Recently, hydrogen energy vehicles in two more places are exempt from highway tolls: Jilin Province issued a notice on August 13, that from 0:00 on September 1, 2024 to 24:00 on August 31, 2026, hydrogen energy vehicles registered in Jilin Province equipped with ETC equipment can pass point-to-point free of charge between toll stations on various highways in Jilin Province; On August 15, Shaanxi Province proposed to fully exempt hydrogen energy vehicles equipped with ETC from highway tolls within the province.
Since the beginning of this year, Shandong, Sichuan, Ordos, Inner Mongolia and other places have also introduced similar free highway toll policies. Why do relevant places exempt hydrogen energy vehicles from highway tolls? What is the current development status of hydrogen energy vehicles?
More local support policies
Before Jilin and Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan and Ordos, Inner Mongolia have successively exempted hydrogen-powered vehicles from highway tolls this year.
At the end of February, the Shandong Provincial Department of Transportation and three other departments issued a notice that starting from March 1, hydrogen-powered vehicles installed with ETC equipment on the province’s highways will be temporarily exempted from highway tolls. In mid-April, Sichuan Province proposed to exempt hydrogen-powered vehicles installed with ETC equipment from highway tolls in the province. On June 1, the first full reward and subsidy policy for hydrogen-powered vehicles in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was implemented in Ordos City. For hydrogen-powered vehicles passing through toll stations in Ordos City, after collecting tolls, the hydrogen-powered vehicle operating companies shall submit vehicle traffic data for the previous month, and all tolls will be returned after review.
After reviewing the policies of various places, we can see that the exemption of highway tolls for hydrogen-powered vehicles in relevant places is generally in the trial stage, with a period of 2 or 3 years. The free scope is limited to hydrogen-powered vehicles that travel on highways in the province or are registered in the province. There are two ways to do this: directly waive the fees or refund them after charging.
Why are local governments intensively exempting hydrogen-powered vehicles from highway tolls? What is the effect of the policy?
Industry insiders analyzed that the general background for the introduction of preferential measures in various places is the need to develop the hydrogen energy industry and the national policy’s attention to hydrogen energy-related aspects. As a secondary energy source with abundant sources, green and low carbon, hydrogen energy is regarded as the clean energy with the greatest development potential in the 21st century. This year, hydrogen energy was written into the government work report as a cutting-edge emerging industry for the first time. The “Medium- and Long-Term Plan for the Development of the Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035)” previously issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments clearly proposed to focus on promoting the application of hydrogen fuel cells in medium and heavy-duty vehicles, and orderly expand the market application space for new energy passenger and freight vehicles such as hydrogen fuel cells.
The above factors are reflected in the interpretation of the policy by relevant local governments. Jilin said that the preferential policies are to further cooperate with the high-quality development of the province’s hydrogen energy industry and fully support the large-scale promotion and use of hydrogen energy vehicles in Jilin; Shandong proposed that the new measures are to actively promote the “Hydrogen into Ten Thousand Homes” technology demonstration project and encourage hydrogen energy vehicles to carry out cross-regional operations.
From the perspective of policy effects, cost saving and efficiency improvement were mentioned more often. Feng Kui, head of the hydrogen fleet of Shengtonghua (Weifang) Hydrogen Power Co., Ltd., said that their hydrogen vehicles mainly run in Zibo, Weifang, Qingdao and other places in Shandong Province. In the past, they took the national highway to save money, but now they can use the highway for free, which can save more than 1,000 yuan each time and save a lot of time on the road. An institution calculated using a 49-ton heavy truck as an example and showed that if all highway tolls are exempted, the unit transportation cost of fuel cell vehicles can be reduced by 25%.
In addition to free highways, more policies supporting hydrogen vehicles on the road are being introduced. Guangdong Province released the implementation plan for the Guangzhan Hydrogen Highway Demonstration Project at the end of June, proposing to relax the restrictions on the time and road sections for the delivery of aquatic products, fresh meat, fruits and vegetables by fuel cell vehicles entering the city, and granting a limited-time free parking policy; Sichuan Province plans to relax the restrictions on the access of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in urban areas across the province.
Scale expansion and application scenarios increase
Driven by policy support, the development of the hydrogen energy industry and other factors, the promotion and application of hydrogen energy vehicles is achieving results.
“The company has 20 hydrogen-powered vehicles. The subsidy policy can save more than 2 million yuan in tolls a year, which makes us more willing to use hydrogen-powered vehicles.” Cao Xiaoxiao, team leader of Inner Mongolia Ronghe Husheng Logistics Co., Ltd., revealed that the company plans to add more than 100 hydrogen-powered vehicles.
Yue Jianru, deputy director of the Shandong Provincial Energy Bureau, introduced that Shandong has vigorously carried out demonstration and application of hydrogen energy and made certain progress in areas such as transportation. It has promoted a total of 2,041 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, ranking fourth in the country; and built 38 hydrogen refueling stations, ranking second in the country.
According to data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on August 9, in the first seven months of this year, the production and sales of fuel cell vehicles increased by 28% and 25.5% year-on-year respectively. According to statistics, there are currently about 20,000 fuel cell vehicles in China, ranking first in the world.
The scale of hydrogen-powered vehicles continues to grow. What are the application scenarios?
On August 12, Sichuan Province’s first batch of hydrogen fuel cell municipal water sprinklers were put into use in Chengdu. Tan Jianzhao, deputy general manager of Rongchuang Energy, said that the four vehicles put into use this time are innovative applications of Rongchuang Energy’s hydrogen fuel cell power system products in the field of hydrogen energy highway transportation. They can achieve hydrogen refueling in 15 minutes and a range of 400 kilometers. They have the advantages of no pollution, low noise, and a more comfortable driving experience.
