China hydrogen vehicle market may hit a trillion yuan

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Hydrogen fuel has been widely recognized as the cleanest energy, and also considered a final solution to vehicle industry following the global trend of energy saving and reducing emission. But it still seems quite hard for auto companies to overcome prohibitive costs problem to achieve commercialization. Especially at present when the hydrogen filling stations are underdeveloped, and the technology regulations and standards haven't been well established, the promotion and popularization of hydrogen fuel-cell cars are facing significant challenges.

It's known that the market and government policies are centered on the development of all-electric cars now. The dual-credit scheme concerning new energy vehicles (NEV) released in this September pushed auto companies of China and other countries to put more efforts into NEV development. However, all-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will dominate the future auto market in accordance with companies’ 2025 Strategic Plans.

According to released statistics, the global fuel cell market has developed rapidly, with the shipment quantity of 2008 reaching 9.5 thousand, and 2015 reaching 71.5 thousand, 7.5 times the scale of 2008.

With the strong support of government policies, the upgrading of local facilities has become a key to industry development. Following Nanhai in Foshan, cities like Shanghai, Rugao in Jiangsu, Taizhou in Zhejiang, Wuhan in Hubei, all have formulated policies in favor of the hydrogen fuel cell development.

It's predicted that the value of hydrogen car industry may hit a trillion yuan by 2030. By 2020, fuel-cell cars will reach 10 thousand, and by 2030, fuel-cell car parc will reach 2 million. As such, China is very likely to become the biggest fuel-cell car market worldwide by 2030.

There is still a long way to go before reaching the commercial scale, in that optimum business model will come out after a relative larger scale. However, despite high subsidies, China has only 7 hydrogen filling stations currently, and these 7 stations haven't reached the commercial scale. As hydrogen filling station is a vital facility, the establishment of and open access to it also become essential to the commercialization of fuel cells.

Besides, few domestic auto companies launched products powered by hydrogen fuel. Last week, SAIC MAXUS launched its FCV80 fuel-cell light passenger vehicle, which was seen by many industry insiders as the first step to the commercialization of fuel-cell cars.