Jiading district promotes hydrogen fuel cell buses. [Photo/IC]

The Jiading district government launched a plan on June 10 to build a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle industry cluster in Anting town, an auto manufacturing base in the northwestern suburbs of Shanghai.

The district government also announced that the annual output value of the entire industry chain should exceed 50 billion yuan ($7.27 billion) by 2025.

Jiading has laid a strong foundation for the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, setting up hydrogen refueling stations in both Anting and Jiangqiao.

Last year, the city's first batch of hydrogen fuel cell buses was put into use at the No 114 bus line in Anting. The buses, with a maximum driving range of 560 kilometers, mainly use fuel cell systems and are supplemented by power batteries.

Anting is also home to passenger cars and commercial vehicles made by Roewe and SAIC Maxus, as well as leasing companies that commercially operate hydrogen fuel logistics vehicles.

At present, there are 626 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles connected to the system, and their accumulated mileage has exceeded 6 million kilometers.

Jiading aims to build six hydrogen refueling stations this year, which would fulfill nearly half of Shanghai's construction targets.

Jiading also highlighted the construction of an inter-city ribbon and network hydrogenation infrastructure in the Yangtze River Delta region.

Before 2030, more than 20 hydrogen expressways and 500 hydrogen refueling stations will be built in the Yangtze River Delta.

However, the industrial chain is still developing slowly due to the high-cost of hydrogen fuel and an inefficient approval process.

Anting hydrogen refueling station is currently selling hydrogen at a price of 70 yuan per kilogram. The hydrogen consumption for a bus is about 8-10 kilograms per 100 kilometers, which would cost between 560 yuan and 700 yuan. This year, Shanghai International Automobile City (Group) Co will build the first domestic commercialized hydrogen refueling station in Jiabei Country Park.