According to statistics from the Sichuan Provincial Department of Transportation, including municipal vehicles, there are currently more than 600 hydrogen-powered vehicles, including hydrogen fuel buses and logistics freight trucks, being promoted and used in Sichuan. Among them, six cities (prefectures) including Chengdu, Panzhihua, Deyang, Neijiang, Ziyang and Liangshan have opened hydrogen-powered bus routes.
Experts said that hydrogen-powered vehicles are vehicles that use hydrogen as fuel, and both pure electric vehicles and hydrogen-powered vehicles are new energy vehicles. Compared with the two, pure electric vehicles have obvious advantages in the fields of passenger vehicles and light commercial vehicles. Hydrogen-powered vehicles are currently mainly developed in the field of large commercial vehicles, such as buses and long-distance heavy trucks, due to their fast hydrogen refueling speed, low low-temperature loss, and strong power.
A report released by the China Automotive Strategy and Policy Research Center in July showed that since the second half of 2021, China’s fuel cell demonstration vehicles have exceeded 10,000, mainly concentrated in logistics distribution, commuter passenger transport, cold chain logistics and other scenarios, among which heavy truck logistics applications are the largest. Lu Chenyu, Secretary-General of the Zhongguancun Hydrogen Energy Industry Alliance, believes that commercial vehicles such as cold chain logistics vehicles, 49-ton tractors, and 31-ton dump trucks are currently the models with relatively good promotion effects in the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle market, and there will be certain demand in the future.
“Running on the road” still faces challenges
The promotion and application of hydrogen energy vehicles is accelerating, but they still face many challenges before they can be put on the road.
High cost is one of the reasons. “Hydrogen-powered vehicles are very powerful and have a long range, but they are not cheap.” Mr. Zhang, who has worked in the logistics and freight industry for more than 10 years, drove the company’s newly purchased hydrogen-powered truck last year. “Whether compared with traditional oil vehicles or electric vehicles, hydrogen-powered vehicles are not cheap in terms of initial purchase costs and daily hydrogen refueling costs.”
According to calculations by relevant agencies, due to the high cost of hydrogen fuel cell engines, the price of hydrogen-powered vehicles is generally 2 to 3 times that of similar fuel vehicles. In addition, the price of hydrogen at many hydrogen refueling stations is currently 40 to 60 yuan per kilogram, and market analysts believe that this price needs to be reduced to 25 to 35 yuan per kilogram to be more competitive.
The difficulty of hydrogen refueling is another problem. “There are no hydrogen refueling stations on our daily transportation routes, and we have to run from the east to the west of the city every time to refuel.” He Xu, deputy general manager of Sichuan Kuanzhai Smart Logistics Co., Ltd., said that fortunately, we can now transport goods when traveling between the two places, so we can refuel at the same time.
In terms of scale, China is at the forefront of the world in the construction of hydrogen refueling stations. By the end of 2023, more than 450 hydrogen refueling stations have been built, ranking first in the world. However, the market believes that this scale needs to be improved compared with actual demand. In the view of Wang Jianing, partner of Capital Construction Investment Management Co., Ltd., compared with the widely distributed traditional gas stations and the rapidly developing electric vehicle charging facilities, the number of hydrogen refueling stations is still relatively limited, which has become an important factor affecting the popularization of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
In order to make hydrogen vehicles run better, all parties are taking active actions. In September 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and five other departments jointly issued the “Notice on the Demonstration Application of Fuel Cell Vehicles”; in 2021, 41 cities launched demonstration work. At the end of last year, the “Action Initiative for Building China’s Hydrogen Highway” was released at the China Fuel Cell Vehicle Conference, suggesting that the construction of a hydrogen highway network should be accelerated, hydrogen refueling stations should be built, and operating costs should be optimized.
Experts analyzed that hydrogen vehicles do have problems such as high cost and few hydrogen refueling stations, but judging from the trend, various parties are working together to gradually solve these problems. Relevant surveys show that after more than two years of demonstration applications, the cost of fuel cell systems has been reduced to 2,000-2,500 yuan/kilowatt, a decrease of more than 80% compared with before the demonstration; the localization rate of key components such as fuel cells, air compressors, and hydrogen circulation systems exceeds 80%; the number of hydrogen refueling stations continues to increase, and the price of hydrogen at some local hydrogen refueling stations has dropped to 20 to 30 yuan per kilogram.
Recently, various regions have continued to introduce new measures. Jiangsu proposed to accelerate the demonstration and application of vehicles, build about 100 commercial hydrogen refueling stations by 2027, and promote more than 4,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The Guangdong Development and Reform Commission and the Guangzhou Industry and Information Technology Bureau issued documents in June and August, proposing to guide the unified hydrogen refueling price along the Guangzhou-Zhanjiang Expressway through a market-oriented mechanism, with the sales price not exceeding 35 yuan/kg during the demonstration period; vigorously support the technical research of hydrogen fuel cell systems and core components, and the development and industrialization of hydrogen fuel cell models.
Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that compared with the development of pure electric vehicles in China from conception to high-quality development, China’s fuel cell vehicle industry lags behind the pure electric vehicle industry by about 10 years and is entering a growth period with rapidly declining application costs. According to the China Society of Automotive Engineers, the number of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is expected to reach about 1 million by 2035. (Reporter Qiu Haifeng’s original title: “Shandong, Sichuan, Jilin, Shaanxi and other places have successively exempted hydrogen vehicles from highway tolls – let hydrogen vehicles run better”)
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