Some hydrogen refuelling stations have been closed due to a lack of cars, while others have seen long queues of vehicles refuelling. The layout of hydrogen refuelling stations in Beijing has long caused drivers of hydrogen-powered cars to suffer from mileage anxiety.

There are 21 alternative stations in Changping District. Still, there is no noticeable construction investment movement for the Beiqing Road and Qiliqu hydrogen stations currently managed by Beijing Sanyuan Petroleum Co., Ltd., the Wangfu hydrogen station planned for the Future Science and Technology City in Changping District, and the Zhonghaichao station.

Regarding the problem of few hydrogen refueling stations and slow construction progress, some professionals pointed out that one of the reasons is the complicated approval process for hydrogen refueling stations. For example, hydrogen is defined as a hazardous chemical, so a safety production license is required in multiple links of "production, storage, transportation and filling."

At around 10 a.m. on September 18, six or seven buses were queuing to enter the Yihuatong hydrogen refueling station in Yongfeng, Haidian District, Beijing. Wang Gui, a bus driver of Beijing Shuimu Tongda Company, who was queuing here, told the Economic Observer reporter: "My bus is a 50-seat bus. It can only run 500 kilometers after being fully filled with hydrogen and fully charged. I often drive on the Shunyi and Tongzhou routes, but I can only refuel here."

"I dare not drive this car out of Beijing, otherwise it will be fine when I go out, but I can't come back." Wang Gui said: "To go to Gubei Water Town, I have to refuel every 200 to 300 kilometers."

Before visiting hydrogen refueling stations in Beijing, the Economic Observer reporter searched for "hydrogen refueling query" on the WeChat mini-program in advance. The results showed that there are currently 13 hydrogen refueling stations in Beijing, and they are mainly distributed in Yanqing District, Nanshahe and Daxing District in Changping. When connected together, they present a southeast-northwest curve.

When the reporter showed Wang Gui the hydrogen station distribution map on his mobile phone, he said with a little disdain: "It's fake. Many stations cannot be used for refueling. They are either closed, not open to the public, or not open at night."

The reporter then visited the PetroChina Futian Hydrogen Station, the Sinopec Beijing Xinglong oil-hydrogen joint station in Yanqing District, the Zhongguancun Qingyuan Hydrogen Station built by the State Power Investment Corporation, and the PetroChina Jinlong Hydrogen Station, and found that the operations of these hydrogen stations were not good. Some stations were overgrown with weeds, some were not open to the public, and some had been closed.

Beijing is one of the cities with the fastest development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in the country. The Beijing city cluster was selected as one of the first national hydrogen fuel cell vehicle demonstration operation city clusters. Beijing has planned to build 37 hydrogen refueling stations by 2023 and 74 hydrogen refueling stations by 2025. However, according to an investigation by the Economic Observer reporter, there are currently only 7 hydrogen refueling stations in Beijing that are actually open for operation, which is seriously lagging behind the planned target.

The dismal situation of hydrogen refueling stations is in sharp contrast to the current hot situation of the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry. In March this year, hydrogen energy was written into the government work report as a cutting-edge emerging industry for the first time. Subsequently, Shandong, Sichuan, Jilin, Shaanxi and other places successively introduced policies to exempt hydrogen vehicles from highway tolls. In the automotive industry, in August, Toyota announced the start of production of its fuel cell factory in China; in September, BMW announced that it would work with Toyota to develop the third-generation hydrogen fuel cell system, and would launch the first mass-produced hydrogen fuel cell vehicle for the market in 2028.

A staff member of a hydrogen refueling station said that the investment in building a hydrogen refueling station is large, and the daily operating costs are high. Although each kilogram of hydrogen costs 30 yuan, even if 2,000 kilograms of gas are sold a day, it is only 60,000 yuan. The daily electricity fee is several thousand yuan, plus labor costs, it is difficult to recover the investment and make a profit. This is an important problem that troubles hydrogen refueling station investors.

Some stations require queues, and some stations are deserted.

The PetroChina Futian Hydrogen Refueling Station, located next to Beijing Foton Auman New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., is not very large. The Economic Observer reporter saw from the scene that this hydrogen refueling station can only refuel one bus, but there are more than a dozen buses queuing up on both sides of the road to refuel.

Liu Hou, a bus driver, told reporters that this was still good, because when there were too many people, they could queue up at the Foton Cummins plant. Each hydrogen refueling took at least an hour, which basically meant "10 minutes of hydrogen refueling and an hour of queuing." This phenomenon of queuing at the Shishun hydrogen refueling station in Huangcun, Daxing was even more serious.

Not far from the SinoHydrogen Station and the Futian Hydrogen Station, reporters could hear the sound of "thump, thump". "This is because the hydrogen pressure in the hydrogen station is insufficient, so the hydrogen tanks are being pressurized," Liu Hou said. "It takes 30 to 40 minutes to pressurize the hydrogen tanks, and it takes several cars to pressurize, which makes the queue time longer."

