Zhengzhou, in its bid to become the "Hydrogen Capital," has now been given the chance to stand alongside China's most prominent national-level city clusters. Not long ago, three government ministries jointly greenlit five city clusters to launch a four-year comprehensive hydrogen energy application pilot program. Beyond the highly prominent national-level clusters like the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Greater Bay Area, the Northeast (including eastern Inner Mongolia)-Yangtze River Delta, and the Xinjiang-Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Zone, the inclusion of the Yellow River Bend-Central Plains City Cluster, co-led by Zhengzhou and Ordos, stands out as particularly noteworthy.
Unlike other applicants, this pilot spans across six provinces—Henan, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Hubei—making it the most extensive in terms of provincial coverage. Among the two "leading" cities, Ordos possesses a standout capability in hydrogen production, with its region of Inner Mongolia ranking at the top tier for green hydrogen output. In contrast, Zhengzhou, when compared to representative cities in other pilots, appears to lack a distinctive "hydrogen" label that resonates on a national scale. However, Zhengzhou has actually been strategizing for its hydrogen industry over many years.
As early as 2021, Zhengzhou, as the lead city in a "1+11+5" cluster grouping, was already selected into the national fuel cell vehicle demonstration application city clusters. Since then, Zhengzhou has consistently intensified its focus on the hydrogen industry, with fuel cell vehicles remaining a key direction. By 2024, Zhengzhou had put forward the concept of the "Central Plains Hydrogen Capital," setting a 2035 goal of reaching a total output value exceeding 100 billion yuan for its city-wide hydrogen industry. Industry observers believe that while the hydrogen sector is still in its nascent stages of development, its prospects are exceptionally broad. For the contenders aiming for the "Hydrogen Capital" title, this marks yet another forward-looking bet on the future. With the "national-level" endorsement and the addition of a "powerful ally," can Zhengzhou truly realize its dream this time?
The Genesis of the "Hydrogen Capital Dream"
Zhengzhou's ambition for the "Hydrogen Capital" originated from its "Automobile Dream." Local media reports indicate that as early as 2014, when the nation's new energy vehicle (NEV) sector was still in its infancy, Zhengzhou decided to list NEVs as a strategically supported industry, aiming to build a trillion-yuan NEV industry cluster. At that time, BYD had not yet established a presence in the city; instead, local commercial vehicle manufacturers like Yutong Bus and Zhengzhou Nissan acted as the primary vehicles for the new energy transition. This commercial vehicle-oriented industrial foundation meant that Zhengzhou's NEV industry became closely intertwined with hydrogen energy from its earliest stages.
Back in 2009, Yutong Bus started its research and development in the hydrogen sector, becoming one of the first domestic enterprises to launch and acquire the qualifications for hydrogen fuel cell buses. Zhengzhou also took early steps to promote infrastructure construction, building the nation's third hydrogen refueling station in 2015, and subsequently opening Henan Province's first fuel cell bus demonstration route in 2018.
By the time of the 2019 National Two Sessions, hydrogen energy was first included in the government work report. Considered the "secondary energy source with the greatest development potential" and a "trillion-yuan industry track with strategic significance," it began to be incorporated into the development plans of various provinces and cities. Having moved earlier than others, Zhengzhou got the opportunity to be the first to secure policy support. In 2020, five ministries decided to launch the fuel cell vehicle demonstration application initiative. After a year-long selection process, the Zhengzhou City Cluster received approval, joining the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Shanghai, Guangdong, and Hebei clusters in the initial batch of fuel cell vehicle demonstration city clusters.
In a sense, this gave Zhengzhou's "Automobile Dream" a more future-oriented direction. Zhang Cunman, deputy director of the New Energy Vehicle Engineering Center at Tongji University, noted in an interview that Zhengzhou's development of fuel cell vehicle applications stems from "both the urgent need for environmental constraints and energy transition, and the internal demand for economic development." Zhang added that Zhengzhou holds advantages in its complete vehicle industry and demonstration application foundation, while its cluster members Xinxiang, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Jiaozuo, and Anyang possess strengths in fuel cell stack R&D, hydrogen production, hydrogen transportation, refueling station equipment, and related hydrogen components.
