Shanghai’s First Batch of Ride-Hailing Fuel Cell Cars to Enter Operation

The Shanghai municipal government announced on September 21 that the city’s first batch of fuel cell vehicles for ride-hailing will be put into operation by the end of this month. There will soon be 80 vehicles operating around Hongqiao Airport, which will be filled with hydrogen at the Shanghai Qingwei Petro-Hydrogen Co-Construction Station every day.

This station is located in the Yangtze River Delta eco-green development demonstration zone. The station chief said that the first batch of 80 vehicles will be high-end cars, namely seven-seater SAIC MAXUS models.

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These vehicles will be powered by Shanghai Hydrogen Propulsion Technology (SHPT) to carry normalized commercial operations in the future. At the same time, during a delivery ceremony for the first batch of hydrogen-powered vehicles in Shanghai, nearly 20 “hydrogen-powered passenger MPV” vehicles made up of SAIC MAXUS Mifas also made their debut.

As one of the first demonstration cities for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, Shanghai is accelerating the implementation of hydrogen energy industry projects. So far, it has successively launched hydrogen fuel cell buses in Jiading, Fengxian, Lingang and Jinshan districts. In addition, a second hydrogenation station in the city’s Lingang New Area has also been put into use recently.

At the end of last year, GAC, SAIC’s rival, announced that its first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle had officially started demonstration operations, which was also the first commercial demonstration project related to fuel cell passenger cars in China. The enterprise undertaking the operation is ONTIME, a Chinese ride-hailing platform under GAC, and the total number of vehicles is planned to reach 10,000 within four years.

Hydrogen-related sectors continue to receive high attention from investors. Kevin Kang, the chief economist for KPMG China, said at the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in 2022 that in the first half of this year, equity financing of the hydrogen energy industry continued its hot trend since last year, with a total of 21 financing events and an overall amount of 1.59 billion yuan ($222.3 million). The amount of deals and capital increased by 50% and 137% respectively over the corresponding period of last year. For example, Anhui Mingtian Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd. completed a new round of strategic investment of over 100 million yuan during the 2022 World Manufacturing Convention.