Japan wants to build an electric car country, Musk said they are fools

(Original title: The country that Japan wants to build itself into an electric car, Musk said they are fools)

Twenty years ago, Toyota named the first hybrid sedan with its implied Prius, and wrote the opening chapter of the history of eco-friendly cars; 20 years later, Toyota used Mirai, the symbol of the future, to give its first fuel cell. (Fuel Cell) car name, this will bring another revolution in new energy cars?

The growing Prius family has become a banner for environmentally friendly cars

Japan was the first country in the world to explicitly promote the application of fuel cell vehicles. The Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) of the United States formulated the “Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Popularization Strategy” for the fuel cell vehicle industry as early as in 2013, and raised the development again in 2016. expected. According to this radical plan, Japan will have 40,000 fuel cell vehicles on the occasion of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and reach 250,000 in 2025. The ultimate goal is to reach 800,000 units in 2030.

Contrast this with the clear fact that in Japan now only Toyota and Honda have come up with commercial fuel cell vehicle products, and each one is only available.

Honda's Clarity is another fuel cell car that can be purchased in Japan.

We are not only the porters of nature, we also produce water

"Fuel cell" is a metaphysical noun that nobody can explain clearly. What needs to be emphasized is that the "fuel" here has nothing to do with the "burning". The fuel cell can directly generate the chemical energy in the fuel as electricity. Compared with the traditional battery-like "storage tank"-like storage of electrical energy, the fuel cell is A "water generator" that can generate electricity.

Currently, hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells are widely used in fuel cell vehicles. We all know that the chemical equation of water is H?O, and the process of hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells is the inverse process of water ionization. The inside of the battery can be simply divided into a positive electrode and a negative electrode, with an electrolyte structure between the positive electrode and the negative electrode.

In the work process, hydrogen in the fuel tank is introduced into the negative pole of the fuel cell. Hydrogen is decomposed into hydrogen ions and electrons. Hydrogen ions are incorporated into the electrolyte. The running air is introduced into the positive electrode. Before the oxygen ion is encountered, The hydrogen ions incorporated in the electrolyte are synthesized into water, and the electrons form a current during the flow from the negative electrode to the positive electrode to drive the vehicle forward.

“The only water that is emitted to the environment is the necessary slogan for all fuel cell vehicles. Plus hydrogen is the most abundant element on the earth and hydrogen is a renewable energy source. This gives fuel cell vehicles an extremely high level of environmental protection. characteristic.

Image from: Toyota Miria Advertising

At the same time, the fuel cell car also brought several advantages of the fuel truck: First, it is very fast to add fuel, generally about 3 minutes to complete the refueling process; followed by the fuel cell vehicle life is ideal, the current mass production Adding a gas to the car can reach a total mileage of nearly 700 kilometers; again, the volume of the hydrogen tank is controllable, and it takes more space to increase the battery capacity of the battery car. The fuel battery is more suitable for trucks, pickups and other cargo vehicles. . Finally, fuel cell vehicles are also fueling fuel-efficient and easy-to-maintain cars. They don't need to be recycled like lithium batteries after the end of life cycle.

Musk: This is not a fuel cell, this is a fool battery

However, the fuel cell car that looks beautiful and environmentally friendly was met with the electric vehicle flag bearer, Tesla CEO Musk, and in an interview with car news Automotive News, Musk announced in public that the fuel cell car was very silly. (Extremely Silly), what does the electric car camp mean?

Image from: YouTube

The "fuel" of a fuel cell is hydrogen, but hydrogen is not a product that can be obtained directly from nature. There are three links from the generation of hydrogen to the infusion in the car and the consumption of energy to cause pollution. The first is the production of hydrogen, the second is the compression of hydrogen, and the third is the transport of hydrogen. Under the current technological conditions, the energy efficiency of these three steps is not high.

For the most important form of hydrogen generation, electrolysis of water and hydrogen production from methane are the two mainstream practices in the industry. The energy conversion rate of hydrogen generated by electrolyzed water is only about 25%. Although some manufacturers have tried to use solar power to electrolyze water, the use of electrolyzed water to generate hydrogen and hydrogen to generate electricity is somewhat tortuous. The efficiency of hydrogen production from methane is slightly higher, but at the cost of producing toxic carbon monoxide. If carbon monoxide is used to remove carbon monoxide, then more carbon dioxide is returned, which is not worth the candle.

The research results of the Advanced Power and Energy Program (APEP) research team at the University of California, Irvine, show that traditional rechargeable electric vehicles are more energy-efficient than fuel cell vehicles under the current technological conditions.

Image courtesy of APEP Research Group, University of California, Irvine

Chicken is not cheap, eggs are expensive

Almost every person who buys new energy vehicles in Beijing will worry about where to charge, and this problem is even more serious in fuel cell vehicles. After all, the hydrogen refueling stations needed for fuel cell vehicles are rare in today's world.

For urban infrastructure, the relationship between hydrogen refueling stations and fuel cell vehicles is the relationship between chickens and eggs. There is not enough vehicle ownership, and governments and businesses cannot see the profitability of investment hydrogen refueling stations. In turn, it is difficult for private owners to decide on the purchase of fuel cell vehicles without a convenient hydrogenation network.

Because hydrogen itself is flammable, coupled with high-pressure liquid storage, the hydrogen storage tanks and piping used in hydrogen refueling stations must be built with expensive materials, and the cost of the monomer is much higher than Tesla's super charging station.

At Toyota's hydrogen refueling station map site for car owners, we can see that all hydrogen refueling stations in the United States are concentrated on the west coast of California, and it is still impossible for car owners to make long-distance travel across the east and west coasts. task. Referring to the growth in blowout sales that Tesla achieved after completing the charging network for the United States mainline, the current path for fuel cell vehicles is long and long.

Picture from: Toyota's official website

On the other hand, the high cost caused by too small capacity is also repeated on the fuel cell car itself. Toyota's Mirai's daily production at the Toyota Motomachi factory is only 10 units, and the total car price after shipment to the United States reaches nearly 60,000 U.S. dollars. And this price can already be bought in the traditional fuel vehicle with high-end luxury brand vehicles. Just as the Prius and new energy vehicles took root in China in the same year, government subsidies are an important measure to promote popularization, and will also become the winner of the industry's rise.

Money is not a problem, technology is

For any product that seeks to challenge the existing market order, talking about costs is a bit too small. Returning to the first question, Japan’s efforts to promote fuel cell vehicles not only contribute to the promotion of Tokyo’s Olympic image, but also make it difficult for traditional batteries to become popular due to the lack of energy in the island. It is even more important to value the better user experience of fuel cell vehicles. The use of maintenance methods plus the smoothness of the operation of ordinary electric vehicles is a good choice for car buyers from any angle. After the increase in sales volume, the decline in costs is also inevitable.

Consistent with traditional fuel vehicles, the core technological difficulties are the biggest obstacles to the popularization of fuel cell vehicles. Many issues, such as hydrogen generation, energy storage, battery core components, and hydrogen storage tank scarce materials, require physics, chemistry, and engineering. Cross-domain development in multiple basic areas can only be alleviated by development. Like Tesla's battery density problem, it will become a long-term paralysis in the coming years. Once a breakthrough has been made in these areas, fuel cell vehicles will surely shine on the mainstream stage. After all, it will never be wrong to follow a good user experience.