2000 cars

According to the statistics that have been made public, in the first quarter of this year, the total number of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle tenders across the country reached 2,000, which was the same as the total number of tenders last year. Among them, hydrogen energy heavy trucks have become the absolute main force. In addition, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the production and sales of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the first quarter exceeded the 1,000 mark, a year-on-year increase of 33.4% and 14.7% respectively, and the production and sales reached the highest level in the same period in history

Recently, Sichuan Province will accurately support the development of the hydrogen energy industry with "unconventional maximum efforts", so that the hydrogen energy industry will once again stand in the market spotlight. Sichuan Province proposed to explore the full exemption of highway fees for hydrogen energy vehicles, encourage cities to unlimited traffic restrictions on hydrogen energy trucks in urban areas, and encourage qualified cities to promote the renewal of hydrogen energy equipment throughout the region.

In fact, Sichuan Province's move is a microcosm of the vigorous development of the hydrogen industry by local governments and enterprises this year. At the policy level, since the beginning of this year, Shandong, Henan, Guangdong, Anhui and other provinces have successively issued detailed rules for industrial support; At the enterprise level, tens of billions of hydrogen energy infrastructure projects have been implemented in many places recently, and breakthroughs have been made in application scenarios. In terms of the market, the production and sales of fuel cell vehicles in the first quarter of this year reached the best level in the same period in history. In addition, the total number of hydrogen fuel cell vehicle tenders in the first quarter is close to that of the whole of 2023.

Many places "unconventional" support for the development of the hydrogen energy industry

On April 16, Sichuan Province held a working meeting to further promote the development and promotion and application of the whole green hydrogen industry chain, and Huang Qiang, governor of Sichuan Province, said that he would deepen and expand the layout of the whole green hydrogen industry chain, vigorously promote demonstration applications, and actively seize new tracks in the future. It is reported that Sichuan should vigorously open up typical scenarios, strengthen the demonstration and application of hydrogen energy in transportation and other fields, and explore the free toll of hydrogen energy vehicles on highways.

An important message revealed by the above meeting is that Sichuan will refer to the No. 1 innovation project of artificial intelligence, take extraordinary and precise support for the hydrogen energy industry, be application-oriented, give full play to resource advantages, solve the stuck points and blockages, and promote the high-quality development of the whole green hydrogen industry chain.

Coincidentally, Shandong Province has also supported the development of the hydrogen energy industry with "extraordinary" efforts this year. The Shandong Provincial Department of Transportation, the Shandong Provincial Development and Reform Commission, and the Shandong Provincial Department of Science and Technology issued a document stating that from March 1, 2024, hydrogen vehicles equipped with ETC kit equipment on highways in the province will be exempted from highway tolls for a trial period of 2 years.

On April 17, the Beijing Municipal Government held an executive meeting to accelerate the "oil for electricity" and "oil for hydrogen" for vehicles in key industries, and actively promote new energy vehicles. Beijing proposes that by the end of this year, the proportion of pure electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicles of new and updated airport buses, sanitation vehicles, postal vehicles under 4.5 tons, and light logistics vehicles should reach 30%, 40%, 50% and 80% respectively.

Wan Gang, chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, believes that the development of hydrogen energy still needs to "demonstrate first and lead the new direction of low-carbon transformation of hydrogen energy". Wan Gang suggested that in the next step, on the basis of considering the current demonstration of urban agglomerations all over the country, we can connect and build "hydrogen energy corridors", form comprehensive and large-scale demonstration projects, create hydrogen energy and hydrogen fuel cell strategic emerging industries, and realize the vision of hydrogen energy transportation. Many industry insiders believe that the next step will be to follow up with more places to follow up the support policy of waiving highway fees for hydrogen energy vehicles.

This year, a number of places have issued specific documents to support the development of the hydrogen energy industry. For example, on April 8, Zhengzhou issued the "Medium and Long-term Plan for the Development of Hydrogen Energy Industry in Zhengzhou (2024-2035)", proposing that by 2025, the total output value of Zhengzhou's hydrogen energy industry will reach 20 billion yuan, cultivate no less than 5 leading enterprises with independent intellectual property rights and strong core competitiveness, improve the manufacturing capacity of hydrogen-related equipment, and strive to achieve 10,000 sets of hydrogen fuel cell system output and 5,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicle output.

Breakthroughs have been made in the research and development of new project technology

On the enterprise side, breakthroughs in technologies and application scenarios in the field of hydrogen energy are also accelerating. A reporter from Shanghai Securities News learned from Sinopec that recently, two hydrogen energy heavy trucks successfully completed the test of inter-provincial long-distance transportation from Beijing to Shanghai. This historic journey marks a major breakthrough in the field of practical transportation of hydrogen vehicles in China.