Yao Chunde, a professor at Tianjin University, explained to the Economic Observer that the hydrogen storage pressure used in current hydrogen refueling stations is basically 35 MPa. When refueling a large vehicle, as more hydrogen is added to the vehicle, the pressure in the vehicle's hydrogen tank increases, and the pressure in the station is insufficient, so it needs to be reduced. This is also the reason why the staff of SinoHytec Hydrogen Refueling Station said that "it takes three to five minutes to refuel a small vehicle, and fifteen minutes to refuel a large vehicle."

Towards the urban area of Yanqing, at the intersection of Jingyin Road and Zhangwang Road, there is a Sinopec Beijing Xinglong oil-hydrogen combined station with two hydrogen refueling cabinets, but the station's hydrogen refueling business has been suspended for two years. According to an employee of the hydrogen refueling station, the station was built in 2021, mainly to serve the 24th Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics to be held in Beijing in 2022.

It is understood that the mountain competition zone of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics will be located in Yanqing District of Beijing and Zhangjiakou City. To serve this event, Beijing has deployed a total of 1,200 hydrogen fuel cell shuttle buses and built four Winter Olympics supporting hydrogen refueling stations in Qingyuan Street, Wangquanying, Jinlong and Yanhua Xinglong Station.

At present, the entrance and exit of Zhongguancun Qingyuan Hydrogen Refueling Station, built by State Power Investment Corporation, are blocked, the wormwood inside the hydrogen refueling station is more than one person tall, and some hydrogen buses parked inside the station are also showing signs of rust. The Qingyuan Street Hydrogen Refueling Station located in the 919 bus terminal only serves buses at this station, and the Wangquanying Hydrogen Refueling Station is also not open to the public.

The Sinopec Jinlong Hydrogen Refueling Station is still in operation, but staff told reporters that the station has been closed for more than three months because there are too few hydrogen refueling vehicles.

Some hydrogen refueling stations have been closed due to lack of cars, while some stations have seen long queues of vehicles refueling. The layout of hydrogen refueling stations in Beijing has caused drivers of hydrogen-powered vehicles to suffer from mileage anxiety for a long time.

The actual commissioning of sites lags behind the planned targets

In August 2021, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology officially released the "Beijing Hydrogen Energy Industry Development Implementation Plan (2021-2025)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), which established the Beijing Hydrogen Energy Industry Development Implementation Plan during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. According to the goals set in the "Plan", Beijing should strive to build and put into operation 37 hydrogen refueling stations by 2023, with a total hydrogen refueling capacity of 74 tons/day; and build 74 hydrogen refueling stations by 2025, with a total hydrogen refueling capacity of 148 tons/day.

However, more than half of 2024 has passed, and Beijing has only 13 hydrogen refueling stations, which is far from the planned number of hydrogen refueling stations to be built in 2023. It is worth noting that when the "Plan" was released, Beijing already had 11 hydrogen refueling stations, which means that in the past three years, Beijing has only built and put into operation 2 hydrogen refueling stations. Judging from the current progress, it is almost impossible to achieve the goal of 74 hydrogen refueling stations in 2025.

The construction of hydrogen refueling stations in various districts of Beijing is also quite different. The plan at that time planned to build 26 hydrogen refueling stations in 7 areas, namely Yanqing District, Haidian District, Changping District, Daxing District, Fangshan District, Shunyi District and Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone (also the pilot area for the construction of Beijing Fuel Cell Vehicle Demonstration City), to meet the hydrogen refueling demand of 3,370 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles at a capacity of 47 tons per day.

In the "Beijing Hydrogen Refueling Station Site Selection Reserve during the 14th Five-Year Plan Period", Shunyi District has planned 32 hydrogen refueling stations, but there is still no hydrogen refueling station. In addition, Chaoyang District and Tongzhou District have planned 12 and 26 hydrogen refueling stations respectively, but there is still no hydrogen refueling station.

There are 21 alternative stations in Changping District, but there is no obvious construction investment movement for the Beiqing Road and Qiliqu hydrogen stations managed by Beijing Sanyuan Petroleum Co., Ltd., the Wangfu hydrogen station planned for the Future Science and Technology City in Changping District, and the Zhonghaichao station.

Liu Guozhu, director and general manager of State Power Investment Hydrogen Power (Beijing) Technology Service Co., Ltd., said that their company operates 220 buses and about 400 logistics vehicles in Beijing, of which seventy or eighty buses operate at the Capital Airport. However, there is no hydrogen refueling station in Shunyi District and Chaoyang District. Vehicles either go to Changping or Daxing to refuel. A single trip consumes about 100 kilometers on the road, resulting in high hydrogen refueling costs.

In fact, not only is the construction of hydrogen refueling stations slow, but the promotion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is also slower than expected. According to the plan, Beijing will promote 3,000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in 2023, and by 2025, the cumulative promotion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will exceed 10,000.

