Heavy trucks are a “group” that is easily overlooked in the field of new energy vehicles.

Whether it is the Ten Cities Thousand Vehicles Project jointly initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, or the forthcoming "Energy Conservation and New Energy Automobile Industry Plan", heavy trucks are classified as "back-to-back stations" or incidentally mentioned.

However, a set of data shows that from 2000 to 2010, China’s vehicle fuel consumption has increased from more than 70 million tons to nearly 150 million tons last year. Of the 150 million tons of fuel consumed, nearly 80 million tons of diesel are consumed. The truck is the main body of diesel consumption, especially the heavy truck, which brings much more fuel consumption and pollution than passenger cars.

Since heavy trucks bring much more pollution than passenger vehicles, where should the heavy-duty trucks save energy? Is the new energy heavy truck suitable for hybrid and pure electric routes?

The mainstream truck manufacturers all have new energy technology reserves The reporter learned that in the field of new energy heavy trucks, each company has its own killer.

"General truck OEMs have their own new energy truck technology reserves," Liu Yanzhong, director of the FAW Liberation Technology Center, said in an interview. According to him, there are three major routes for the liberation of new energy trucks. One is a pure electric medium light truck, the second is a natural gas heavy truck, and the third is a methanol fuel heavy truck.

The reporter learned from the Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle Technology Center engineer Xu Xian that Dongfeng Motor Company has its own set of new energy truck combination boxing. The light truck and the Zhongka are mainly hybrid electric trucks. In terms of heavy trucks, they are mainly natural gas heavy trucks and methanol. Burnt fuel heavy truck.

Shaanxi Automobile Group, which focuses on new energy heavy trucks, also has a variety of technical routes. According to Shao Guoqiang, vice president of the Shaanxi Automotive Automotive Engineering Research Institute and chief engineer of the sales company, Shaanxi Automobile has been involved in new energy heavy trucks for a long time. In the “10th Five-Year Plan” period, Shaanxi Auto took on the pilot project of clean vehicle action demonstration project. The single-fuel CNG Bus Demonstration Project has undergone many years of research and development in the new energy heavy truck technology, including natural gas, methanol, dimethyl ether, pure electric and hybrid power. The most promising new energy heavy truck is the natural gas product. .

Why New Energy Heavy Truck Selects Natural Gas as Main Power Source Most manufacturers are focusing on natural gas fuels in the R&D direction of new energy heavy trucks.

“Because of the battery life, pure electric and hybrid vehicles are suitable for running on frequently-started urban roads, such as city taxis and buses. If they are used on trucks, they can only be applied to light or medium-duty trucks. It should be a special car, such as a city garbage truck, a sanitation car, etc. Generally, heavy trucks run long-distance logistics, and it is impossible to use electric trucks to meet the cruising range of heavy trucks. There is also a problem of load, like liberating pure electric trucks. If a 200ps battery is equipped, the battery weight is more than two tons, and in a light weight heavy truck environment, the use of a purely electric model does not make much sense.As for natural gas heavy trucks, China's natural gas reserves are extremely rich, and gas prices are relatively low. Considering the transportation cost, there are many potential users of natural gas heavy trucks, and other alternative energy sources are difficult to popularize due to the regional nature and resource reserves, and the methanol fuel heavy truck projects that FAW Jiefang and Shanxi Jingjing Group are collaborating with will leave. In Shanxi Province, it is difficult to find methanol fuel elsewhere So it is not much in the promotion of the feasibility. "Liu Yanzhong told reporters.

According to Shao Guoqiang's introduction, after many years of research on new energy heavy trucks, Shaanxi Automobile has now pushed for natural gas heavy trucks, mainly due to the following reasons. The first is that China’s natural gas reserves are abundant. At present, China’s conventional natural gas reserves are about 55 trillion cubic meters, of which land reserves are about 38 trillion cubic meters, and unconventional natural gas reserves are expected to be 200-380 trillion cubic meters. On the whole, China has abundant natural gas reserves, and the development of natural gas vehicles is fully guaranteed in respect of gas sources.

Second, natural gas heavy trucks are economically environmentally friendly. "According to the comparison between the current oil prices and natural gas prices, we can calculate that a natural gas heavy truck can save more than 50,000 yuan in fuel consumption compared with ordinary fuel heavy trucks. After our test, a 336ps heavy truck, one year of emission reduction 39596.5kg, the equivalent of 84.8495 trees."

The third is that natural gas heavy trucks are safe and reliable. "Some people think that a natural gas heavy truck with a gas cylinder is equivalent to carrying a mobile bomb.

However, by testing gas cylinders for vehicles, we believe that there is no potential safety hazard for natural gas trucks. In the experiment, we dropped the vehicle gas cylinder free fall at a height of 9 meters and fell to the cement floor to start timing. Within 2 hours, the safety valve did not jump and there was no condensation on the surface of the bottle body; at the same time, the car gas bottle was burned. In the test, when the surface temperature of the bottle reached 550°C in the fire environment, the time was started and the safety valve did not jump within 2 hours. Our natural gas heavy trucks perform well under conditions of an altitude of 4767 meters in the Kunlun Mountains, 30 degrees in Harbin, 45 degrees in Huoyan Mountain in Turpan, and various extreme weather conditions at a surface temperature of 60 degrees Celsius. Shao Guoqiang told reporters.

It can be seen that natural gas fuel has become the preferred power source for new energy heavy trucks, as new energy electric vehicles are suitable for passenger cars and passenger cars, and methanol, ether and other rare fuels are subject to regional and reserve constraints. If the "balance" of favorable policies is slightly tilted toward the heavy truck industry, natural gas heavy trucks may bring about unexpected effects of energy conservation and emission reduction.