Is electricity still hydrogen fuel? Car field battle

China is vigorously promoting the development of all-electric vehicles, providing subsidies to buyers, forcing multinational automakers to share their technologies and opening up markets to technology companies and other companies that produce electric vehicles. In the past 10 years, Beijing has been promoting electric vehicles to become popular vehicles. It is hoped that the low entry barrier will help the relatively late local manufacturers in this field to narrow the gap with multinational counterparts. The latter has a century in traditional internal combustion engines. The lead.

Xu Heyi, chairman of BAIC Group, recently told the media that “President Xi Jinping explained very well, saying that the development of new energy vehicles is the only way for China’s auto industry to be big and strong.” Japan has different views on the future as a cultivation of the so-called “hydrogen society”. Part of the national policy is to invest heavily in fuel cells and infrastructure to use hydrogen to power homes and cars.

Toyota is particularly keen to maintain its alternative power leadership established 15 years ago with the introduction of the hybrid electric car Prius. Koei Saga, Toyota’s executive in charge of automotive power technology, said, “This is not to say that we will do nothing in electric vehicles. Technically, electric vehicles are a relatively easy technology. But it needs to be developed, and electric vehicles are not the ultimate solution. Program.” It is not only China and Japan that are developing new energy vehicles. GM is already working with Honda to develop hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. BMW is a Toyota fuel cell partner. Daimler and Hyundai are also developing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

Hydrogen fuel car prices are more close to the people?

Honda showed a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle for the "mass market" at the Tokyo Motor Show on Wednesday. The car will be available in Japan in March next year and will be available in the US and Europe. Honda executive Toshihiro Mibe told Reuters that the company believes that the price of the car, called Clarity Fuel Cell, has reached the range that "every mainstream consumers can afford." We hope that this car will become a trigger for the 'hydrogen society'. Excluding government subsidies, the retail price of Clarity is 7.66 million yen ($63970). Toyota's Mirai, a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle launched this year, has a government subsidy contract of 3 million yen ($24915) per vehicle.

Compared with Toyota's technology, Honda's main advantage is that the battery "stack" - fuel cell, motor, transmission combination size is reduced by a third compared to the 2008 model. According to Kiyoshi Shimizu, chief engineer of Clarity, this allows Honda to install the entire "heap" into the interior of the car, and also allows the interior of the car to "sufficient space to comfortably sit down five adults." But Clarity still sacrifices luggage space to accommodate the bulky hydrogen fuel tank. “We want to make hydrogen power systems an option for the entire product line,” Shimizu said.

China keeps up with Tesla

China is fully promoting the development of electric vehicles and opening up its auto industry to financial companies with strong financial resources. The move has nurtured more than six Chinese-invested electric car startups, which have received investments from Baidu, Alibaba, Xiaomi and LeTV. Some electric car startups, such as LeTV's ATIeva and Faraday Future, have opened branches in California, in part to attract talent there. Both companies plan to develop electric vehicle products that compete with Tesla Model S in the next 2-3 years. Although this seems ambitious, an industry executive said that their plans should be valued given the strong capital of startups.

Beijing subsidizes electric vehicle buyers and, through policies, encourages automakers to launch more electric vehicle products, encourages multinational automakers to do business in China, and share their technology with Chinese partners.

Located in the new wave center of Chinese electric car manufacturers is Le Yue founder Jia Yueting. He invested in ATIeva, Faraday and his own electric car business. Jia Yueting hopes to develop a high-performance electric car called "Le Supercar". He invested hundreds of millions of dollars in ATIeva and Faraday, and LeTV partnered with BAIC and British sports car manufacturer Aston Martin to help achieve his goal of introducing high-performance electric vehicles in 2017-2018. Other electric vehicle startups invested by Chinese companies also targeted Tesla. Weilai Automobile won the investment of three Internet entrepreneurs and Tencent in China. Botai was originally a digital marketing company and later turned to the development of intelligent, connected car technology.

infrastructure

Shinzo Abe’s growth strategy includes demand for fuel cell vehicle buyer subsidies and tax breaks, relaxation of restrictions on hydrogen fuel stations, and other measures to promote hydrogen energy use. The Japanese ruling party hopes to reduce the price of fuel cell electric vehicles to about 20,000 US dollars by 2025. The government plans to build 100 hydrogen fuel stations in urban areas by March next year. Mibe said, “To achieve true success in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, we need a well-developed infrastructure that allows users to easily add liquid hydrogen fuel. In this regard, Japan is the most active and fastest growing country in the world. ”

But which technology faces considerable challenges – from regulation and subsidies to infrastructure. Both technologies require a significant increase in the number of fuel stations and charging stations. Electric vehicles also need to be recognized by long-distance drivers. The attractiveness of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to the public may be limited by their cost. Mibe said, "There is still much room for improvement and development in fuel cell vehicles.