Fuel cell vehicle technology is at a turning point in commercialization

In recent years, with the support of the state and the attention of car companies, the pace of development of new energy vehicles has become faster
and faster.
The fastest growing and the largest market share is pure electric vehicles, but fuel cell vehicles, which are also branches of new energy vehicles
, have rarely moved.
According to Ouyang Minggao, leader of the overall expert group of the national 863 energy-saving and new energy vehicle major project and professor of the Department of Automotive Engineering of Tsinghua University, pure electric vehicles are a mainstream technology for zero-emission commercialization of new energy vehicles, while fuel cell technology is in the transition period from pure research and development to commercialization, and there is still a long
way to go from a research point of view.

On February 16 this year, the Ministry of Science and Technology issued the "National Key R&D Plan for New Energy Vehicles Key Special Implementation Plan (Draft for Comments
)".
This means that China's new energy vehicle technology route has taken shape
.
The plan puts forward strict requirements for pure electric technology, and by 2020, establish a sound electric vehicle power system, technology system and industrial chain, and provide technical support
for achieving 5 million new energy vehicles in 2020.
The plan has few figures for the development plan of fuel cells: "fuel cell vehicle technology has made breakthroughs, met industrialization requirements, and achieved a thousand-vehicle market scale"
.
We must first affirm that pure electric vehicles are also the mainstream technology for the zero-emission commercialization of new energy vehicles, which is a fact
that cannot be doubted.

Whether from the current market scale or the country's future development plan for new energy vehicles, pure electric vehicles have become the main promotion direction
.
However, Ouyang Minggao also pointed out that if in the long run, for gasoline engines, lithium-ion powered pure electric vehicles may be a mainstream alternative in the near or longer term, and the alternative to diesel engines may be more advantageous fuel cells
.
At present, China's hydrogen fuel cell industry is facing many challenges, in addition to technical challenges, but also facing industrial competition, policy constraints, and the impact of
the market environment.
Chen Qingtai, chairman of the China Electric Vehicle 100 Association, said that the research and development of fuel cell vehicles has taken 30, 40 or even 50 years, but the history of the flat-screen TV industry tells us that without early research and development investment, there will be no later harvest
.

It is understood that at present, Toyota, Honda, Mercedes-Benz and other companies have launched products or are about to launch products into the market, only SAIC Motor attaches more importance to fuel cell vehicle models, although the results obtained in the sub-test show that the performance gap with foreign fuel cell vehicles continues to narrow, but there is still a big gap
in cost control 。 Ouyang Minggao believes that the first thing we need to overcome is the durability technology of the fuel cell system, which cannot meet the practical requirements at present; Secondly, the infrastructure and demonstration application business model of hydrogen fuel are still very weak, and the commercialization model has not been formed; Finally, in terms of raw materials such as membrane electrodes and positive and negative electrode materials, there is still a certain distance from
the needs of low-cost and reliable practical stage.
Therefore, it is unlikely that fuel cells will achieve full commercialization at present, and local commercial breakthroughs have been the basic consensus
formed at home and abroad.

Ouyang Minggao pointed out that fuel cells and pure electric If compared with family cars, the current commercialization process is obviously not realistic, especially our pure electric vehicle technology is smaller than foreign fuel cells, which is also a fact
that cannot be ignored.
Therefore, fuel cell vehicles are mainly more demonstrations in the near future and are unlikely to be commercialized
.
The way out for fuel cell vehicles, especially in China, is commercial vehicles or
buses.
In the field of new energy vehicles, the world's first breakthrough is commercial vehicles and buses, and buses are the advantages of
China's new energy vehicles.
China's new energy bus is one of the best applications of global fuel cell technology, and it is also the most advantageous place of China's new energy independent technology, if we combine the two, we can achieve a local commercial breakthrough
in fuel cell vehicles.