Recently, at the ninth station of the World Rally Championship (WRC) held in Belgium, Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio Toyoda personally drove his hydrogen internal combustion engine car on the road. According to him, this is to "let Europe see. Hydrogen could also be one of the options for future decarbonization."
At this stage, hydrogen energy vehicles are divided into two types, one is a hydrogen internal combustion engine vehicle, which uses an internal combustion engine to burn hydrogen to generate power to drive the vehicle, and the other is a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, which is generated by the electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen in the air. Electricity, and use this electricity as the power to drive the engine. In addition to Toyota Motor Corporation, many world-renowned car companies are accelerating the deployment of hydrogen energy vehicles, especially favoring hydrogen fuel cell vehicles with wider application fields and higher efficiency.
According to overseas media reports, BMW will start the trial production of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles at the end of 2022, and continue to promote the construction of the hydrogen refueling network. It plans to start mass production and public sales of related models after 2025. BMW and Toyota have also stepped up cooperation in the field of hydrogen fuel cells. As one of the earliest car companies in the world to develop hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, Hyundai Motor Group established a fuel cell development department as early as 1998. Early last year, Hyundai established its first overseas hydrogen fuel cell production and sales base in Guangzhou, which is expected to be officially completed and put into production by the end of this year. Hyundai's hydrogen fuel cell vehicle NEXO China version has also recently entered the catalog of vehicles exempted from purchase tax in China.
The development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is one of the important strategic goals of my country and the United States, Europe, Japan and other countries and regions under the global trend of reducing carbon emissions. Hydrogen fuel cells have higher energy density, lighter weight, longer cruising range and shorter hydrogenation time. However, at present, hydrogen production, hydrogen storage, hydrogen transportation and other aspects are facing the problem of high cost, and when hydrogen refueling stations are not yet popularized, the promotion and application of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is still mainly concentrated on the commercial vehicle level. The progress in the automotive field is relatively slow, and many companies have chosen a two-line energy strategy of "hydrogen + electricity". It is believed that with the acceleration of the construction of hydrogen refueling stations and the reduction of supporting supply chain costs, hydrogen fuel cell passenger vehicles will usher in new development opportunities.