Recently, Jilin and Shaanxi provinces have announced that since September 1, the implementation of highway tolls for hydrogen vehicles are free. According to incomplete statistics, since the beginning of this year, a number of regions, including Shandong, Sichuan and Ordos City in Inner Mongolia, have introduced similar incentive measures. At the same time, local governments such as Guangzhou and Zhengzhou have also launched policies to accelerate the development of the hydrogen energy industry to promote the popularization of hydrogen vehicles.

 

In the view of the industry, the introduction of a policy of reducing and reducing highway tolls for hydrogen vehicles in many places is an important symbol of the commercialization of hydrogen vehicles. Looking forward to the future, as the focus of policy support gradually shifts from financial subsidies to market applications, the operating costs of hydrogen vehicles are expected to decrease significantly, which will strongly promote the rapid development of the hydrogen automobile industry, especially for the promotion and application of hydrogen commercial vehicles.

 

The "hydrogen" highway free policy is blooming in many places

 

In recent years, the central and local governments have intensively introduced hydrogen energy-related policies to support and guide the development of hydrogen energy and fuel cell vehicle industries from multiple dimensions such as development routes, industrial planning, and subsidy measures. Entering 2024, many regions are taking the lead in formulating and implementing highway tolls exemption policies for hydrogen vehicles to further promote innovative development in this field.

 

Specifically, in March this year, Shandong Province took the lead in waiving tolls for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles installed with ETC equipment on highways in the province, and the policy trial period is 2 years; In April, Sichuan Province issued the "Action Plan to Further Promote the Development and Promotion of the whole Hydrogen energy Industry Chain (2024-2027) (Draft for Comments)", proposing to relax the restrictions on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in urban areas across the province, and exempt highway tolls for hydrogen vehicles installed with ETC equipment; In June, Ordos City issued the Notice on the Implementation Plan of the Hydrogen Energy Vehicle Award and Subsidy Tolls, and paid the full amount of the hydrogen energy vehicle tolls; In July, Chengdu issued the Policy Declaration Guide for Promoting the Development and Promotion of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Commercial Vehicle Industry, proposing to exempt tolls for hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicles installed with ETC equipment on municipal highways (Chengwenqiong, Shuangliu Airport, Chengpeng, Chengguan and Chengbei Exit highways) in conjunction with provincial departments; In August, Jilin and Shaanxi provinces announced that since September 1, hydrogen vehicles installed with ETC equipment will be exempt from tolls on provincial highways.

 

With the continuous increase of the policy, the agglomeration effect of the hydrogen energy industry in various places is becoming increasingly significant, and the trial of the highway toll-free policy has also achieved remarkable results. In Shandong, for example, more than 500 hydrogen vehicles were whitelisted two months after the policy was implemented. Among them, the operating mileage of hydrogen energy heavy truck expressway has exceeded 90,000 kilometers, the operating efficiency has increased by 37.5%, and the hydrogen consumption has decreased by 17.2%, laying a solid foundation for the subsequent large-scale demonstration application of hydrogen energy commercial vehicles.

 

There is no denying that the point-to-point demonstration model has played a key role in the promotion and application of hydrogen commercial vehicles in the past few years. However, on the whole, the overall development pace of the industry is still slow, and it is difficult to form a large-scale economic effect. In view of this, the industry calls for relying on the existing urban agglomeration demonstration results to accelerate the construction of hydrogen high-speed corridors and realize the expansion of the demonstration network from the point to the surface to enhance the scale of the fuel cell vehicle industry. At present, China is actively preparing for the hydrogen high-speed network demonstration line plan, and local policies have also been incorporated into the hydrogen corridor demonstration development blueprint and implementation path. "In this context, if more regions can respond to the call, introduce the policy of exempting hydrogen vehicles from highway tolls, and strive for the top-level design and support at the central government level, it will effectively promote hydrogen vehicles from regional demonstration to national popularization, and accelerate the large-scale and commercial application of hydrogen vehicles." Cao Guangping, an independent researcher on new energy and intelligent connected vehicles, said.

 

 

Commercial vehicles lead the way in hydrogen energy commercialization

 

Whether from the perspective of policy orientation or market performance, hydrogen commercial vehicles have become a key breakthrough in the large-scale promotion of fuel cell vehicles. Among them, the commercialization process of hydrogen energy heavy trucks is particularly rapid, and the application scenarios continue to expand, which effectively promotes the coordinated development of the entire industrial chain such as hydrogen production, hydrogen storage, hydrogen transportation, and hydrogenation.

 

According to the data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in 2023, China's hydrogen vehicle production and sales will be about 5,600 and 5,800, respectively, an increase of 55% and 72% year-on-year. Among them, hydrogen energy heavy truck production and sales accounted for more than 50%, becoming the main model driving the growth of fuel cell vehicle production and sales.

