that China's only independent core intellectual property rights of hydrogen fuel vehicles in Hubei xianning successful trial run, the car by China plant group, Himalaya, Tsinghua University jointly developed.

"The localization of key materials and components has reduced the cost by 50 % to 80 % compared to imports of similar products, and the quality and performance of some components are already comparable to foreign countries. It not only breaks the blockade of core technology, but also lays the foundation for accelerating the development of hydrogen energy industry in China. "Wangcheng said.

He believes that a significant reduction in the cost of hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles, will effectively increase production capacity and research and development efficiency, improve the enthusiasm of companies.

Commercialization faces many challenges

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are considered to be the most difficult to commercialize in the mainstream of the three technologies of new energy vehicles such as plug-in hybrid cars, pure electric vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles.

In October 2016, the "Energy Conservation and New Energy Vehicle Technology Route Map" released by the China Automobile Engineering Annual Conference proposed that by 2020, 1,000 fuel cell vehicles will be produced and demonstrated; By 2025, supporting infrastructure such as hydrogen production and hydrogenation will be basically improved, and fuel cell vehicles will be operated on a small scale in the region. By 2030, fuel cars will be sold on a scale of millions.

The high price of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, the construction of hydrogen station and other infrastructure, the storage and transportation of hydrogen, etc., restrict the commercialization and market popularity of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

"The problem of fuel cell facilities and costs makes it difficult for the average individual user to use because there is no place to hydrogen. Therefore, the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles requires technological advances and infrastructure to be able to keep up with each other. On May 12, Zhu Jun, deputy director of the SAIC Group Technology Center, said.

Therefore, in the short and medium term, fuel cells are more suitable for commercial vehicles in certain situations, such as logistics vehicles, commuter vehicles, and official vehicles.

At present, there are only a dozen hydrogen refueling stations in operation in China, mainly in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong. Moreover, the investment and construction costs of the hydrogen station are extremely high, and a medium-sized hydrogen station needs to invest at least tens of millions of yuan.

This requires important government support for the construction of hydrogen refueling stations, for which local governments have introduced a series of subsidies. On April 12, this year, Foshan City, Guangdong Province, issued the "Interim Measures for Promoting the Construction and Operation of Hydrogen Pumping Stations in Nanhai District of Foshan City and Supporting the Operation of Hydrogen Energy Vehicles", which will provide "great support" for the construction and operation of hydrogen storage stations. Among them, the maximum subsidy for the construction of new fixed hydrogen refueling stations is 8 million yuan, which is the largest subsidy in the support policy for hydrogen refueling stations publicly implemented in various regions of China.

In addition, the purchase of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles also enjoys financial subsidies. Moreover, according to the National new energy vehicle purchase subsidy policy, the subsidy for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will not go downhill until 2020. During the Guangzhou Motor Show last year, SAIC Chase launched the FCV80, a fuel cell wide-body light passenger car, with an official guide price of 1.3 million yuan, but after the state subsidy of 500,000 yuan and local subsidy of 500,000 yuan, the terminal price was only 300,000 yuan.

High subsidies are becoming an important driver of the commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. However, although our fuel cell vehicles have been the first to land on commercial vehicles, the promotion of passenger vehicles still takes longer. "The market for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has become clear, but mass production will take at least five years. On May 11, Peipucheng, a professor of automotive engineering at Tsinghua University, told reporters.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.