Subsequently, fuel cell vehicles began to appear more frequently in Zhengzhou's automotive industry development plans. In the city's 14th Five-Year Plan for the Strategic Development of Emerging Industries (2021-2025), Zhengzhou listed pure electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, and intelligent connected vehicles as key development priorities for NEVs. With its inclusion in this hydrogen comprehensive application pilot, "promoting the deployment of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles" is again a central focal point.
Fuel cell vehicles are another high-growth track within the new energy vehicle industry. According to projections from the China Hydrogen Alliance, by 2050, fuel cell commercial vehicles will reach 1.6 million units, capturing 37% of the market share, while fuel cell passenger vehicles are expected to reach a 14% market share. By the end of 2025, China's cumulative sales of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have already neared 40,000 units, ranking first globally with substantial room for further growth. In a sense, Zhengzhou, which may have been a step behind in the initial NEV race, is now looking to get an early foothold in the lead-up to the next industrial boom.
The Breakthrough Point
However, the advantage in "vehicles" cannot completely mask Zhengzhou's shortcomings on the "hydrogen" front. Lin Boqiang, dean of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University, told urban evolution analysts that across the entire hydrogen value chain—production, transmission, storage, and use—the fundamental technical challenges have been overcome, and there are no technical barriers to application. The primary bottleneck hindering the promotion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles lies in the high costs associated with hydrogen production, transmission, and storage, which still need to be addressed through further breakthroughs in the industry chain technology.
Zhengzhou's constraints are precisely located in the upstream segment. The city's medium and long-term hydrogen energy industry development plan (2024-2035) points out that Zhengzhou's hydrogen industry chain is not yet complete; the upstream segment is missing and needs further expansion and extension. Moreover, the assurance of hydrogen supply is relatively weak, the potential of surrounding hydrogen sources is yet to be developed, the construction of hydrogen refueling infrastructure lags behind, and the hydrogen transmission system needs urgent strengthening.
Zhengzhou has not been idle in response to these challenges. In recent years, the planning and construction of a "Zhengzhou-Kaifeng-Luoyang-Puyang Hydrogen Corridor" has been set in motion, aiming to leverage the low-cost industrial by-product hydrogen from enterprises like Weiqi New Clean Energy, Henan Xinlianxin Chemical Group, and Jinma Coking within a 150-kilometer radius around the city. According to local media, Henan Province's annual output of industrial by-product hydrogen is approximately 550,000 tons, accounting for 7% of the national total, "providing crucial support for low-cost hydrogen production in Zhengzhou."
However, relying solely on industrial by-product hydrogen seems insufficient to sustain the growth of a hundred-billion-yuan industry. In Lin Boqiang's view, the overall scale of industrial by-product hydrogen is too small. To genuinely drive down the costs at the production end, it is necessary to rely on large-scale wind and solar power generation to enhance the price competitiveness of green hydrogen. The abundant wind and solar resources in the "Three Norths" region (northern China) are precisely the key energy elements for green hydrogen production.
It is here that cities like Ordos in Inner Mongolia, now "paired" with Zhengzhou, effectively play the role of the "powerful ally." Data indicates that as a resource-rich region, Inner Mongolia's electricity generation reached 851.7 billion kilowatt-hours in 2025, ranking first in the country. Wind power contributed 203.3 billion kWh and solar power 51.2 billion kWh, ranking first and second nationally, respectively. Inner Mongolia acts like a giant green "power bank," continuously transmitting electricity outward. Last year alone, its external power transmission exceeded 180 billion kWh, with 90 billion kWh coming from green sources. The scale of green hydrogen generated from this is equally impressive. In 2025, Inner Mongolia's green hydrogen output surpassed 10,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of roughly four times. During the same period, its green hydrogen production capacity reached 60,000 tons, accounting for nearly 30% of the national capacity which exceeded 220,000 tons.