 

In 2024, with the support of factors such as policy promotion and technological breakthroughs, the commercialization pace of hydrogen vehicles will be further accelerated, and the bidding market will be large. According to incomplete statistics, the total amount of hydrogen vehicle bidding in the first quarter of this year has exceeded the whole year of last year, and the bidding project is still dominated by hydrogen commercial vehicles, mainly used in urban public transport, short-distance logistics and other scenarios. Recently, the hydrogen energy commercial vehicle market is more frequent news, remote new energy commercial vehicles, Dongfeng LiuQi have successfully delivered hundreds of hydrogen energy heavy trucks; Xiamen Golden Dragon won orders for 9,000 hydrogen commercial vehicles, including 1,000 hydrogen heavy trucks and 8,000 hydrogen micro logistics vehicles.

 

"From the perspective of technology maturity, scenario adaptation, facilities and other multi-dimensional considerations, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have more advantages in the application of commercial vehicles, especially in the field of long-distance heavy-duty transportation." However, it cannot be ignored that the hydrogen commercial vehicle market still faces the challenge of low penetration, and the main bottleneck is the high cost." Cao Guangping said that improving economy is the key to promoting hydrogen commercial vehicles from small-scale demonstration to large-scale application. At present, the highway toll reduction policy of hydrogen vehicles is implemented in many places, aiming to reduce operating costs, stimulate the potential market demand for hydrogen commercial vehicles, and thus accelerate the improvement of its market penetration.

 

"From the analysis of operating costs alone, highway tolls account for about one-third of the total operating costs of hydrogen commercial vehicles. If this fee is waived, it will greatly optimize the operating cost structure of hydrogen commercial vehicles, and play an important role in promoting the market volume of hydrogen commercial vehicles." Hydrogen energy industry related researchers said.

 

Another set of data measured by industry research institutions is more optimistic, taking hydrogen energy heavy truck as an example, in the case of subsidies, according to the 1.1 million yuan price, 9 kg / 100 km hydrogen consumption and 30 yuan/kg hydrogen price to measure, the vehicle life cycle cost of 6.722 million yuan, significantly higher than the same specifications of fuel heavy truck 5.373 million yuan cost. If highway tolls are exempted, the life cycle cost of hydrogen heavy trucks will be reduced to 5.012 million yuan, reaching an economic level comparable to fuel heavy trucks and electric models; If other subsidies for fuel cell vehicles are further considered, the full life cycle cost of hydrogen heavy trucks is only 4.088 million yuan, showing a stronger market competitiveness than fuel heavy trucks.

 

The industry has moved to the eve of volume acceleration

 

Policy support has continued to increase, providing a good development environment for the commercialization of hydrogen commercial vehicles. In this regard, the industry generally believes that with the implementation of highway toll reduction policies in more regions, the hydrogen commercial vehicle industry will usher in a period of accelerated volume.

 

"In fact, in 2024, the field of hydrogen commercial vehicles has shown a good trend of rising quantity and quality, model iteration has accelerated, and application demonstration operations have achieved remarkable results." Looking forward to 2025, the development of the industry may usher in a new inflection point." When it comes to the future development of the hydrogen commercial vehicle industry, logistics industry expert Kong Zhen is so judged.

 

However, the development of hydrogen commercial vehicles in China still faces many challenges. First of all, at the technical level, although China's fuel cell vehicle after more than 20 years of research and development and industrialization process, automotive fuel cell technology has made major breakthroughs, but in the hydrogen fuel cell miniaturization, high density and energy efficiency, low temperature stability, cost control and life extension, there are still technical difficulties, need to be upgraded through technological innovation. Further improve the efficiency of the fuel cell system and reduce the cost of on-board hydrogen storage, so as to achieve cost reduction and efficiency increase of fuel cell vehicles.

 

Secondly, compared with fuel heavy trucks and pure electric heavy trucks, the economy of hydrogen vehicles needs to be further improved, it is urgent to speed up the cost reduction of the industrial chain, and optimize the business model to reduce the cost of purchase, operation and even the whole life cycle, and further enhance the market competitiveness, which is the key to accelerate the popularity of hydrogen heavy trucks. "For hydrogen heavy trucks, the promotion and application can not rely solely on policy drive, but also need to innovate application scenarios and build sustainable business models, which is the cornerstone of laying the market size." From the perspective of the successful path of the pure electric vehicle industry, the transformation from policy guidance to market drive is the only way for the industry to achieve rapid development and sustained growth." Cao Guangping said.

 

In addition, from the perspective of vehicle operations, the ease of hydrogenation and the stability of hydrogen supply security are key factors affecting market and user acceptance, which is highly dependent on the continuous improvement of infrastructure. Therefore, it is urgent to accelerate the construction and network layout of infrastructure such as hydrogen refueling stations, and actively develop diversified hydrogen production technologies, build a complete hydrogen production, storage and transportation industry chain system, and systematically reduce the overall cost. Through the implementation of the above measures, it will effectively promote the hydrogen commercial vehicle industry to a more mature and commercial stage.

 

China Automotive News, September 3, 2024