Interview with ZHANG Guoqiang of Yihuatong: The fuel cell vehicle industry has initially completed the transition from 0 to 1

During this year's Two Sessions, hydrogen energy has become a hot topic in the discussion of green and low-carbon development. The Government Work Report this year explicitly mentioned hydrogen energy and proposed to cultivate new growth points such as hydrogen energy and green fuels.

As the first fuel cell enterprise listed on both the A-share and H-share markets in China, Yihuatong has witnessed the entire process of the fuel cell industry from technological breakthroughs to demonstration implementation. Zhang Guoqiang, a deputy to the National People's Congress and the chairman of Yihuatong, has been deeply involved in the hydrogen energy industry for many years and has also personally experienced the key stage of the hydrogen energy industry's development from pilot exploration to large-scale and market-oriented development.

During the Two Sessions, he put forward a number of practical suggestions on key industry issues such as the large-scale development of hydrogen energy and the acceleration of the construction of a unified national carbon trading market. He told China Entrepreneur, "Currently, the fuel cell vehicle industry in China has initially completed the technological breakthroughs and industrial chain construction from '0 to 1'."

In the diverse application scenarios of hydrogen energy, he especially mentioned the high-speed logistics scenario. He said that the high-speed logistics scenario is becoming a key breakthrough point for promoting the large-scale and commercial application of fuel cell vehicles.

Currently, China's hydrogen energy industry is at a critical stage of moving from single-point demonstration to ecological synergy. Zhang Guoqiang is well aware of the importance of industrial synergy for the development of hydrogen energy. He mentioned that the full-chain synergy of "government - vehicle manufacturers - hydrogen supply - logistics operations - financial institutions" should be promoted to create a replicable and scalable industrial ecological closed-loop.

Hydrogen energy, known as the "ultimate energy of the 21st century," is of great significance in the context of China's current green transformation. How to transform the ecological value of strategic emerging industries such as hydrogen energy into economic value through institutional innovation and build the endogenous driving force for sustainable development is the core issue that Zhang Guoqiang is concerned about.

"Accelerating the construction of a unified national carbon trading market is the key," Zhang Guoqiang mentioned. Building a unified national carbon trading market is a systematic project that requires breaking the mindset, boldly exploring and innovating, stimulating market vitality, and promoting it to become a new economic growth engine.

The following is the transcript of the interview (abridged):

On the current situation of the hydrogen energy industry

China Entrepreneur: What's your view on the current hydrogen energy industry?

Zhang Guoqiang: Currently, the fuel cell vehicle industry in China has initially completed the technological breakthroughs and industrial chain construction from "0 to 1" and basically established a technical system for vehicle fuel cells and on-board hydrogen systems with independent intellectual property rights.

The localization rate of core components such as stacks, bipolar plates, air compressors, air circulation systems, and membrane electrodes has reached over 90%. Domestic products at the material level, such as catalysts, carbon paper, and proton exchange membranes, have also begun to be applied in small batches. The comprehensive cost of fuel cell systems has dropped from 10,000 yuan per kilowatt in 2021 to about 2,000 yuan per kilowatt currently. The pure hydrogen driving range of fuel cell vehicles has reached 600 kilometers, and technically, they are ready for high-speed scenario operations.

China Entrepreneur: You specifically mentioned the demonstration application of hydrogen energy on highways. What are your considerations?

Zhang Guoqiang: Highways are the main arteries of the modern transportation system. Conducting hydrogen energy highway demonstrations is an effective way to promote energy conservation and carbon reduction in the transportation sector, drive the transformation of road transport vehicles from "dual control of energy consumption" to "dual control of carbon," and is also a key measure to accelerate the hydrogen energy and fuel cell vehicle industries to break through development bottlenecks and explore market-oriented commercial operation models.

Through actual operation verification, fuel cell vehicles have demonstrated reliable technical performance and good operational stability in regional trunk logistics scenarios.

Take a 49-ton heavy truck in Henan Province as an example for a simple calculation: According to estimates, currently, the unit transportation cost of fuel cell vehicles is about 1.3 times that of similar fuel vehicles. If all highway tolls are waived (from January 1, 2026, to December 31, 2027, Henan Province will exempt hydrogen-powered trucks passing through its toll roads from tolls), the unit transportation cost can be reduced by about 20%, and about 200,000 yuan in highway tolls can be saved annually, making them more economical than fuel vehicles.

