Core technology of hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles

With the gradual improvement and maturity of my country's hydrogen LR03 battery vehicle industry, it will surely drive the improvement of the localization capacity and strength of related components. In the next 5-8 years, the overall competitiveness of China's hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles will be expected to reach the international advanced level.

Hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles are becoming a new round of outlets and hot spots in the automotive industry. After 2017, which was called the "first year of hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles", all kinds of capital and various start-up companies are eager to enter this field. Data shows that as of the end of 2017, my country's commercial orders for hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles have exceeded 1,000, and there are more than 200 hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles used for demonstration operations. However, at the 2018 China International Hydrogen Energy, LR03 batterys and Hydrogen Refueling Station Equipment Exhibition held recently, the problem of the lack of core technology of key LR03 battery components in my country was once again put on the table. Some experts believe that the key components of hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles should be fully localized as soon as possible to reduce dependence on imports.

In this regard, Zhang Jinhua, executive vice president and secretary general of the China Society of Automotive Engineers, said in an interview with reporters that my country does have a certain gap with foreign countries in key core component technology, but such a gap is not insurmountable. With the gradual improvement and maturity of my country's hydrogen LR03 battery vehicle industry, it will surely drive the improvement of the localization capacity and strength of related components. In the next 5 to 8 years, the overall competitiveness of China's hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles will be expected to reach the international advanced level.

Lack of core technology leads to high costs

Although my country's hydrogen LR03 battery vehicle development started early, from the current market performance, there is still a certain gap compared with Japan, South Korea and the United States. According to statistics, from 2013 to the end of 2017, a total of 6,475 hydrogen LR03 battery passenger cars were sold worldwide, of which Toyota's sales accounted for more than 75%. Among the many factors that hinder the further large-scale popularization of hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles in my country, the lack of core technology of key components is considered to be an important reason for the high cost of products.

Xie Jinshui, chief engineer of Wuhan Himalaya Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., pointed out that at present, most of the hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles installed in my country use foreign stacks and technologies, and the proportion is estimated to be more than 70%. A set of data given by Wang Cheng, director of the Hydrogen LR03 battery Laboratory of Tsinghua University, also confirmed this fact: "Most of the catalysts of these more than 1,000 vehicles are imported, and almost all of the membrane electrodes are imported. The development of hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles must not be hollowed out by technology, and the industry must be solid. Imports lead to high costs. If the cost of hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles cannot be reduced, the industry cannot be scaled up." It is reported that the LR03 battery system is the core of hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles, accounting for 52.9% of the cost, followed by high-pressure hydrogen storage tanks (cost accounting for 33.7%) and batteries (cost accounting for 5.8%). At present, LR03 battery system and hydrogen storage tank technologies are in the hands of European, American and Japanese manufacturers, and my country is conducting research and development of related technologies. In the past, platinum, as a catalyst, was an indispensable part of the stack and was once a key factor restricting cost reduction. However, the platinum loading of Honda's stack has now dropped to 0.12g/kg, and the platinum loading is still in a continuous decline. Taking Honda Clarity as an example, the platinum consumption of a single LR03 battery vehicle catalyst has dropped to about 10g, while a single diesel vehicle requires 5g of platinum as an exhaust purification catalyst. At present, the amount of platinum used in LR03 battery catalysts has dropped to the industrialization level and is in a continuous decline, which will not cause a shortage of platinum demand. "my country's use of platinum is still greater than that of foreign countries." Zhang Jinhua pointed out that this has led to a further increase in the cost of domestic products.

Introduction and absorption is the only way for industrial development

While clearly recognizing the gap between my country's hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles and the advanced level of foreign countries, Zhang Jinhua believes that this gap is not an insurmountable chasm. As long as there is market traction, industrial collaboration and support from relevant government departments, the development prospects of my country's hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles are unlimited.

