What to learn about China’s push for hydrogen-powered transportation

This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Know-how Evaluation’s e-newsletter about expertise in China. Join to obtain it in your inbox each Tuesday.

There’s an honest likelihood you’ve heard of hydrogen-powered automobiles however by no means seen one. Over 18,000 are within the US, virtually solely in California. On the surface they appear identical to conventional automobiles, however they’re powered by electrical energy generated from a hydrogen gas cell, making them far cleaner and greener.  

So once I discovered that in elements of China, firms are placing hydrogen-powered bikes on the highway for anybody to journey, it was an actual “the long run is right here” second for me. I seemed deeper into it and wrote a narrative. 

These bikes have water-bottle-sized hydrogen tanks, which might make them simpler than common bikes to journey, although the tanks need to be swapped out each 40 miles. However they haven’t precisely been getting rave critiques. One rider in Shanghai advised me the pace enhance from hydrogen felt missing, and the consumer expertise was damage by {hardware} and software program design flaws. Many individuals on social media agree with him. 

Youon, one of many largest gamers in China’s bike-sharing business, has thrown its assist behind hydrogen vitality. It has put hundreds of hydrogen-powered bikes in main cities like Beijing and Shanghai, within the hopes of kick-starting a pattern. 

However for clear vitality consultants, it’s a head-scratcher as to why these hydrogen bikes are being promoted within the first place: Hydrogen bikes are much less environment friendly than peculiar e-bikes, they usually gained’t make a lot financial sense in the long term.

It’s not only one firm taking this path. The collective urge for food for hydrogen bikes has been a lot larger than I anticipated. By my very own counting, Youon has half a dozen opponents within the hydrogen bike subject, and a number of other cities have embraced the concept. Whereas the way forward for hydrogen-powered shared bikes is unsure, their proliferation represents a a lot bigger pattern taking place in China: exploring how hydrogen can be utilized in transportation. 

It’s no secret that China has already grow to be a world chief in producing reasonably priced and succesful electrical automobiles, however the Chinese language authorities and corporations aren’t stopping there. A major variety of native insurance policies have been arrange in recent times to subsidize the manufacturing of hydrogen automobiles, waive toll charges for them, and construct extra refuel stations for hydrogen. Now China has about 21,000 hydrogen automobiles on the highway and greater than 400 refuel stations.

It’s price having a actuality verify about China’s push for hydrogen: Whereas utilizing hydrogen as a gas for automobiles comes with no carbon emissions, that’s not the case for truly producing hydrogen. In China, the overwhelming majority comes from fossil fuels, which value a lot lower than producing hydrogen with water and renewable vitality. (To study the distinction between “grey,” “blue,” and “inexperienced” hydrogen, learn this piece by my colleague Casey Crownhart.) 

The unhappy reality is that China will depend on coal and pure gasoline for making hydrogen for some time. The truth that hydrogen is a byproduct of processing coal explains why many cities in China with ample coal sources are additionally on the frontier of the hydrogen business. For them, the financial argument for hydrogen can trump the environmental prices, and because of this, although hydrogen automobiles create a pathway for the transportation system to additional decarbonize sooner or later, they’re doing little or no to handle local weather change now. 

The identical challenge applies to electrical automobiles in China: Sure, electrical energy is cleaner than gasoline as a automobile gas, however the majority of electrical energy in China nonetheless comes from fossil fuels, so how a lot cleaner is it actually? 

However hydrogen car firms must reply a further query: If China is already fairly good at making batteries for EVs, why ought to it trouble spending any time or sources on hydrogen automobiles?

For now, the Chinese language firms have provide you with one good reply, and it’s not bikes. It’s heavy vans. 

“Hydrogen passenger automobiles are sort of a lifeless finish right here … I feel for fleet automobiles, trucking, long-distance cargo, hydrogen is aggressive with long-range electrical automobiles. Possibly it’s a toss-up?” says David Fishman, a senior supervisor on the Lantau Group, an vitality consulting agency.

