What’s new: The southern city of Foshan is on track to meet its target to develop a local hydrogen car economy over the next 15 years, as part of a wider push for the use of such clean energy.
Foshan has already built 15 charging stations to cater for hydrogen cars and has nearly 1,400 hydrogen vehicles operating in the city, Mayor Zhu Wei announced at a conference on Monday.
Data from National Energy Administration suggested more than 7,200 hydrogen cars were operating across China as of July this year, with around 80 charging stations nationwide.
What’s the background: Foshan has aggressively promoted the adoption of hydrogen following the call of the central government. Its Nanhai district alone set a goal of having 6,000 hydrogen vehicles by 2025 and tripling that amount by 2035. It also set the target of building more than 30 charging stations in five years and expects that number to be over 80 by 2035.
Despite concerted efforts to push the use of hydrogen-powered vehicles, hydrogen remains less competitive compared to traditional fuels due to reliance on expensive imports of key components.
Some parts still need to be imported from Western countries because Chinese companies’ do not possess the necessary technology, according to Wu Zhixin, vice president of China Automotive Technology and Research Center Co. Ltd.
A kilogram of hydrogen provided in most of China’s charging stations costs around 60 yuan ($9).
Contact reporter Lu Yutong (yutonglu@caixin.com) and editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)
