Toyota hydrogen fuel passenger car development status Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle caused widespread domestic concern

The advantages of zero emissions from hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, long mileage, and short fuel refueling time have prompted many listed companies to lay out this area. On May 11, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles once again attracted widespread attention in China. Since 1992, Toyota has begun research and development of hydrogen fuel cells. Toyota executives have always considered hydrogen fuel vehicles as the ultimate environmental protection vehicles. In the hot days of the electric vehicle industry, they still attach great importance to the R&D investment of hydrogen fuel vehicles. On December 15, 2014, Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. released the hydrogen fuel cell car Mirai in Japan. Mirai is also the world's first fuel cell car to be put into mass production.

Toyota Mirai accounts for 90 % of global fuel cell car sales

As of December 2017, Toyota Mirai sold a total of 5,300 vehicles worldwide, including 2,900 in the United States, 2,100 in Japan, and 200 in Europe, accounting for more than 90 % of global fuel cell passenger vehicle sales. In 2017, Toyota Mirai's US market share accounted for 70 % of its global sales. In January 2018, Mirai's car sales in California exceeded 3,000 vehicles. This was mainly due to the active new energy policy of the California government. Its government has invested 48 million US dollars in California's hydrogen station. Funds support. It is reported that there are currently 31 retail hydrogenation stations in California, and 12 other hydrogenation stations in the state are about to open in 2018.

Reduction in cost of fuel cells in the Toyota deep-tillage fuel cell sector

The core of fuel cell vehicles is the fuel cell power system. As of 2017, Toyota Motor has applied for 15,867 fuel cell-related patents in 21 countries and regions and 2 international intellectual property organizations. The number of patents in the fuel cell and its manufacturing sector accounts for 61 % of the total number of patents, which can be seen as the focus of Toyota's technology research. The Toyota fuel cell power system mainly includes high-pressure hydrogen storage tanks, drive batteries, fuel cell reactors, booster converters, and energy control units.

For the proton exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC) used in fuel cells, the price has remained high due to the use of expensive platinum group metals as catalysts. It can be said that catalysts are one of the decisive factors in the price of fuel cells. According to the production capacity of 1,000 systems per year, the cost of catalysts will account for 21 % of the total cost of fuel cell reactors, and the annual system production capacity will reach 500,000, and the cost ratio will rise to 45 %. As a result of the use of cobalt and platinum alloy materials as catalytic devices, Mirai's platinum usage has been reduced to dozens of grams, which is only about one-third of the 2008 model.

Mirai's fuel cell has a maximum output of 114 kW and consists of 370 batteries. It is the world's first commercial fuel cell vehicle, using the world's first compact three-dimensional lattice structure. Compared to Toyota's fuel cell system introduced in 2008, Mirai's fuel cell system costs are reduced by 95%. The current price is about $57,500, and the cost of the entire car is $504/kW. As the output expands, the production cost of its fuel cell stack will be further reduced. According to Argonne's laboratory forecast, the fuel cell stack cost will approach 50-63 US dollars / kW when the annual production capacity reaches 500k.

In addition, the construction of hydrogen stations is also one of the main factors that restrict the development of hydrogen fuel vehicles. Since large-scale production has not been achieved, the construction and operating costs of hydrogen stations are still much higher than those of traditional gas stations. The investment cost of the hydrogen station is US$ 1.5-2.5 million. The construction cost is mainly composed of core equipment procurement costs, equipment installation costs, and civil engineering costs. Due to the relatively fixed equipment installation and civil engineering costs, the equipment procurement costs account for 70 % of the construction investment.

The current cost of Japanese hydrogen stations is about 2.4 million U.S. dollars, and the Japanese government provides 50 % of the installation costs for companies. In order to promote the popularization of fuel cells, 11 companies in Japan, including Toyota, Nissan, and Honda, announced on March 5, 2018 that they would jointly create a H2Mobility (JHyM) responsible for the construction and operation of fuel cell hydrogen stations to promote fuel cell vehicles. Popularization. The first phase of the project plans to complete the construction of about 80 hydrogen refueling stations by the 2021 fiscal year. The 11 founding companies joined forces to create the world's first hydrogen fuel framework, not only for infrastructure developers and car manufacturers, but also for investors who will contribute financially to expanding the layout of hydrogen stations in the future.

According to the "Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050" goal announced by Toyota Motor on October 14, 2015, it is proposed to achieve "zero" sales of engine-only cars by 2050. The plan aims to increase the ratio of hybrid vehicles (HV) to fuel cell vehicles (FCV) and to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of new vehicles by 90 per cent compared to 2010. The above analysis found that Toyota's investment in fuel cell technology and the layout of the hydrogen station market are constantly fulfilling this goal and increasing the market share of fuel cell vehicles. It is expected that by 2020, the annual production of Mirai will be around 30,000 units. According to the National fuel cell vehicle development plan, the total number of hydrogen fuel vehicles in major countries will exceed 470,000 by 2020.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.