Interview with Lin Cheng: The "Dual-Carbon" goal promotes the transition of the auto industry to electrification, and aims to integrate industrial chain with a hydrogen energy chassis.
21st Century Business Herald reporter Wu Wenxi reported in Guangzhou As energy conservation and emission reduction have become a global consensus, new energy sources such as hydrogen have gradually stepped onto the stage and become a new track for enterprises to compete. In September 2020, China put forward the "dual carbon" goal, and the new energy vehicle industry represented by hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles once again took the lead.
Why can new energy vehicles stand on the "outlet" repeatedly? How should new energy vehicle companies deploy on the electrified track? How can companies help the Greater Bay Area to integrate the hydrogen energy industry chain?
Recently, Professor Lin Cheng, chairman of Sinovation EV., accepted an exclusive interview with reporters from 21st Century Business Herald (hereinafter referred to as "21st Century"). He believes that the industrial chain of electric vehicles is longer and broader than that of fuel vehicles. Under the "dual-carbon" goal, new energy vehicle companies should increase their efforts in research and development of complete vehicles, improve the industrial chain and product system, and support companies should apply as soon as possible. Electricity transformation, and other companies should also actively join the track, develop new business models, and tap more business opportunities.
Lin Cheng said that the company is currently planning to integrate with local enterprises in Foshan around the hydrogen energy chassis to form a hydrogen energy demonstration vehicle standard, and radiate to other cities in the Greater Bay Area to help the development of the hydrogen energy industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
Chairman of Professor Linchen from Sinovation EV
New energy vehicles under the "dual carbon" Carbon Neutral meet the "wind vent" again
"21st Century": Under the "dual carbon" goal, which industries will be the first to encounter challenges? Are there huge opportunities behind these challenges?
Lin Cheng: I think the automotive industry is facing huge challenges and also huge development opportunities. Traditional cars use fuel, which burns in internal combustion engines and releases carbon dioxide and other emissions. This is in contradiction with our country’s "dual carbon" goal. Therefore, the transition from traditional fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles is a very important strategic direction.
How to make the transition? It cannot be simply understood as changing the car from the original engine fuel-burning drive to the battery drive. It should be understood as the transition to electrification in the future of the car development. The electricity we use should also be clean and green, so that it can be truly real. The realization of the "dual carbon" goal is in line with the development direction.
Our country’s annual output of automobiles has now reached 25 million, but most of them are fuel vehicles. Now that the country has set the direction for the development of the "dual carbon" goal, I believe this market is huge, and there is huge room for the transition and development of the automotive industry to the direction of electric vehicles. But how to get there, the entrepreneurs still need to think about it.
"21st Century": The automobile industry has always been my country's "large carbon emitter". Under the current "dual carbon" goal, the new energy automobile industry has once again become the "window". Why can the new energy automobile industry continue to stand in the air? What is the difference between the current "outlet" of the new energy automobile industry and a few years ago?
Lin Cheng: Looking back at the development history of new energy vehicles with electric vehicles as the mainstay, we can find that electric vehicles actually started earlier than fuel vehicles. The electric car was invented in 1834, and the fuel car was in 1886. However, electric vehicles could not compete with fuel vehicles in the early days, and their driving range and performance in all aspects lag behind fuel vehicles. Therefore, at the beginning of the last century, fuel vehicles occupied an absolute leading position.
In the 1970s, the Western world was facing an oil crisis. People thought of using electricity to replace expensive fuel. Electric vehicles ushered in the first outbreak in modern history. But with the lifting of the oil crisis, electric vehicles have fallen again.
After the 1980s and 1990s, air pollution and other problems appeared. Electric vehicles were again taken seriously, but large-scale production and sales were not formed.
Until entering the new century, especially after 2010, we in China believe that electric vehicles are an important opportunity for the national automobile industry to overtake corners. At the same time, China is indeed facing urgent air pollution and energy security issues. At the national level, pure electric drive is also specifically proposed as the future development direction of automobiles. The state has given huge support from scientific research investment to industrial support. Electric vehicles have entered a large-scale industrialization stage in China, and new vitality has erupted.
Recently, it has received attention again because of the "dual carbon" goal. In recent years, various countries have attached great importance to greenhouse gas emissions, and have respectively proposed greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, and China has also proposed a "dual carbon" target. Fuel-fueled vehicles not only emit pollutants, but also emit a large amount of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Electric vehicles have once again demonstrated their advantages under the guidance of the "dual carbon" goal. Therefore, in the history of electric vehicles, it has frequently been on the front line, which is caused by different historical circumstances and reasons.
Electric new track promotes enterprise technological innovation
"21st Century": Electrification is an important measure to achieve the goal of achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality. How do you think new energy automobile companies should lay out and expand their industry growth space?
Lin Cheng: The future development direction of the auto industry is electrification. This is the consensus of all automakers, auto companies and supporting companies. How to get involved in this industry, I think different companies have different approaches.
For example, vehicle companies must consider future carbon credits and issues related to emissions reduction. In the future, reproducing fuel vehicles may face negative points, and producing electric vehicles will win positive points, and if they get negative points, the country may charge additional fees. Therefore, for vehicle companies, it is necessary to increase the research and development of electric vehicles and improve their industrial chain and product system as soon as possible.
For supporting companies, especially engine companies, they may need to transform. Not only to improve engine technology, but also to do hybrid power, fuel cells, so that electricity can participate.