On the issue of large-scale development

China Entrepreneur: The large-scale development of hydrogen energy has attracted wide attention from all sectors. What do you think are the bottlenecks?

Zhang Guoqiang: Taking the current hydrogen energy highway demonstrations in various places as an example, there are still obvious limitations.

The operation scope is mostly limited to within the province or specific local areas. The cross-regional coordinated linkage mechanism has not been established. The demonstration effect and radiation-driven ability are insufficient, making it difficult to effectively support the large-scale development of the fuel cell vehicle industry, and the driving effect on the overall industrial speed-up and upgrading is relatively limited.

China Entrepreneur: What do you think are the core concerns for large-scale development? How to promote the coordinated development of the industry?

Zhang Guoqiang: The construction of hydrogen energy infrastructure is the top priority for hydrogen energy highway demonstrations. Currently, the high-speed hydrogen energy supply system is still immature and imperfect, which is the key bottleneck restricting hydrogen energy highway demonstrations.

I think hydrogen refueling stations should be moderately pre - arranged along the main routes of hydrogen energy highways, and hydrogen production plants and hydrogen pipelines should be arranged along the routes. At the same time, pilot applications of advanced models such as on - site hydrogen production from slope photovoltaics should be carried out. In addition, a large - scale hydrogen transportation network should be established to alleviate the regional mismatch between hydrogen energy resources and hydrogen demand in China.

At the same time, the establishment of cross - regional hydrogen energy industry alliances should be encouraged. A national hydrogen energy highway big data platform should be established to integrate data on hydrogen refueling station operations, vehicle operations, and hydrogen supply and demand, realizing full - chain digital management and intelligent scheduling.

On carbon trading and the development of green industries

China Entrepreneur: What's your view on the development of green industries in recent years?

Zhang Guoqiang: Green industries have become an important engine for driving economic growth.

However, as the green transformation deepens, the industrial development also faces new challenges: On the one hand, the overall cost of green industries is still relatively high; on the other hand, the downstream market has limited ability to identify green products and services and still has weak willingness to pay. Without an effective external mechanism to make the carbon emission cost explicit, the sustainable development of green industries will be difficult to obtain endogenous driving force.

Although the construction of a unified national carbon trading market has achieved phased results, compared with the strategic goal of "a national - level financial asset trading platform integrating instant trading, efficient pricing, and digital circulation of carbon assets", there are still problems such as unclear legal attributes of carbon assets, insufficient market vitality, insufficient supply of professional talents, and imperfect supporting systems, which restrict the depth and breadth of innovation in the national carbon market.

China Entrepreneur: How do you understand the significance of the carbon trading market for the development of emerging industries?

Zhang Guoqiang: Accelerating the construction of a unified national carbon trading market, pricing carbon emission rights through the market mechanism, and clarifying the clear orientation of "carbon emissions have costs and carbon reduction has benefits" will effectively promote the green and low - carbon transformation of traditional industries, stimulate technological innovation, leverage large - scale green and low - carbon investments, improve the "green content" and "gold content" of economic development, and help cultivate new productive forces.

China Entrepreneur: Some people believe that the unified national carbon trading market is expected to become the third strategic factor market after the financial market and the real estate market. What's your view on this?

Zhang Guoqiang: Building the unified national carbon trading market into a national - level financial asset trading platform integrating instant trading, efficient pricing, and digital circulation of carbon assets has three - fold strategic value.

Firstly, it can achieve low - cost carbon reduction through the market mechanism; secondly, it can guide industrial transformation and upgrading through price signals; thirdly, it can activate the value of carbon assets through its financial attributes. This means that carbon assets will transform from static "compliance tools" to dynamic "capital factors", which can be circulated efficiently and realized quickly like stocks and become new capital factors that can be pledged, repurchased, and invested in.

This article is from the WeChat official account "China Entrepreneur Magazine" (ID: iceo - com - cn), author: Miao Shiyu, published by 36Kr with authorization.