Hydrogen vehicles have the characteristics of fast energy replenishment and suitable for long-distance heavy-duty transportation. However, due to the inadequacy of the network of hydrogen refueling stations and the limited range of vehicles, hydrogen mobility has been limited to a small geographical area in the past. In this trip, the vehicle departed from Qingyundian Oil and Hydrogen Co-construction Station in Daxing District, Beijing, and after a journey of about 1,500 kilometers, crossed 6 provinces of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Shanghai, and carried out hydrogen refueling at 7 hydrogen refueling stations along the way, and finally successfully arrived at Qingwei Oil and Hydrogen Co-construction Station in Qingpu District, Shanghai.

On March 21, China's first hydrogen energy city train independently developed by CRRC Changchun Rail Coach Co., Ltd. carried out a full-load operation test at a speed of 160 kilometers per hour on the CRRC Changchun Passenger Test Line in Changchun City. This test is the first time in China to achieve the full system, full scene and multi-level performance verification of hydrogen energy trains with a speed of 160 kilometers per hour, marking a new breakthrough in the application of hydrogen energy in the field of rail transit.

Wang Jian, deputy director of the new technology research department of the National Rail Passenger Car Engineering Research Center of CRRC Changqing, said that at present, there are still a considerable number of railways in China that are non-electrified railways, which are often located in remote areas and have high costs for electrification transformation. In contrast, if these lines use hydrogen-powered trains, they can not only save the cost of electrification, but also achieve goals such as green, low-carbon and environmental protection.

The reporter noted that a number of major hydrogen energy projects have made important progress recently. On April 16, Dongfang Electric and Sinopec cooperated with Dongfang Electric Petrochemical Hydrogen Energy (Jiangxi) Co., Ltd. The hydrogen energy industry chain project was recorded. The project will invest 10 billion yuan to build the headquarters of the hydrogen energy industrial park, the hydrogen production base, the hydrogen energy science popularization center and the exhibition center. The first phase of the land is 100 acres, and the later planning land is 900 acres.

On March 28, China Huaneng Central China Branch and Daye Municipal People's Government signed an agreement on the comprehensive construction project of green electricity and green hydrogen production, storage and processing in Daye Mining Area. The project is the first demonstration project in Hubei Province to realize the coupling of renewable energy and electrolysis hydrogen production. The project will build a centralized photovoltaic power station with a total installed capacity of 300MW to 600MW, a hydrogen production plant with a total hydrogen production scale of not less than 12,000Nm3/h, a hydrogen skid-mounted station, and build a smart operation and management platform for the whole hydrogen energy industry chain, with an estimated annual output value of 260 million yuan after completion and operation.

This year's production and sales are expected to reach a new high

Judging from the market's response, in the first quarter of 2024, the production and sales of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in China will reach the highest level in the same period in history. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the production and sales of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the first quarter exceeded the 1,000 mark, a year-on-year increase of 33.4% and 14.7%, respectively.

Industry insiders said that the distribution of the domestic hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market this year is characterized by "low before and high after", combined with the performance of the recent hydrogen fuel cell vehicle bidding market, as well as the steady decline in the cost of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen, the launch of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles this year is expected to exceed 2023 and hit a record high. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the total production and sales of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in China in 2023 will be 5,668 and 5,805 respectively, a year-on-year increase of 55.3% and 72%, respectively.

Let's take a look at the bidding for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles this year. According to the statistics of public information, the total number of tenders across the country reached 2,000 in the first quarter, which was the same as the total number of tenders last year. Among them, hydrogen energy heavy trucks have become the absolute main force.

The 1,000 hydrogen heavy-duty truck project of the Luliang Municipal Government in Shanxi Province is the largest order so far this year. Lvliang City announced in February that in order to actively expand the application scenarios of hydrogen fuel vehicles in the transportation field, it openly solicited 1,000 hydrogen energy heavy truck suppliers from the public. According to the industrial plan released earlier, Luliang City plans to purchase 1,000 hydrogen heavy trucks every year, at least 5,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles within five years, and 20,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by 2035.

On March 22, the bidding announcement for the procurement project of new energy hydrogen fuel cell semi-trailer tractor for Qian'an hydrogen power integrated energy station project was released, and the tenderer Tangshan Yue'an Hydrogen Power New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. will purchase 500 49-ton hydrogen fuel cell semi-trailer tractors. Based on the maximum price of a single vehicle of 1.3 million yuan, the bidding amount reached 650 million yuan.

The latest forecast of China Securities Construction Investment believes that in April, the key factors affecting the stock prices of listed companies related to the hydrogen energy industry will shift from policy expectations to whether the actual orders, bids and sales data of the fundamentals can exceed expectations. It is expected that from April, the fundamental data of the hydrogen energy industry chain will usher in a large marginal change.