The future goal of hydrogen vehicle: cost saving and market development

As the name implies, new energy vehicles use new energy sources, and a large proportion of designs, mechanisms and components cannot be shared with fuel vehicles. Therefore, new development is required, the accumulated experience is limited, and the production quantity is small. Hence, the high cost is an inevitable phenomenon. Therefore, the prerequisite for its popularization is to try to adopt better technology to reduce costs and achieve the minimum market acceptance, and then establish better economic benefits from the gradually accumulated mass production scale.

At the heart of a fuel cell system is a stack that combines multiple cells. These cells have a channel for the supply of hydrogen and oxygen, and consist of two metal bipolar plates supporting the stack, a gas diffusion layer (GDL) and a membrane electrode element (MEA), through the chemical interaction between the hydrogen and oxygen react to generate electricity. These materials often use rare metals, resulting in high costs. The second-generation Mirai is a re-examination of the first-generation fuel cell stack to protect the cell laminates, reducing the size through improvements in structure and construction. And by improving the performance of electrode materials to increase power generation, and reduce the use of rare metals, it can achieve the dual effect of reducing costs and improving production efficiency. The miniaturization of high-pressure valves, along with components such as high-pressure and temperature sensors, also contributes to cost reduction. Hyundai Motor uses steel-based materials instead of expensive titanium as bipolar plates for fuel cell systems, and reduce the amount of platinum used as catalysts to strengthen price competitiveness.

According to data provided by Hyundai Motor, the price of hydrogen fuel cell systems has dropped by about 98% in the past 20 years. Prototypes of hydrogen fuel cell systems were first introduced in 2003, and prices halved three years later. In 2013, the price of the first-generation fuel cell system installed on the Tucson ix hydrogen vehicle was only 10% of the price of the prototype in 2003. The NEXO, which was launched in 2018, was further reduced to 2%. Prices for next-generation fuel cell systems are expected to remain around 2% of initial prototypes.

BMW is the earliest car manufacturer in Europe to invest in the research and development of hydrogen energy vehicles. As early as 2020, Jürgen Guldner, the vice president in charge of the hydrogen energy vehicle department, told the British media The Telegraph that hydrogen energy vehicles will be able to reduce costs by reducing the use of platinum elements, and it is even estimated that the price of the car will be close to the fuel car model in 2025.

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• MONOist , 2021-04-23 , provided by Yuki Saito, トヨタがHyquitoエンジンをスーパー durable シリーズに, May 2021
• Planet Analog, 2021-11-9, MAJEED AHMADD , Denso calls SiC a revolution in the bid for carbon neutrality
• Interesting Engineering, 2022-02-19 , Loukia Papadopoulos , Toyota and Yamaha join forces to develop hydrogen-fueled V8 engine
• H yundai Motor Group, 2021-09-07, Hyundai Motor Group's next-generation fuel cell system, a key technology for popularizing hydrogen energy
• Hyundai Motor Group, 2021-09-07, Vision FK, the world's first high-performance eco-friendly hydrogen electric vehicle
• 2020-12-17 , Toyota introduces second-generation Mirai fuel cell electric vehicle as design and technology flagship