Recently, there have been a lot of discussions about hydrogen energy. The 2019 United Nations Development Programme Hydrogen Industry Conference, the Hydrogen Age-2019 Hydrogen Energy Utilization and New Energy Vehicle Industry Technology Development Summit Forum, the Fourth International Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cell Vehicle Conference, and even Shanxi also vowed to change its role from "coal capital" to "hydrogen capital" ...

It is not difficult to see through these hot spots that the application of hydrogen energy will usher in an explosive period in the next few years, and the automotive industry will undoubtedly be the "main battlefield".

Auto companies deploy hydrogen energy Toyota leads "future"

As we all know, the government work report of this year's "two sessions" has added the expression "promoting the construction of facilities such as charging and hydrogenation." This is also the first time that hydrogen energy has been written into the government work report. Hydrogen vehicles have become the focus of the market.

In fact, the popularity of hydrogen energy vehicles is not accidental. It may be more appropriate to describe it as "not passing the name".

In August 2008, Foton Ouhui hydrogen fuel cell buses served the Beijing Olympic Games; in October 2010, Yutong demonstrated the first generation of fuel cell buses at the Hanover International Commercial Vehicle Show in Germany; in April 2014, Shanghai Roewe exhibited 950 hydrogen fuel cells In June of the same year, Dongfeng established a hydrogen energy vehicle modification and R & D production demonstration base in Panxian. In November 2017, Great Wall Motors announced the establishment of an internal R & D team for key technologies for electric vehicles and fuel cells. In May 2019, Geely released in Beijing Hydrogen fuel cell bus F12; In August 2019, Changan Automobile launched the CS75 fuel cell version at the Expo.

In the journey of deploying hydrogen energy, several global auto giants have never been absent.

FAW-Volkswagen Audi showed a hydrogen fuel cell concept car for h-tron quattro in 2016. The chairman also said that Audi will pay more attention to hydrogen fuel cells in the future and invest more funds, personnel and confidence. BMW has also announced that it will cooperate with Toyota in the field of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and plans to launch the BMW X5 hydrogen fuel cell model in the future, with mass production in 2025. During the CES Asia 2019, Mercedes-Benz GLC F-CELL was officially unveiled in China. As Mercedes-Benz's first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, its maximum cruising range reached 437 kilometers.

Of course, the companies that produce hydrogen-fueled cars are far more than that. We don't need to list them one by one, but one car company has to say that it is Toyota.

At the 2nd China International Import Expo, which opened on November 5, Toyota's booth centered on FC fuel cell technology and brought Mirai and Mirai Concept models, as well as fuel cell stacks and high-pressure hydrogen storage tanks mounted on Mirai. Developed FC truck, FC trailer, FC forklift. In addition, Toyota also introduced relevant empirical experiments in various aspects from the production, transportation, storage, and use of hydrogen, and demonstrated the important experience and achievements of Toyota in the development of the hydrogen energy industry chain.

In fact, as early as 1992, Toyota had already invested in the research and development of hydrogen energy. In 1996, Toyota launched the first fuel cell concept car, FCHV-1. In December 2014, Toyota Mirai was officially launched in Japan, and the commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles was achieved. Compared to lithium batteries, which can charge for up to several hours, hydrogen fuel only needs to fill the hydrogen storage tank in the car, which will not take more than 5 minutes. In addition, official reports that the fully-charged Toyota Mirai has a battery life of more than 500km, which has greatly eased people's concerns about electric vehicle life.

At the just-concluded Japanese auto show, Toyota released the Mirai Concept, the final model of the second-generation "Mirai", which will be launched at the end of 2020. It will mark the new stage of hydrogen fueled vehicles. Improvements in the performance of fuel cell systems and hydrogen storage capacity will increase the range of the new Mirai by 30%. In addition, the new generation Mirai has been redesigned based on the Toyota TNGA architecture, combining agility and driving performance with a sleek and elegant design.

It should be noted that "Mirai" means future in Japanese, and it includes the meaning of "for the car, the earth, and the future of future generations". So we can see that in addition to Mirai, Toyota has also widely used hydrogen fuel cell technology in various products and fields such as large buses, trucks, trailers, forklifts, and domestic hydrogen fuel cells.

In promoting hydrogen fueled vehicles, Toyota has spared no effort, and sponsoring the Olympics is definitely a clever strategy of "four or two pounds". At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Toyota plans to provide 100 hydrogen fuel cell buses to pick up and drop off tourists between venues and 500 Mirai cars to transport officials between Tokyo Olympic venues. This is undoubtedly also a training exercise for Toyota in serving the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

There is reason to believe that by sponsoring the world's most famous, largest and most influential sports event, Toyota has brought not only Mirai, but also more hydrogen-fueled vehicles into people's horizons.

