SHANGHAI, CHINA -- On August 5, SAIC announced that its first batch of 410 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, including MAXUS MIFA hydrogen fuel cell MPVs, Hongyan hydrogen fuel cell heavy trucks and SAIC fuel cell cold chain logistics vehicles, will be officially put into commercial operation in Shanghai, China. 

Shanghai made it clear that it would accelerate the commercial application of hydrogen fuel cells in transportation and increase the number of fuel cell vehicles to 10,000 units by 2025. Shanghai-based SAIC Group, on the other hand, said that it would accelerate the industrialization of fuel cell vehicles and strive to make Shanghai a demonstration and application city for hydrogen energy technology.

As the first Chinese automotive company to develop fuel cell technology, SAIC has launched the Phoenix One fuel cell vehicle project back in 2001. With years of efforts and billions of investment in R&D, the project has been awarded "Grand Prize" of China Automotive Science and Technology Award. In 2021, SHPT, a subsidiary of SAIC Group, launched the world-leading, fully self-developed SHPT Qiyuan M4H fuel cell reactor, which can achieve a 100% independent research and development with all the 44 first-class components domestically produced. This fuel cell reactor can be equipped with the SHPT series fuel cell system to generate a power, power density and system power comparable to world's top level represented by Toyota.

SAIC is the only company in the world to have commercialized various types of fuel cell vehicles. SAIC's various fuel cell products, including cars, MPVs, light buses, buses, light trucks and heavy trucks, have been put into commercial operation in more than 10 cities across China, with the total mileage reaching millions of kilometers. In 2014, Roewe 750 became the first fuel cell sedan to be announced in China. In 2016, Roewe 950 became the first fuel cell sedan to be announced, sold and licensed in China. In 2017, SAIC MAXUS FCV80 became the first and only commercialized fuel cell wide-body light passenger in China. In 2018, six Sunwin hydrogen fuel cell buses were put into use at the No 114 bus line in Shanghai's Jiading district. In 2020, SAIC Yuejin Fuel Cell Logistics Vehicle and Fuel Cell Special Purpose Vehicle entered the list announced by the Ministry of Industry, and SAIC MAXUS' world's first fuel cell MPV was officially launched over the same period.

In order to follow the trend of low-carbon development, promote innovation and transformation, and create differentiated competitiveness, SAIC Group launched the first "Hydrogen Energy Strategy" in the automotive industry: By 2025, SAIC will launch at least 10 fuel cell products, increase the market value of SAIC SHPT Hydrogen Technology to ¥10 billion, the number of fuel cell R&D and operation teams to 1,000 people, and expand the production and sales scale of fuel cell vehicles to 10,000 units.