Audi and Hyundai join forces to help the auto industry break away from the era of each taking care of its own business

At present, both parties have achieved certain results in fuel cells. At the beginning of this year, Hyundai launched the second-generation hydrogen-powered model NEXO, which has a range of 563 kilometers under EPA conditions. Compared with the previous Tucson ix FCEV, NEXO has achieved a critical 5 percentage point increase in energy conversion efficiency, and the overall system conversion efficiency has reached 60%. In addition, in a low temperature environment of -30℃, NEXO can still start normally and stably, which is at the same level as existing internal combustion engine vehicles, and is a revolutionary breakthrough for hydrogen fuel cells.

Audi has been committed to the research of fuel cells for nearly 20 years, and released the Audi h-tron quattro concept car in 2016, which is equipped with the fifth-generation hydrogen fuel cell power system. Within the Volkswagen Group, Audi AG has assumed the responsibility for the development of fuel cell technology and is currently developing the sixth-generation product. The group's fuel cell research and development center is located in the Neckarsulm plant. In the next decade, Audi will produce a small batch of SUV models powered by fuel cells.

How to solve the high cost is an inevitable issue for every company that wants to get involved in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Representative fuel cell vehicle products, such as Toyota Mirai, are priced at US$69,000 (approximately RMB 450,000) and Honda Clarity, are priced at US$60,000 (approximately RMB 390,000), which are much higher than other vehicles of the same level with other power forms.

In the past, Toyota once promoted the strategy of popularizing hydrogen energy in China. In order to promote hydrogen fuel vehicles, Toyota has done its best. From January 2015 to 2020, Toyota has made 5,680 patents for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles public for free, and everyone can use its advanced technology accumulated over the past 20 years for free. However, it has achieved little success over the years. Not to mention Hyundai Motor.

Such cooperation is also necessary for Volkswagen. Last year, Volkswagen ranked first among all automobile companies in terms of R&D investment, reaching 13.672 billion euros, 5.988 billion euros more than GM, which ranked second with 7.684 billion euros. As we all know, from the raw materials to the delivery to consumers, a car involves a total of materials, manufacturing, technology, trade, finance, etc. Due to the very long characteristics of the automobile industry chain, the R&D investment of automobile companies is usually surprisingly high, and Volkswagen, with its numerous and complex brands and businesses, has stretched its R&D front to a very long distance.

Today, Volkswagen has been controlling the proportion of R&D investment. It is not difficult to find that in 2017, Volkswagen Group's R&D costs mainly included the creation of new models, the electrification of the model lineup, the development of more efficient engines, and the advancement of digitalization. The percentage of R&D expenditure to automobile business sales revenue has been reduced to 6.7%.

In fact, just a few days ago, Daimler, Ford and Nissan, former fuel vehicle partners, terminated their cooperation and went their own way, which just proved the difficulty of fuel cell research and development. The cooperation between the three parties can be traced back to five years ago: because research and development requires huge funds and bears considerable risks, on January 28, 2013, Daimler, Ford and Nissan signed a strategic alliance agreement to carry out in-depth cooperation in the field of fuel cell vehicles, and jointly develop shared fuel cell stacks, fuel cell systems and other fuel cell vehicle components.

Today, we are at the forefront of the great changes of the times. This article does not intend to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of technical paths. How automobile companies choose new energy paths has its own strategic ideas and plans, but what cannot be escaped is the general trend of forming a group, even in the field of electric vehicles. In the process of conquering the fortress of electric vehicles, due to the extremely difficult and arduous battery technology, supporting facilities and scale effects, automakers will also pin their hopes on alliances.

In the past two days, GM and several companies signed the "Transportation Electrification Agreement" in the United States, including the Chinese brand BYD. The agreement aims to call on related industries, including automakers, to work together towards the goal of electrification of automobiles and transportation.