The first domestic company specializing in small hydrogen fuel cells for drones has secured Series A financing and has won orders worth 600 million yuan | Exclusive from 36Kr

Author | Ye Danxuan

Editor | Yuan Silai

36Kr learned that Xieqing (Shanghai) New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. recently completed its first Series A financing of tens of millions of yuan. The investor in this round is Silicon Harbor Capital. The funds in this round will be mainly used for the R & D, manufacturing, application of hydrogen - powered drones and the construction of service networks.

Xieqing New Energy is a professional provider of small air - cooled hydrogen fuel cell systems. It is also the original inventor of the air - cooled hydrogen fuel cell system in China and the first inventor of small hydrogen fuel cells for drones in China. Currently, Xieqing New Energy has a R & D center for hydrogen - powered drones in Shenzhen, and fuel cell R & D centers in Shanghai and Chizhou. It also has production bases in Chizhou, Zaozhuang and Zhangjiagang.

Since 2003, Xieqing New Energy has been focusing on the R & D of small air - cooled hydrogen fuel cells. It has the world's largest production capacity of air - cooled fuel cells, with an annual production capacity of over 100,000 units. Small air - cooled hydrogen fuel cells are mainly used in scenarios such as two - wheeled vehicles, drones, mobile power sources, small cruise ships, and unmanned express delivery vehicles.

According to the data in the "2024 Hydrogen Energy Industry Vitality Report", China's hydrogen energy consumption scale will increase to 38 million tons by 2030, and the market demand for hydrogen energy in China will exceed 85 million tons by 2060.

Based on the booming market demand and the team's technological accumulation in the field of air - cooled hydrogen fuel cells, Xieqing New Energy has expanded the commercial application path of hydrogen fuel cells in recent years and successfully developed a number of hydrogen - powered drone products, including more than ten models such as small multi - rotor drones, heavy - duty industrial drones for wide - range applications, and large - payload industrial drones.

Currently, lithium batteries are the main power system for drones in the market. However, in industrial - grade fields such as photovoltaic cleaning, logistics transportation, hoisting, inspection, and fire - fighting, the problems of short battery life and small payload of lithium batteries have always restricted the development of industrial - grade drones. The energy density of hydrogen fuel cells is much higher than that of lithium batteries, so they will have great advantages when applied to industrial - grade drones.

Zhao Qilin, the founder and chairman of Xieqing New Energy, revealed to 36Kr that Xieqing is currently the only company in the industry that can achieve a payload of over 50 kilograms for rotorcraft and a full - load flight duration of over two hours. "Even for drones using air - cooled hydrogen fuel cells, most of the air - cooled hydrogen fuel cells available in the market now have an electric energy capacity of less than 5 kWh, but the air - cooled hydrogen fuel cells provided by Xieqing for its self - developed drones have reached the level of 20 kW."

Among them, the Qingtian H200 model can work in an ultra - low - temperature environment of - 40°C, with a payload of up to 100 kg and a battery life of up to 3 hours.

In addition, Xieqing New Energy continues to develop a number of air - cooled hydrogen fuel cell products of different models in its traditional advantageous fields. In the field of drone fuel cell systems, the Qilin HiTS - 10000 can reach 12 kW. In the field of two - wheeled vehicle batteries, products such as the Qilin HiTS - 400 and Qilin HiTS - 1000 can operate stably for more than 6,000 hours.

In terms of commercialization, recently, Xieqing New Energy reached a cooperation order worth 600 million yuan with Qingyang Technology. The company's long - endurance drones will achieve large - payload postal delivery in extremely cold weather in the Daxing'anling area of Heilongjiang at - 35°C. At the same time, Xieqing New Energy reached a cooperation on 50,000 hydrogen - electric shared two - wheeled vehicles, which will be rolled out in key provinces such as Guangdong, Sichuan, and Jiangsu this year.

In terms of the overseas market, Zhao Qilin, the founder and chairman, revealed that Xieqing New Energy has established business contacts with some Central Asian countries. In the future, it will focus on exploring the Middle East market and set up a production base in the Middle East region. Next, with the support of the cooperation with Silicon Harbor Capital, the continuous introduction of overseas resources will speed up the global layout.