Replacing Subsidies With Awards: The New Subsidy Policy For Fuel Cell Vehicles Is "Pragmatic"

The local government of urban agglomeration will take the lead of vehicle enterprises, which will form a good pulling effect on the industrial system.

The industry has long been looking forward to a new fuel cell subsidy deal.

On September 21, the official website of the Ministry of Finance issued the notice on the demonstration application of fuel cell vehicles and other documents, which clearly defined the state's support mode for fuel cell vehicles in the next four years. Consistent with the news previously heard in the industry, the new deal will "replace subsidies with awards" and adjust the subsidy policy for the purchase of fuel cell vehicles to support the demonstration and application of fuel cell vehicles.

The evaluation subject of fuel cell demonstration application is no longer just vehicle enterprises, but is adjusted to the declared and shortlisted urban agglomerations - reward funds are given by evaluating the target completion of urban agglomerations. The notice also stressed that the incentive funds should be co-ordinated by local governments and enterprises, and should be used for the industrialization of key core technologies of fuel cell vehicles, the introduction of talents and team building, as well as the demonstration and application of new models and new technologies, and should not be used to support investment projects in the production of fuel cell vehicles and the construction of hydrogenation infrastructure.

This new subsidy policy for fuel cell vehicles, which is oriented by the results of technology industrialization, has injected a calming agent into the industry. In particular, the "red line" that financial incentives should not be used to support the investment in related vehicle production and the construction of hydrogenation infrastructure has basically blocked the opening of making use of industrial policies.

On September 21, Cui Dongshu, Secretary General of the Joint Conference on passenger car market information, said that the demonstration application mode of the new deal of fuel cell vehicles was "more pragmatic". "This policy emphasizes to take medium and heavy commercial vehicles and take urban agglomerations as the lead to strengthen the strong chain and supplement chain of the fuel cell industry chain, which should have a good pulling effect on the fuel cell industry system." Cui Dongshu said.

After the change of the way and object of financial support, the most direct impact is the vehicle enterprises which can get subsidies before. Some insiders of automobile enterprises told the reporter of the 21st century economic report that before the new deal was introduced, the price of the new cars they were going to be on the market had not been priced, and after the new deal was introduced, the interior was still studying the price.

However, he also said that although the subsidy is not clear for automobile enterprises, it is actually "organic in danger". The industrialization process of fuel cell vehicles led by local governments in urban agglomerations will promote the application and landing of relevant technologies more efficiently. Fundamentally speaking, this will increase the enthusiasm of vehicle enterprises in layout.

The "post subsidy" can reach 1.7 billion yuan

Subsidies for fuel cell vehicle demonstration urban agglomeration are divided into two aspects: one is the promotion and application of vehicles; the other is the supply of hydrogen energy, which is essentially to evaluate the results and quality of fuel cell vehicle promotion and application.

Generally speaking, the way of subsidy is through integral accounting, and one point corresponds to 100000 yuan of subsidy. In terms of vehicle promotion and application, the number of operating vehicles, the application scale of key parts and technological breakthroughs in urban agglomeration can be converted into points, with a maximum limit of 15000 points; in terms of hydrogen energy supply, points will be awarded according to the actual filling amount of vehicle hydrogen, with a maximum of 2000 points.

According to the above subsidy standards and the upper limit of points, it can be calculated that the upper limit of subsidy amount for urban agglomeration is 1.5 billion yuan and 200 million yuan. However, it should be pointed out that the points are essentially incentive in nature. The entry condition for getting points is to complete the demonstration objectives of urban agglomerations. On this basis, those who overfulfil the demonstration tasks can also get additional rewards (but this part is also limited, and the upper limit of additional reward funds shall not exceed 10% of the due funds).

The demonstration target also focuses on the industrial application of fuel cell vehicles, and puts forward some "hard" conditions for the urban agglomeration, such as the vehicle promotion scale should exceed 1000 vehicles, the average cumulative running mileage of a single vehicle exceeds 30000 km, the annual production of vehicle hydrogen exceeds 5000 tons, and the price of vehicle hydrogen energy drops significantly (the retail price of hydrogen in the hydrogenation station is not higher than 35 yuan / kg), etc.

