Toyota and China’s four major car companies establish a commercial vehicle fuel cell research and development company
On June 5th, six companies including FAW, Dongfeng, GAC, BAIC, Beijing Yihuatong, and Toyota signed a joint venture contract in Beijing to establish “United Fuel Cell System Research and Development (Beijing) Co., Ltd.”.
According to reports, the new joint venture is led by Toyota, with a total investment of 5.019 billion yen (approximately 326 million yuan). The investment ratio is Toyota 65%, Yihuatong 15%, and the four major domestic auto companies FAW, Dongfeng, and GAC , BAIC each contributed 5%. The new company plans to have Dong Changzheng, senior executive deputy general manager of Toyota (China), as chairman, and Takashi Akita, executive deputy general manager of Toyota China, as general manager. Gradually increase the staff to 100 during the year). The company’s main business is the research and development of commercial vehicle fuel cell systems, and is located in Beijing Yizhuang Economic and Technological Development Zone.
“This is the only fuel cell research and development company established by Toyota overseas, and it has very important strategic significance for Toyota.” Toyota Motor Corporation executive director and CEO of China headquarters Tatsuro Ueda said at the signing ceremony. “The new company will focus on business first. Put them in the regions where the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta have the foundation of fuel cells, and they will be popularized in more places in the future.” He quoted Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio Toyoda as saying, “Only by achieving popularization, environmentally friendly cars can do To contribute to environmental protection, it is necessary to continuously expand the circle of friends and develop cooperation with China in a more open attitude.”
At the same time, Dong Changzheng said that it will cooperate with Chinese automakers with rich commercial vehicle development technology and market experience, and Yihuatong, which has rich experience in FC system development, to develop competitive fuels that comply with Chinese regulations. Battery system. In the future, the six companies will jointly plan products through consultations, and carry out a series of technology research and development work such as “FC stack and other component technology”, “FC system control technology” and “vehicle mounting technology” to meet the needs of the Chinese market in a one-stop manner. . This will greatly shorten the time from development to commercialization, and accelerate the popularization of FCEV in the Chinese commercial vehicle market. The new company will conduct business by accepting commissioned development, and determine the development content according to the needs of each shareholder, and the intellectual property will belong to the commissioning party.
The reason for choosing commercial vehicles as the advance direction is that the “Energy-saving New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap” promulgated by the relevant Chinese authorities in 2016 predicts that by 2020, the cumulative sales of fuel cell vehicles are 10,000, and the target is 100,000 by 2025. station. This means that the fuel cell vehicle market with commercial vehicles as the core will develop rapidly. At the same time, China’s hydrogen energy and fuel cell industries have huge space. The “China Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cell Industry White Paper” predicts that by 2050, the output value of China’s hydrogen energy and fuel cell related industries will reach about 12 trillion, and the proportion of hydrogen energy in China will reach about 10%. Hydrogen energy and fuel cell vehicles Will be greatly developed in the future.
As we all know, Toyota’s technical reserves and development experience in the field of hydrogen fuel cells are currently in a leading position in the world.
As early as the 1990s, Toyota began to conduct research on hydrogen fuel cell technology and achieved remarkable results. In 2002, Toyota began to promote FCEV models in Japan, the United States and other regions. In 2014, Toyota launched the world’s first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell vehicle MIRAI.
In addition to passenger cars, Toyota also applies hydrogen fuel cell technology to commercial vehicles such as trucks, trailers, and forklifts.
In China, after Toyota announced in 2019 that FC Costa will introduce China’s FCEV as the Toyota brand for the first time, it has successively cooperated with Beiqi Foton, Yihuatong, China FAW, Suzhou Kinglong, Shanghai Remodeling and other companies to commercialize in many Chinese companies. Car manufacturers provide Toyota hydrogen fuel cell components.
Toyota China officials stated that the new joint venture is of great strategic significance to Toyota’s global hydrogen energy deployment. Through this cooperation with partners with strong influence and reliable technical strength in the Chinese commercial vehicle market, it will provide fuel cell vehicles in China. Lay the foundation for the popularity of