A team of experts from Tongji University conducted a research visit to provide guidance on the development of Pengfei’s hydrogen energy industry.

Release Date:

2024-06-13

On June 12, at the special invitation of the Xiaoyi Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government, Professor Yu Zhuoping of Tongji University’s School of Automotive Engineering and Director of the National Collaborative Innovation Center for Intelligent New Energy Vehicles, along with his delegation, visited Xiaoyi City and Pengfei Group to conduct an inspection and research mission on the development of the hydrogen energy industry. This marked a further solid step forward in the tripartite collaboration among the university, the local government, and the enterprise—“Hiring Hydrogen to Usher in the Future, Achieving Win-Win Cooperation.” Attending the related activities were Liu Shiqing, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Lüliang Municipal People’s Congress and Secretary of the Xiaoyi Municipal Party Committee; Guo Qingzhi, Deputy Secretary of the Xiaoyi Municipal Party Committee and Mayor; Feng Guangyuan, Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Director of the Management Committee of the Xiaoyi Economic Development Zone; as well as Zheng Peng, Chairman of the Board and President of Pengfei Group, together with heads of relevant departments.

Professor Yu Zhuoping emphasized that the three major challenges currently hindering the development of hydrogen‑fuel‑cell heavy‑duty trucks are the high construction complexity of hydrogen refueling stations, limited application scenarios, and elevated costs. However, leveraging the Xiyi Coal Chemical Park’s abundant hydrogen‑production resources—such as coal and coke‑oven gas—and its extensive use cases in heavy‑truck transportation of bulk materials, reducing costs has become the key to overcoming these obstacles. Moving forward, the College of Automotive Studies at Tongji University will consolidate and analyze operational data from the two hundred hydrogen‑powered heavy‑duty trucks already in service, along with vehicle‑level performance metrics. By optimizing the configuration of electric motors, batteries, fuel cells, and hydrogen‑supply systems, the university aims to lower costs while ensuring peak performance meets operational requirements, thereby jointly advancing the implementation of the five‑year action plan for hydrogen‑powered heavy‑duty trucks and fostering the growth of the hydrogen energy industry.

Mayor Guo Qingzhi outlined Xiaoyi City’s plan for developing the hydrogen energy industry, emphasizing that hydrogen energy is a strategic emerging sector and a key priority for future industrial development in China, as well as a hallmark of new‑type productive forces in the energy field. He expressed the hope that Xiaoyi would serve as a base for translating cutting‑edge research into practical applications, with universities, local authorities, and enterprises jointly formulating and implementing a five‑year action plan for hydrogen‑powered heavy‑duty trucks. The city will focus on overcoming critical core technologies, vigorously addressing the challenges hindering industry growth, and working together to create world‑class demonstration scenarios for hydrogen energy, thereby providing robust support for the high‑quality development of the hydrogen economy.

Xue Zhiqiang, Vice Mayor of Xiaoyi City, provided a detailed overview of the city’s general situation.

Zheng Peng, Chairman of the Board and President of Pengfei Group, outlined the future development roadmap for hydrogen‑powered heavy trucks from social, economic, energy‑related, and equipment‑based perspectives. He emphasized that, as a key sector in carbon emissions, the transportation industry must integrate with the energy sector under the “dual carbon” framework—this integration is both strategically vital and imperative. Through a five‑year action plan for hydrogen‑powered heavy trucks, the company aims to break through critical technological barriers and enhance the alignment between core components and application scenarios. It will also establish a task force dedicated to autonomous driving technologies, accelerating the intelligent evolution of hydrogen‑powered heavy trucks and loaders. By consolidating automotive R&D and manufacturing, Pengfei seeks to jointly build a world‑class, domestically leading modern equipment‑manufacturing base, producing top‑tier hydrogen‑powered heavy trucks and specialized vehicles, along with premium fuel‑cell stacks and membrane electrodes and other core components. Together, the company will explore more effective solutions for green transformation, drive the transition to higher‑efficiency, cleaner energy sources, and make an even greater contribution to sustainable development.

Prior to the meeting, Professor Yu Zhuoping and his delegation conducted on-site visits to the Urban Hydrogen‑Recharging Integrated Energy Island, the Pengfei Zhichuang Automotive Manufacturing Park, the water electrolysis green hydrogen production project site, and the 5G‑enabled Central Dispatch and Command Management Center.