Cui Dongshu specially pointed out that it is of great significance to reduce the cost in the use process. He explained that the cost of hydrogen in fuel cells is actually very high. Due to the purity requirements, most of the industrial hydrogen production products can not meet the hydrogen purity requirements of fuel cells. During the demonstration period, the terminal price of hydrogen for vehicles should not exceed 35 yuan / kg, which will be conducive to the real sustainable industrialization of fuel cells. Cui Dongshu stressed that all localities should carefully calculate the cost of each link during the demonstration period, so as to ensure the normal application and promotion after the demonstration in the next four years.

It is worth mentioning that the new deal on fuel cell vehicles once again clarifies the main application scenarios of this type of vehicles, saying that "focus on promoting the industrial application of fuel cell vehicles in the field of medium and long-distance, medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles". This points out the direction for the industrial application of fuel cell vehicles. Cui Dongshu believes that this is one of the performance of pragmatic policies.

Local governments in urban agglomerations take the lead in industrialization

After the implementation of the new deal, the biggest change in the industry is that vehicle enterprises will no longer take the lead in promoting the application of fuel cell vehicles, and local governments, especially those in urban agglomerations, will take the lead in promoting the implementation process of fuel cell vehicles.

According to the level of the city's upstream and downstream fuel cell industry, it will form a voluntary cooperation with the local enterprises in the fuel cell industry. The leading city will work together with other cities to prepare implementation plans, sign cooperation agreements with other cities and clarify the division of tasks.

It should be noted that the participation of urban agglomerations is not exclusive. According to the above documents, cities with excellent enterprises in the industrial chain can participate in multiple urban agglomerations,

It is said that at present, the application of fuel cell vehicle demonstration cities has been started, and Shanghai, Beijing, Hunan, Shanxi and other places have clearly declared or issued declaration plans.

Previously, on September 8, Zhang Jianming, deputy director of Shanghai Municipal Commission of economy and information technology, said that it was actively applying for the national fuel cell vehicle demonstration city; Yueyang, Hunan Province, also proposed to start the declaration of "fuel cell vehicle demonstration city", and would draw up the development plan as soon as possible, speed up the introduction of relevant policies and standardize the development of hydrogen energy industry; Changzhi City and Datong City in Shanxi Province issued declaration of fuel cell vehicle demonstration city in recent days The consultation announcement on the implementation plan of FCV demonstration city, and the bidding announcement of hydrogen energy industry and fuel cell vehicle demonstration application planning.

This may also be the reason why fuel cell vehicle industry plans have been released intensively recently. After Beijing, the latest news shows that Shanghai will soon release an action plan for the innovation and development of fuel cell vehicles. It is reported that Shanghai has put forward the overall goal of "100 stations, 100 billion vehicles and 10 000 vehicles" by 2023 for the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry: it is planned that nearly 100 hydrogen refueling stations will be built and 30 will be put into operation, with an output value of nearly 100 billion yuan, and more than 10000 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be promoted.

Taking the lead of local governments in urban agglomerations to promote the development of fuel cell vehicle industry is conducive to building an effective scenario for fuel cell vehicle demonstration and application, on the other hand, it is also conducive to the industrial chain coordination, promoting the technical breakthrough and accelerating the landing of key components. The above-mentioned insiders of automobile enterprises believe that only when the upstream and downstream are truly integrated, can fuel cell vehicles be applied, and the government leading is more efficient than the automobile enterprises.

The research and development of the core technology of the industrial chain is also the focus of the new policy. It is required to promote the R & D breakthrough of relevant basic materials, key parts and vehicle products and realize industrial application, including basic materials and key components such as stack, membrane electrode, bipolar plate, proton exchange membrane, catalyst, carbon paper, air compressor, circulation system, etc., and their industrialization is one of the demonstration objectives of urban agglomeration.

The demonstration area of urban agglomeration is a good way to gather strength. However, judging from the actions of local governments before, objectively speaking, the fuel cell vehicle industry is still in the stage of "respective development". The cross administrative regional alliance that the policy hopes to promote will also face different challenges in the actual implementation process.

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