More importantly, Inner Mongolia is actively working on transmitting hydrogen outward. In 2024, it issued the nation's first provincial-level special plan for green hydrogen pipelines, outlining a "one main line, two loops, four exits" network for green hydrogen transmission. Currently, the pipeline from Darhan Muminggan United Banner to Baotou city proper has been fully connected.
The Collaboration Factor
For now, the question of how to open up the pathway from the hydrogen production end to the hydrogen consumption end remains to be answered. Notably, among the five approved pilots this time, besides the Yellow River Bend-Central Plains City Cluster led by Zhengzhou, the Yangtze River Delta and Chengdu-Chongqing clusters have been respectively paired with the Northeast and Xinjiang. In Lin Boqiang's assessment, this kind of pairing reflects considerations for promoting upstream and downstream linkages, with the core objective being collaborative exploration of ways to reduce the cost of hydrogen consumption. Of course, the challenges at this stage are still quite apparent, making it necessary to use these pilots to find viable approaches, even exploring the development of relevant systems and mechanisms, in order to eventually achieve large-scale implementation.
Looking at Zhengzhou, before achieving such "soft connectivity," it first needs to break down the physical barriers separating it from the major hydrogen-producing cities and complete the essential infrastructure links. In the current layout of the Inner Mongolia green hydrogen pipeline special plan regarding inter-provincial connection channels, the priority for exporting green hydrogen resources is placed on "hydrogen-consuming regions like Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Liaoning, Shaanxi, and Ningxia." Furthermore, for the four Inner Mongolia cities included in the same pilot as Zhengzhou—Ordos, Baotou, Wuhai, and Xilingol League—the planned external transmission corridors also primarily head toward provinces such as Shaanxi, Ningxia, Tianjin, Hebei, and Liaoning, with no pipeline route directly to Zhengzhou currently planned. In a sense, the greater distance poses a hurdle; however, compared to the other two "paired" pilots, Zhengzhou is geographically closer to the Inner Mongolian cities and should logically be quicker in moving forward.
This challenge is closely related to long-standing issues within the Yellow River basin city clusters. Previously, researchers including Li Zuojun from the Development Research Center of the State Council's Institute of Public Administration and Human Resources studied nighttime light remote sensing data for the Yellow River basin from 2000 to 2020. Their findings revealed a low level of coordinated development within the basin, with no significant increase in overall economic connectivity over the past two decades. A core problem identified was "insufficiently close industrial division of labor and collaboration." Their further analysis pointed out that while the middle and upper reaches are rich in resources like minerals, electricity, and labor, and the lower reaches have a more developed modern manufacturing sector, the industrial development across the basin lacks overall planning. There is room for optimizing regional industrial division, and the complementarity needs urgent enhancement. A tightly linked industrial chain spanning the entire basin has yet to be formed. Not only is the problem of homogeneous industrial competition prominent, but there is also insufficient coordination between the lower reaches' push for new and old growth engine conversion and the middle and upper reaches, failing to create a joint force for driving the basin's development momentum shift and upgrade.
The hydrogen industry is precisely one that relies on regional division and cooperation. Beyond the coupling of upstream and downstream segments, according to the pilot program's content, cities like Ordos will also carry out pilots for hydrogen applications in the industrial sector. Together with cities like Zhengzhou focusing on advancing fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen innovation applications, they are tasked with propelling the cluster to jointly build a Yellow River basin hydrogen energy industrial ecosystem integrating industrial and transportation demonstration uses.
With this in mind, it is worth circling back to the initial question: what does inclusion in this national-level pilot actually mean for Zhengzhou now? As a significant central city in the central region, Zhengzhou is facing the goal of pushing its GDP towards the 2 trillion yuan mark during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. It needs to discover new growth drivers and enhance its radiating driving force to help forge an economic highland in the Yellow River basin. The hydrogen energy industry may just be a useful fulcrum for achieving this.
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