In the Dameisha Seaside Park of Yantian District, a “UFO” manned eVTOL with a disc-shaped shell slowly rose into the air and flew steadily. In Nanshan Science Park, hydrogen-powered buses equipped with hydrogen fuel cell systems shuttle through the park, providing commuting services for employees of companies such as Huawei and Tencent; Along the coast of the Greater Bay Area, the hydrogen-powered unmanned autonomous transport vessel “Tiger No.1”, a global explorer of unmanned ships, has achieved a breakthrough of zero carbon emissions in the shipping industry…
These future vehicles, often depicted in science fiction movies, are gradually becoming a reality in Shenzhen. In the first half of this year, the number of new energy vehicles in Shenzhen reached 1.08 million. In June alone, the penetration rate of new vehicles reached 77.4%, a record high for a single month. As the green and low-carbon transportation pattern continues to expand, Shenzhen is accelerating the layout of new energy vehicles as a new track and fostering an all-round “electric Shenzhen” industrial cluster covering land, sea and air.
Gather Marine advantages for electric vessels to “swim” on the sea
In the field of new energy vessels, thanks to a well-developed electronic information industry chain, Shenzhen has taken the advantageous Marine electronic information industry as the entry point to actively explore new energy vessels, empower green shipping and green ports, and promote the agglomeration development of upstream and downstream supporting industries such as Marine power batteries, motors, box-type power supplies, battery management systems, charging and battery swapping equipment, and shore power energy storage integration facilities.
Shenzhen Racern Technology Co., Ltd. is currently one of the world’s largest integrators of battery systems for pure electric tourist ships and has delivered lithium battery systems for more than 1,100 new energy ships. In May 2024, one of its self-developed air-cooled lithium-ion battery energy storage systems was officially certified by DNV, the Norwegian classification society, for battery-powered or hybrid vessels and offshore facilities.
Not only that, but Shenzhen also leads the nation in the layout of shore power systems as a support for the development of electric vessels. From January to July this year, the shore power system at the Yantian International Container Terminal connected 626 vessels, twice that of the same period last year and more than the whole of last year. It provided about 13.07 million kilowatt-hours of electricity to ships arriving at the port, twice as much as the same period last year and more than the whole of last year, reducing 10,117 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, equivalent to planting 560,000 trees.
Building an industrial ecosystem, the low-altitude economy “dances” high up
In early March 2024, the electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) “Shengshi Long” took off from the Shekou Cruise home Port in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, and after about 20 minutes of flight, landed at the Jiuzhou Port terminal in Zhuhai. This is the first public demonstration flight of the world’s first cross-sea and cross-city electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft route, and a historic moment for future transportation to become a reality. In June, a “UFO” flew over Happy Bay in Bao ‘an District. As the world’s first eVTOL manned “flying saucer”, it attracted many tourists to visit and take photos.
In recent years, Shenzhen has been fully committed to promoting the development of the low-altitude economy industry and has established a complete low-altitude policy system of “regulations + action plans + several measures + space guarantee + advanced layout of infrastructure”. Especially in the construction of the industrial chain, key supporting links are complete, and upstream, midstream and downstream enterprises work closely together to form a synergy for the development of the low-altitude economy.
Shenzhen is now a globally renowned “drone capital” and has initially formed a full industrial chain systematized competitive advantage in the field of low-altitude economy. As of June 2024, the city has built 249 low-altitude take-offs and landings, covering four major areas: passenger transport, logistics transport, community delivery and public governance services. Among them, 109 take-offs and landings have been built in the helicopter and eVTOL passenger transport sector, 46 in the logistics transport sector, and 74 in the community delivery sector.
At the recent conference on High-Quality development of the low-altitude economy, the “High-Quality Construction Plan for Low-altitude Take-off and Landing Facilities in Shenzhen (2024-2025)” was released again, which will build a well-defined and well-structured low-altitude take-off and landing service system to support “heterogeneous, high-density, high-frequency, high-complexity” low-altitude flight activities and the cultivation of “low-altitude +” emerging business forms. By the end of 2025, Shenzhen will have built more than 1,000 low-altitude take-off and landing sites and achieved an international advanced level in low-altitude flight service support.
Follow the “green” trend and take the lead in laying out new transportation tracks
In March 2023, 304 BYD electric heavy-duty trucks were shipped to India, marking India’s first large-scale purchase of electric heavy-duty trucks for port operations; In November of the same year, a 32-ton hook-lift hydrogen-powered domestic waste transfer vehicle with a hydrogen fuel cell system, developed by Shenzhen-owned Hydrogen Blue Era, was delivered at the Overseas Chinese Town waste transfer station in Nanshan District.
In recent years, Shenzhen’s green and low-carbon transportation pattern has continued to expand. By the end of 2023, Shenzhen had promoted a total of 130,000 pure electric trucks, including 126,000 pure electric logistics delivery vehicles and 4,000 pure electric dump trucks, both ranking first in the world.
Influenced by low-carbon lifestyles and the trend of electrification, electric-assisted bicycles have gradually become one of the fastest-growing categories globally and have now formed a market worth more than 100 billion US dollars. Reporters have noticed that many leading enterprises in Shenzhen have quietly entered this emerging market. TENWAYS, an electric-assisted bicycle brand created by Shenzhen Shifang Sports, completed a Series B financing of hundreds of millions of yuan in November last year; At the end of last year, Shenzhen Xidesheng Bicycle Co., Ltd. teamed up with Huawei to launch the first HarmonyOS Connected electric-assisted bicycle; At EUROBIKE2024 in July this year, DJI unveiled its power-assisted bicycle system “DJI Avinox” and “Amflow PL” vehicles, officially entering the power-assisted bicycle race.
The leading companies in the electric-assisted bicycle sector are accelerating their rise, and the upstream and downstream industrial chains are constantly aggregating. Guangming District already has a solid industrial foundation. In the fields of intelligent control and intelligent sensing, it has gathered high-quality enterprises such as Heertai, Amphenol, Nuoan Intelligent, and Nuodirui Technology. In the field of new materials, there are enterprises represented by Xinxing Light Alloy and Guangda Tongchuang, which are technologically leading in the research and development and manufacturing of special lightweight alloys and carbon fiber materials.
In the future, the focus will be on the deep integration of the upstream raw materials and components with new materials and intelligent sensing, the organic combination of the midstream vehicle manufacturing with precision manufacturing and modern fashion, and the effective leverage of the latest achievements in the fields of the Internet and artificial intelligence in the downstream to explore new business forms and models, and build a highland of the city’s self-developed intelligent manufacturing industry.