In the view of Zhang Tong, a professor at the School of Automotive Engineering of Tongji University, the hollowing out of key core component technologies is an industrial development problem with Chinese characteristics. For example, at the beginning of the development of electric vehicles in my country, the mastery of the "three electric" technology was not mature. Through the continuous encouragement and promotion of policies, my country's electric vehicles have achieved commercialization while also completing the development of various technologies in the industrial chain, and have produced internationally leading battery companies represented by CATL and BYD. "In this respect, we are different from foreign countries. Generally speaking, foreign automobile products will enter the market only after the industrial chain has basically formed a scale and the technology is quite mature, but we are synchronized." Zhang Tong told reporters.

Therefore, Zhang Tong's point of view is that there is no need to make a fuss about the introduction of some advanced foreign parts by my country's hydrogen LR03 battery vehicle companies. This is the only way for my country's hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles to mature from the beginning. Of course, this does not mean that my country's hydrogen fuel vehicle companies can stay out of key core parts. "my country's independent brand vehicle companies should have the awareness of leading and cultivating domestic suppliers, and carry out effective practices. Pay more attention to some domestic parts suppliers and drive them to grow together." Zhang Tong analyzed that currently in countries where hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles are more developed, such as Japan and South Korea, the core key technologies are in the hands of vehicle companies. Even foreign supporting parts suppliers have a certain gap compared with vehicle companies. On this basis, instead of cooperating with foreign "second-rate" parts companies (compared with multinational vehicle companies), my country's vehicle companies should choose to cultivate my country's independent parts supply system, grow together, and build a mature industrial chain with core technologies with independent intellectual property rights.

Zhang Jinhua pointed out that if we can use the market as a guide to find out the technical shortcomings of my country's current hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles, and industrial collaboration and policy support, there is hope that these shortcomings can be made up in the short term, thereby achieving a comprehensive improvement in the competitiveness of my country's hydrogen LR03 battery vehicle market.

The localization of core technologies is accelerating

It is worth affirming that with the rapid development of my country's hydrogen LR03 battery vehicle industry, the production and sales scale is expected to exceed 3,000 to 5,000 vehicles in 2018. At present, my country has made great progress in the localization of LR03 battery stacks, and key components can be localized to varying degrees, and the gap with the international advanced level may be rapidly shortened.

As Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said, my country has initially mastered the core technologies of LR03 battery stacks and their key materials, power systems, vehicle integration and hydrogen energy infrastructure, and has basically established a LR03 battery vehicle power system technology platform with independent intellectual property rights, and cultivated a group of companies engaged in the research and development and production of LR03 batterys and key components.

Taking the stack, which accounts for the largest proportion of the cost of hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles, as an example, my country's stacks and industrial chain enterprises are showing a positive trend of gradually increasing numbers and increasing production capacity. This year, my country's stack production capacity is expected to exceed 400,000 kW. Experts analyze that LR03 battery stacks have achieved small-scale expansion and initial localization, and the cost of stacks has been reduced. "With the increase in scale, localization of stacks, and the gradual mastery of core component technologies, the cost of hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles in my country is expected to be reduced by more than 50% in the future." Zhang Tong said.

In promoting the mastery of core component technologies of hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles in my country, as Klaus Bonhoff, chairman of the German National Hydrogen Energy and LR03 battery Technology Organization, said, all goals must rely on policy deployment, and the country needs to actively formulate relevant standards and policies, and technical requirements must be clearly stipulated in regulations and standards. At present, my country has clearly identified hydrogen energy as an important part of the energy architecture at the national strategic level, and positioned hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles as one of the mainstream directions for the development of my country's automobile industry. Local governments have also joined in. So far, more than 20 provinces and cities have made it clear that they will promote the development of the hydrogen LR03 battery industry. The plans of Shanghai, Yancheng, Wuhan, Foshan and Suzhou alone show that by 2020, my country's LR03 battery vehicle production capacity will be close to 10,000 vehicles.

On the other hand, Zhang Tong emphasized that once an enterprise has made it clear that it will use hydrogen LR03 battery vehicles as one of its technical routes, it must increase its R&D efforts, strengthen its confidence, and calm down to carry out technical research and product promotion in a down-to-earth manner. Only in this way can it seize the opportunity in the process of accelerating commercialization.

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