Which company has the best hydrogen energy vehicle technology?

A hydrogen-powered car is a car that uses a hydrogen fuel cell. The principle is that hydrogen is input into the fuel cell, and the electrons of the hydrogen atoms are blocked by the proton exchange membrane and conducted through the external circuit to become electrical energy to drive the motor; while the protons can combine with oxygen to form pure water mist and be discharged.

As one of the cleanest known energy technologies, hydrogen has many advantages when used as fuel. In addition to being pollution-free, it generates more heat than gasoline when burned, and a car filled with hydrogen fuel only takes a few minutes to travel more than 600 kilometers. High-speed vehicles, buses, submarines and rockets have already used hydrogen in different forms. Despite this, the process of refining hydrogen fuel is very complicated and energy-intensive, which are the problems that the industry is working hard to solve.

Toyota is undoubtedly the automaker with the largest investment and bet in the field of hydrogen energy. Toyota launched the hydrogen energy vehicle project as early as 1992 and produced the first fuel cell vehicle in 1996. It has a research and development history of more than 20 years.

At this year's CIIE, Toyota's booth set up a special hydrogen fuel cell technology area, just like the previous two sessions, displaying the hydrogen fuel cell commercial vehicle FCEV Coaster, high-pressure hydrogen storage tanks and the latest second-generation fuel cell stack. It also introduced all links of the complete hydrogen industry chain from hydrogen production, transportation, storage to use.

Last year, we launched the promotion and popularization of hydrogen fuel cell technology in China, and also provided Toyota hydrogen fuel cell components to other commercial vehicle manufacturers, and cooperated with companies such as Beiqi Foton, SinoHytec, FAW, Suzhou Jinlong and Shanghai Reshape to achieve a wider range of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in China. In addition, we also jointly established a commercial vehicle fuel cell system research and development company with major Chinese commercial vehicle manufacturers such as FAW, Dongfeng, GAC, BAIC and hydrogen fuel cell system integrator SinoHytec to accelerate the development of China's hydrogen energy society.

However, Toyota is not the only company that dominates the hydrogen-powered car market worldwide. Honda, also a Japanese company, is not to be outdone and launched the hydrogen-powered car CLARITY in 2015.

The third-generation fuel cell stack exhibited by Honda at the CIIE is 33% smaller than the previous generation, the fuel cell unit is 20% thinner, the power generation performance per cell is increased by 1.5 times, and the output density is the highest in the world. And thanks to the miniaturization of the fuel cell stack, it is also the first time in the world that the powertrain is fully stored in the engine compartment, greatly improving the utilization of the interior space.

Japanese technicians on site said that taking the latest generation of Clarity Fuel Cell models equipped with third-generation fuel cells as an example, it can achieve a maximum output power of 130 kilowatts and a peak torque of 300 N·m, achieving a unity of strong power and high efficiency and environmental protection; at the same time, it only takes 3 minutes to refuel with hydrogen each time, and the maximum cruising range is up to 750 kilometers, which is the highest level of similar products.