氢能源基因优良 发力氢燃料汽车大有可为

所谓氢燃料汽车，就是指搭载着能让氢气和氧气进行化学反应并产生电能的燃料电池堆，依靠电动机驱动的汽车。

稍微对化学常识有了解的人都知道，氢气和氧气的化学反应只生成水，并没有其他有害物质。另一层面，氢能源除了可以直接利用工业副产氢之外，还可以通过可再生能源以及污水污泥、家畜粪便等众多途径制取。其实，“弃电”也是获取氢能源的一大渠道，由于电力过剩或输电通道限制等原因，仅2018年，我国共产生“弃电”约1023亿千瓦时，粗略计算可制氢200万吨，可供300万辆氢燃料汽车行驶1年。

目前，丰田集团的丰田通商正致力于太阳能、风力发电的水电解制氢、下水污泥的氢制造技术的研发和示范运行工作，相信更多的利好消息正在路上。

也正因为氢能源是优秀的清洁可再生能源，能够与电能实现高效的相互转换，被业界专家视为最具前景的能源之一。

当然也有人质疑氢燃料汽车的安全性问题，其实，氢燃料电池相比较锂电池更安全。以Mirai为例，它储存压缩氢气的储氢罐，采用了多种特殊新材料制作而成，包括炭纤维材料，经受了时速80km的追尾碰撞测试，尽管汽车受损明显，但储氢罐却毫发无伤。其次，丰田为储氢罐设计了特殊的气缸阀，它由一种易溶材料制成，当一定情况下车辆着火时，阀门将感应到温度自行开启，强制性排除氢气，很好地避免了储氢罐因受热导致罐内气压升高，突破储氢罐承受的极限而引起爆炸情况。第三，即便氢燃料汽车排出的氢气遭遇明火，也将向车辆侧后方排出，储氢罐的气口阀门为止逆设计，火焰并不会逆流进入气缸，缸内剩余燃料也相对安全。

也基于氢能源的强大基因，以Mirai为代表的氢燃料汽车呈现出以下几大优点：

环保。氢能源汽车的动力原理就是车载氢气与空气产生反应生成动能，而氢气与氧气生成的是水。也就是说，氢能源汽车排放的不是尾气，而是一杯水，绝对的“零排放”。甚至通过它的空气净化功能，去除吸入空气中的PM物质,使排放出来的空气更清洁，达到“负排放”的效果。

便捷。氢能源汽车上有两个储氢罐，只要3分钟时间，就可以充满气，续航600公里左右。而第二代Mirai的续航将在这基础上再增加30%。

省钱。据目前日本氢气的价格，如果汽车加满气的话，需要4600日元，相当于280元人民币，比汽油的价格还便宜。如果氢燃料汽车和加气站得到普及的话，氢气价格还要便宜。

抗冻。2014丰田下线的第一辆氢能源汽车，就开始在北美地区，以及零下40度的北海道最北端的严寒城市进行试验性运营，它都无惧严寒，畅行无阻。

创新。氢燃料汽车作为一个移动电源，当发生停电问题时，它的后备箱有个电源连接口，可以将车载的电源连接到家庭电源中，保证一户家庭一个星期的用电所需。

开放专利促进合作 丰田力促环保车辆普及

为推动环保车辆普及的环保效应，今年4月丰田做了一项决定：无偿提供约23740件关于汽车电动化技术的使用专利，其中包括电机约2590项，PCU（控制器）约2020项，发动机、变速驱动桥约1320项，系统控制约7550项，以及氢燃料汽车相关的专利，FC电池约2840项，高压储氢罐约680项，系统控制约4540项。

其实这并不是丰田第一次开放专利了。2015年1月，丰田在当年的“国际消费电子展”开幕前夕，就曾宣布开放氢燃料电池技术专利使用权，开放的专利数量为5680项,其中包括了丰田氢燃料电池车型Mirai的1970项技术。

“为新能源车普及做贡献”这件事上，丰田显然是希望贡献更多的力量。

所以，丰田在2019年又全面开启了和我国城市、企业和相关机构等技术合作模式。

2019年4月，丰田作为中国零部件供应商，首次与北汽福田、北京亿华通合作，向福田大巴提供FC组件；同月，丰田与清华大学成立“清华大学-丰田联合研究院”，重点针对氢能源等领域进行研究；7月份，丰田开始和一汽股份、上海重塑、苏州金龙合作，向一汽和苏州金龙生产的大巴提供FC组件；9月份，丰田发表了与一汽集团、广汽集团在电动化领域的战略合作。

这样的合作模式对丰田来说是驾轻就熟。资料显示，为了推动日本氢燃料电池的快速发展，丰田在2018年联合日产、本田等11家公司成立了“日本加氢站网络公司”，进一步完善加氢站的体系化建设。而这次，丰田将目光转向了“最重要市场”——中国。

其实，发展氢能及燃料电池汽车已成为全球共识。只不过我国正在推进能源结构变革，氢能的开发和应用就显得尤为难能可贵了。

可喜的是，我国在氢能和燃料电池产业已初具规模。在第四届国际氢能与燃料电池汽车大会，联合国开发计划署专家表示，“当前中国的氢能和燃料电池产业已经形成了覆盖四大产业集群，拥有超过33家上市公司，以及40家汽车制造商的格局。”

显然，丰田的战略与中国产业规划不谋而合，丰田多年研发的氢燃料电池技术也将推动整个产业的发展。

尽管我国在氢能发展上还面临着诸如“关键材料和核心技术标准亟需突破”等瓶颈，谁又能否认我们已迎来“天时地利人和”的发展契机呢？新能源汽车产业的“氢”时代，或许真的不远了。

——摘自凤凰网商业