Facing the increasingly severe global energy situation and environmental pressures, in recent years, the world’s major automobile production countries have taken the development of new energy vehicles as a major strategic measure to improve industrial competitiveness and maintain sustainable economic and social development.
In 2016, the global new energy vehicle market continued to maintain a rapid growth trend. In the whole year, the global sales of new energy passenger vehicles (including pure electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles) totaled 774,000 units, an increase of 40% from 2015. Automobiles have become a new growth point in the market. At present, a new round of research and development, demonstration and industrialization of new energy vehicles has begun, and it has received great attention from governments and enterprises of various countries.
From an international perspective, with continuous technological innovation and breakthroughs, in the face of the financial crisis, rising oil prices, and increasingly severe pressure on energy conservation and emission reduction, since 2008, countries and regions represented by the United States, Japan, and the European Union have successively issued and implemented The new electric vehicle development strategy has further clarified the direction of the industry’s development, and has significantly increased R&D investment and policy support. Japan takes industrial competitiveness as its primary goal, and comprehensively develops three types of electric vehicles: hybrid, pure electric, and fuel cell. The R&D and industrialization are all at the forefront of the world. The United States takes energy security as its primary task and emphasizes the development of plug-in electric vehicles. ; The European Union takes carbon dioxide emission regulations as the main driving force and attaches importance to the development of pure electric vehicles. From a technical perspective, hybrid electric vehicle technology has gradually matured, has entered a period of product market competition, has taken the lead in realizing industrialization, and is becoming a new growth point in automobile market sales. Among them, hybrid vehicles in the Japanese market have reached about 10% of car sales. The advancement of pure electric vehicle battery technology is accelerating, and vehicle products are closer to consumer needs. Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, as a kind of electric vehicle technology with the dual characteristics of pure electric and hybrid power, have become a new research and development hotspot in the world. The innovation of the pure electric vehicle business model represented by battery leasing has made progress, and the world’s major automakers have accelerated the pace of mass production of pure electric vehicles. Significant progress has been made in fuel cell technology for vehicles. The amount of precious metal catalyst Pt for GM’s car fuel cell engine has been reduced from 80g in the previous generation to 30g, and it has been reduced to 10g in 2015. Fuel cell vehicles are in power, safety, and continuous driving. Performance indicators such as mileage and low-temperature starting are close to the level of gasoline vehicles, and the cost of fuel cell vehicles has dropped significantly. Toyota announced that it has achieved its target of a fuel cell vehicle retail price of US$50,000 per vehicle in 2015.
After years of exploration and practice, the international automobile industry has reached a strategic consensus on the industrialization of electric vehicles: on the technical route, in the early stage (2010~2015), while relying on the improvement of internal combustion engine vehicle technology and the promotion of vehicle miniaturization to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, In order to meet the requirements of stricter energy saving and emission reduction regulations, promote the application of hybrid technology as soon as possible, and develop small pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles; in the medium term (2016~2020), hybrid technology will be widely used On the basis of this, increase the electrification of automobile power systems, increase the promotion of small pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles; in the mid to long term (after 2020), various pure electric technologies will gradually occupy a dominant position, and through further development Pure electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles have greatly reduced oil consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. In terms of vehicle application, different types of electric vehicle technologies, such as pure electric, hybrid and fuel cell, each have the optimal scope of application for transportation. For urban short-distance travel needs, small pure electric vehicles have advantages; for long-distance travel needs, hybrid vehicles, plug-in hybrid vehicles or fuel cell vehicles are suitable.
