According to the data released by the Beijing Winter Olympic Organizing Committee, the Beijing Winter Olympics will demonstrate the operation of over 1,000 hydrogen energy vehicles, including hydrogen fuel cell buses, hydrogen fuel cell minivans and hydrogen fuel cell special vehicles. These cars mainly come from domestic brand car companies. BAIC Foton provides 649 hydrogen fuel cell buses, 100 buses from Yutong Bus, and 5 Hongqi H5 hydrogen fuel cell passenger cars from China FAW. In addition, Geely Star Bus and other vehicles joined the "hydrogen car show".
As a global sponsor of the Olympic Games and owner of the highest level of technology in the world for hydrogen energy passenger vehicles, Toyota delivered 140 hydrogen fuel cell passenger vehicles MIRAI and 107 hydrogen fuel cell welfare vehicles COASTER to the Games.
In addition, the Winter Olympics is equipped with more than 30 hydrogen refueling stations to guarantee the supply of hydrogen energy during the games.
As early as the 2008 Beijing Olympics, China started to try to put in hydrogen fuel cell buses, but only three vehicles were put in, and the scale of application demonstration was limited. Two years later at the Shanghai World Expo, the number of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles put into demonstration operation increased to 196. The Beijing Winter Olympics provided a bigger platform for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and domestic car brands even dominated. Although many core fuel cell components are still dependent on imported technology, the rise of domestic power reactor companies such as YHTC and NDT marks the rapid growth of China's hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry.
Toyota provided 2,205 vehicles to the Beijing Winter Olympics this time, including 140 Mirai and 107 Costa, which is the first time Toyota introduced the second-generation Mirai hydrogen fuel cell passenger car to the Chinese market and achieved large-scale practical application. The Costa Hydrogen Engine is a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle developed specifically for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics, and is the first time that Toyota has localized the entire process of hydrogen fuel cell technology from R&D to production overseas.
At present, the global hydrogen energy industry is still in the early stage of industrialization, there is no mature business model yet, and almost all of them have to rely on subsidies to develop. However, public opinion believes that the demonstration role of the Beijing Winter Olympics, coupled with the official rollout of the domestic hydrogen fuel cell vehicle demonstration city cluster project, 2022 may become a turning point in history, especially boosting the development of China's hydrogen energy industry.
