According to Elaine Wu, JPMorgan's head of Asia ex-Japan ESG and utilities research, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will soon be a major player on China's commercial truck market. According to Wu, Asia ex-Japan ESG research head at JPMorgan, fuel cell vehicles currently account for less that 5% of China's commercial truck market. This could increase to around one-third in 2050. The fuel cell electric vehicle runs on hydrogen-powered electricity. This can also be used to store or deliver energy from other sources. Hydrogen, a clean fuel, is used in fuel cells to produce water. Wu stated that fuel cell vehicles are a good choice for commercial trucks because they take only 10 to 15 minutes to refuel. They can travel approximately 800 km, which is about half to one-third the distance of lithium battery electric vehicles.
Major automakers like Toyota, Honda, and BMW are exploring the hydrogen fuel cell market. According to the JPMorgan analyst, China is pushing for fuel cell vehicle promotion. Wu stated that the Chinese government promotes something called 'city clusters' to allow for demonstration cities to tell stories about how fuel cell vehicles can be used in different parts of the country.
"This was also a policy we witnessed implemented around a decade ago when the central government was trying production of lithium-battery electric vehicles. We saw the success of that policy. Beijing stated that it wants 20% of all new cars to be electric vehicles by 2025. There is intense competition in the domestic electric vehicle market, with Tesla competing with homegrown players like Nio and Xpeng.
China's climate goals
Wu believes that hydrogen will play an important role in heavy industry, as it is a clean energy source. China has pledged to be carbon neutral by 2060. She stated that high heat content is necessary for heavy industrial sectors. Renewable power is not an option, but hydrogen is. According to the analyst, China is the leader in hydrogen production and accounts for about a third global output.