If you concentrate on it, cargo vans bump up towards a few of EVs’ greatest limitations immediately: They should go ultra-long distances whereas being refueled rapidly to avoid wasting time. In the meantime, the restrictions of hydrogen automobiles, like the dearth of refuel stations and the upper manufacturing prices, make them far more appropriate for industrial fleets than for particular person automobile consumers.

Consequently, Chinese language hydrogen trucking firms are feeling assured, says Fishman. If hydrogen actually turns into a next-generation mainstream gas, it is going to most likely begin with vans in China.

Do you assume hydrogen or lithium batteries are the way forward for clear transportation? Let me know your decide at zeyi@technologyreview.com.

Now learn the remainder of China Report

Meet up with China

1. In China, non-public firms are liable for verifying peoples’ identities on social media. Now the federal government is attempting to take again that management by introducing a brand new “nationwide web ID” system, a transfer that grew to become immediately controversial. (New York Occasions $)

2. Document-high temperatures in southern China are pushing the grid to its restrict. On August 2, the ability demand of Shanghai was greater than the whole capability of the Philippines. (Bloomberg $)

3. Honor, a smartphone maker as soon as owned by Huawei, is on the point of go public. Paperwork present that the native authorities of Shenzhen has given it “unusually” giant assist, together with a devoted metropolis corridor workforce with a “irrespective of left in a single day” coverage. (Reuters $)

4. App builders in China can circumvent Apple’s excessive charges by charging customers via Tencent’s and ByteDance’s tremendous apps. Apple now needs to shut that loophole. (Bloomberg $)

5. The Biden administration is planning to ban using Chinese language software program in US autonomous automobiles. (Reuters $)

6. The brand new R-rated Disney film Deadpool & Wolverine needed to take out references to cocaine and homosexuality and substitute “vibrator” with “therapeutic massage gun” to go China’s censors. (Wall Avenue Journal $)

7. A college in Beijing has began providing the nation’s first bachelor’s diploma in “marriage companies and administration.” It’ll train every thing from matchmaking to divorce counseling. (CNBC)

Misplaced in translation

Low-cost knockoff telephones outlined made-in-China devices within the 2000s, however they disappeared after home manufacturers like Xiaomi introduced their costs down considerably. Now, these knockoffs are making a comeback in livestream purchasing channels, in line with the Chinese language publication IT Occasions. 

On Douyin and Kuaishou, low cost home 5G telephones that appear like Apple or Huawei merchandise are attempting to draw low-income shoppers with guarantees of high-end specs and dirt-cheap costs as little as 298 yuan (a bit of over $40). As soon as shoppers obtain these telephones, they often understand that the claims in regards to the specs are deceptive, and the businesses making the telephones don’t even have correct enterprise registrations. Whereas stricter rules in China and ample home competitors have pushed knockoff telephones out of brick-and-mortar shops, they appear to thrive within the less-regulated on-line markets.

Yet another factor

Readers of China Report, hello! That is Zeyi. It’s been virtually two years since I despatched out the primary version of this article, and sadly this can be my final, as I’m leaving MIT Know-how Evaluation. 

I’ve had a whole lot of enjoyable writing this article. I used to be in a position to get lost and discuss so many various issues, from the weirdly terrifying customer support middle of Tencent to my frustrations in regards to the TikTok ban, from e-newsletter after e-newsletter speaking about electrical automobiles (not sorry about that) to the enjoyable deep dives into social media and digital tradition. And I’m very grateful to everybody who replied with insightful or heartfelt suggestions.

Keep tuned, as MIT Know-how Evaluation will deliver again China Report shortly. In the meantime, I hope you’ll take pleasure in our different newsletters, or this extremely petty response by Pizza Hut Hong Kong to the win over Italy for an Olympics fencing gold. And sure, I’m all for pineapples on pizza.