For companies that are not originally in the electric vehicle industry, they can also get involved in the field of electric vehicles, including charging piles and the sharing of such business models. There are a lot of business opportunities. The industry chain of electric vehicles will be more than that of fuel vehicles. Longer and wider.
"21st Century": How do you promote the realization of disruptive technological innovation? What are the unique advantages of the company's technological innovation?
Lin Cheng: The heart of China's first electric bus developed by Beijing Institute of Technology in 1994, the drive system was not Chinese. In the following 5 to 10 years’ research, Sinovation EV team achieved autonomy in the electric drive system. After the year of 2000, we applied our self-developed electric drive system to our cars, breaking through the core key technologies of new energy vehicles.
China started its national key research and development plan for new energy vehicles in 2002. Sinovation EV has become the responsible unit for pure electric buses in the National Electric Vehicle Plan, and has taken the lead in leading a group of motor and battery companies to jointly build electric vehicles. After 2002, the country began to engage in major special projects for electric vehicles. We were in charge of pure electric vehicles. We also developed a batch of the world’s earliest lithium battery low-floor electric buses. In the core area of the Olympics, BIT has built 50 pure electric buses to operate in the core area of the Olympics to fulfill the country's commitment to zero emissions at the core of the Olympics. These 50 cars are very successful, because these cars have the highest technical content. They are the first cars in the world to be made in batches with lithium batteries. More importantly, these batteries can be replaced, and they are automatically replaced by robots.
Due to the successful application of the Olympic Games, the country recognizes that pure electric vehicles are an important direction for electric vehicles, and the country has also determined the development direction of pure electric drives. After the Olympics, Sinovation EV was established. The Beijing Sinovation EV team started from the core technology to enter the power platform product development stage. Our team developed more than 2,000 electric sanitation vehicles for Beijing, and they were put into operation in Beijing. In addition, the development and operation of electric buses for the Shanghai World Expo and the Guangzhou Asian Games were also undertaken by Sinovation EV, and the effect was very good.
After completing the merger and reorganization in 2018, Sinovation EV entered Foshan last year. The Foshan government has given us a lot of support. We hope that we will bring these technologies to Foshan and realize industrialization. Relying on the positioning of Foshan’s hydrogen energy demonstration city and focusing on the needs of Foshan City, we used our strengths to target the field of hydrogen energy dedicated chassis and put core key technologies in the chassis, such as vehicle wire control technology, comprehensive thermal management technology, and electricity Drive technology, automation technology, and more importantly, the lightweight technology of the chassis, to create a high-level, lightweight, and intelligent hydrogen chassis. I believe this is a good direction and can also help the integration and integration of local industries. developing.
Helping the Greater Bay Area to integrate the hydrogen energy industry chain
"21st Century": Sinovation EV New Energy Technology established a production base in Zhaoqing and an operation center in Foshan. Why does the company have such a layout?
Lin Cheng: The main body of Sinovation EV is in Zhaoqing, while the Company is located in Beijing, one south and one north, which can integrate the advantages of the north and the south. In the north, we have a research and development center to give full play to the advantages of universities and talents, and focus on the research and development of core technologies for the northern market. But Beijing, as the capital, has high labor costs and limited space resources. Therefore, we established a production base in Zhaoqing, Guangdong to give full play to the advantages of engineering talents and industrial supporting facilities in the Greater Bay Area. Now we have built a factory and can start production next year.
Foshan has a very good policy environment. Whether we are the operation center of the new energy sector of listed companies in Foshan or the sales center of the southern market, it is of great benefit. The local government has also given us a lot of support. In Foshan, we will focus on the positioning of Foshan as a hydrogen energy demonstration city. Now we have reached consensus in various aspects with local supporting enterprises and users. Sinovation EV has come forward to create a dedicated hydrogen energy chassis to give full play to our With advantages in vehicle integration and control, we strive to integrate the local industrial chain.
The hydrogen energy industry chain is very wide, including stacks, gas supply systems, control systems, etc., integrated with Sinovation EV’s original three-electric system, coupled with lightweight design, to create a professional, high-level chassis, which is a high-level chassis for Foshan Demonstration of hydrogen energy provides our core products while also contributing to the local economy.
"21st Century": At present, Guangdong's fuel cell vehicle demonstration application city cluster has been officially approved. How should the company make adjustments in the next step, how to make efforts, and use its own advantages to help the development of the hydrogen energy industry in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area?
Lin Cheng: I just talked about a lot of technical aspects. To make this technology widely used, it also needs the cooperation of business model and capital. The government supports the improvement of our supporting system; build business models, such as car-buying platforms and well-built vehicles. In the future, buy the car and share it with customers. Once this model is formed, it can be promoted and applied in Nansha and other places in the Greater Bay Area. We will give priority to local resources to promote the orderly development of local industries.
From an industrial point of view, we will focus on the integration of the hydrogen energy chassis industry. We can work with many local companies to do this to form a local standard, form a standard for hydrogen energy demonstration vehicles, and build the highest level at home and abroad. The level of the vehicle allows it to run in Guangdong.
Guangdong's industrial chain is relatively strong, but the degree of integration is not high, and our goal is to integrate the industrial chain, while increasing the technological content, so that Guangdong's industries and parts have future development momentum and direction. Based on this, I think we can contribute to Foshan and the Greater Bay Area, and at the same time, listed companies can develop rapidly.