In June 2023, Beijing changed its goal of promoting hydrogen energy vehicles. The Beijing Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau published the "Beijing Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Carbon Emission Reduction Project Design Document" on its official website, stating that it is expected that the number of vehicles in the first year of this project (April 22, 2023-April 21, 2024) will reach 1,800, and the second and third years after this time will be 4,500 and 8,100 respectively (heavy trucks are expected to reach 5,400).

According to the "Ten Thousand Vehicles and 100 Stations" Fuel Cell Vehicle Demonstration Big Data Report released by the China Automotive Strategy and Policy Research Center of China Automotive Technology and Research Center in August, as of June 20, 2024, there will be 11,334 fuel cell vehicle demonstration vehicles and 143 hydrogen refueling stations built nationwide.

Difficulty in making profits is the key constraint

Regarding the problem of few hydrogen refueling stations and slow construction progress, some professionals pointed out that this is due to the complicated approval process for hydrogen refueling stations. For example, hydrogen is defined as a hazardous chemical, so a safety production license is required in multiple links of "production, storage, transportation and filling."

Sun Liqing, a professor at Beijing Institute of Technology, told the Economic Observer that the most important issue is economics, including the overall economic environment and the economics of hydrogen-powered vehicles. On the one hand, the hydrogen-powered vehicle industry is driven by policies, and many places have planned many projects, but with the current economic downturn, local governments do not have much money to subsidize the construction of hydrogen refueling stations; on the other hand, the construction of hydrogen refueling stations requires large investments and high operating costs. According to the standard, the construction of a small hydrogen refueling station also requires an investment of 5 to 6 million yuan, but the amount of government subsidies only accounts for about one-third of the construction cost, and the cost of a large hydrogen refueling station will be higher.

It is understood that the construction cost of a hydrogenation station with a daily hydrogenation capacity of 1,000 kg and a 70Mpa hydrogenation system is at least 20 million yuan (plus construction, design, maintenance, and management costs), of which equipment costs account for about 80%. The hydrogen compressor accounts for about 30% of the overall cost of the hydrogenation station, and pipes and valves, hydrogen tanks, and filling equipment account for about 13% each.

In August 2022, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economic and Information Technology issued the "Several Policy Measures of Beijing on Supporting the Development of the Hydrogen Energy Industry", which shows that for hydrogen refueling stations built (including renovation and expansion) within the administrative area of Beijing, a fixed construction subsidy of 5 million yuan and 2 million yuan will be given respectively according to the two levels of compressor 12-hour rated working capacity of not less than 1,000 kg and 500 kg; for hydrogen refueling stations within the administrative area of Beijing that provide hydrogen refueling services and promise a market sales price of hydrogen not higher than 30 yuan/kg, a hydrogen operation subsidy of 10 yuan/kg will be given.

An employee of the Beijing Xinglong oil and hydrogen combined station said that 30 million yuan was spent on building the station in 2021, and 25 million yuan was invested in hydrogenation-related equipment alone. However, the current hydrogenation business has ceased operations, and this part of the investment has been wasted.

In the operational phase, the high cost of hydrogen at the front end leads to high prices at the station, and the small number of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles leads to low load rates at hydrogen refueling stations, making it difficult for hydrogen refueling stations to recover costs. A staff member at the SinoHytec hydrogen refueling station said, "Our company makes fuel cell stacks, and this station is just a supporting service, and it doesn't make any money at all."

It is understood that the gas used by SinoHytec's hydrogen refueling station is imported from Yanshan Petrochemical, and the price for vehicles from cooperative units is 30 yuan per kilogram, while that for vehicles without cooperation is about 40 to 50 yuan per kilogram. The hydrogen refueling station is designed to have a daily hydrogen refueling capacity of 1 ton. Even if all the hydrogen is refueled every day, the government subsidy is only 40,000 yuan, which is difficult to offset the costs, including gas intake and transportation costs, labor costs, water and electricity costs, and maintenance costs.

Wang Chao, chairman of Beijing Kering Automotive Group, believes that the fundamental reason for the backward construction of hydrogen refueling stations is that there are too few hydrogen-powered vehicles. "If there are many vehicles, the station will be very busy every day, and people will be willing to invest 100 million yuan. On the contrary, no one will be willing to do it even if they lose 10 yuan."

Sun Liqing believes that the entire hydrogen energy vehicle industry needs to improve technology and efficiency from equipment manufacturing to storage, transportation and operation. A commercial closed loop has not yet been achieved, so no money can be made now.

At the 20th China Automotive Industry Development (TEDA) International Forum held at the end of August, Geng Jinjun, the second-level inspector of the Transportation Service Department of the Ministry of Transport, said: "The promotion and application of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has made certain progress, but some cities have blindly followed suit. The promotion and application of hydrogen energy vehicles should reasonably grasp the intensity and rhythm, act within their capabilities, and advance in an orderly manner."

" In fact , as a demonstration city for hydrogen energy vehicles, Beijing is very representative, and the current status of hydrogen energy vehicle promotion in Beijing is also a microcosm of the entire domestic market ," said Sun Liqing.

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