Shanghai (ZXZC)- Great Wall Holdings Group Limited and China's state-controlled oil firm Sinopec Group inked a framework agreement on May 12 to cooperate on hydrogen energy business, according to a posting on Great Wall Motor (GWM)'s WeChat account.

Great Wall Holdings, Sinopec signing agreement; photo credit: Great Wall Motor

As part of efforts to promote the development of hydrogen industry, both parties will jointly boost the demonstration of fuel cell electric vehicles, construct hydrogen fueling stations or pumping stations that combine hydrogen filling and retail sales of oil, and apply hydrogen energy in such scenarios, such as the heavy-duty trucks for transporting construction materials in Xiong'an New Area, the logistics vehicles offering services in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the city buses in Baoding, Hebei province.

Under the agreement, the duo will co-develop hydrogen-related technologies. To be specific, they will deepen the cooperation on the research of the special subjects like the production, storage, transport, refueling, and application of gaseous and liquid hydrogen, and jointly develop the pilot projects of “hydrogen cities” to promote the comprehensive utilization of hydrogen energy.

Wei Jianjun, chairman of Great Wall Holdings, said the cooperation with Sinopec will play an important role in GWM’s pursuit of building a world-class supply chain ecosystem integrating production, storage, transport, refueling, and application of hydrogen, and will help China develop and make breakthroughs in hydrogen technologies.

Sinopec is speeding up its energy transition and industrial upgrade, aiming to build 1,000 hydrogen-fueling stations or oil-hydrogen combined stations, 5,000 EV charging & battery swapping stations, and 7,000 distributed photovoltaic power stations by 2025, according to Zhang Yuzhuo, chairman of Sinopec.