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Fuel cell electric cars could be China's next big product – and the Shanghai Auto Show gave clues to a Chinese company that could become a symbol of the industry.
Grove Hydrogen Automotive, a fuel cell vehicle start-up that debuted in 2015 as a research institute project (link in Chinese), debuted at the Shanghai Motor Show with prototypes of three passenger cars. Fuel cell: a coupe and two SUVs. Just before the show, he announced his intention to provide 200 units of a fourth fuel cell model for rent in Chongqing City (southwest) and Wuhan City (headquarters). here at the end of 2019 (link in Chinese).
Starting in 2020, the company plans to share 10,000 fuel cell vehicles on the roads.
Ten years ago, government support, including subsidies to buyers and manufacturers, eventually created some of the world's largest players in the battery industry in China, including BYD, a private manufacturer of mobile phone batteries. which is now the world's largest seller of electric vehicles (paywall). . Similar growth could be in the future for this brand new startup, which was registered only as a company last year, while China says it wants to accelerate the development of the battery-powered car market. fuel, or FCV, in the same way as for the battery. Electric VE.
In December, Chinese electric vehicle industry architect Wan Gang wrote an editorial for the government newspaper People's Daily on the potential for wider use of VCFs, especially in public transport. The government's annual report, released in March, mentioned for the first time the development of hydrogen (video, link in Chinese). This week, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Motor Show, Wan, former Chinese Minister of Technology, again raised the idea of using FCV for carpooling and long-distance transport.
FCVs do not emit any emissions, offer longer battery life and require less refueling time, which could ease the anxiety caused by battery life using hybrid electric and battery powered batteries. . However, the challenges posed by hydrogen transport and the high cost of setting up refueling stations – compared to battery charging stations, which can be added wherever there is electricity – have created barriers for VCFs. China has only sold 2,000 FCV in 2018, according to Wan.
In comparison, 1.25 million new energy vehicles, including battery-powered electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles, were sold in 2018 in China alone. (And even those are part of the 28 million vehicles purchased by China last year.)
Hao Yiguo, president April 18, told a Chinese auto blog that the availability of refueling stations (link in Chinese) will no longer be a problem as soon as Grove cars are on the road.
The government and some state-owned companies have recently stated that they give priority to the construction of hydrogen fuel stations. Shanghai, for example, expects to have 50 hydrogen refueling stations by 2025.
Grove plans to deliver its first FCVs to individual consumers in the last quarter of next year. They will be about as expensive (link in Chinese) as the high-end Tesla Model X in China – the starting price of the SUV will be 750,000 yuan ($ 112,000), said a representative of the company.
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