Recently, the Construction Department of the Ministry of Finance published the "Notice of the Ministry of Finance on Allocating the Budget for Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Subsidy Funds in 2026 (First Batch)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") on its official website, which specifically disclosed the disbursement of reward funds for the fourth-year fuel cell vehicle demonstration application. This marked that China's four-year fuel cell vehicle demonstration period has entered the final settlement stage, drawing a phased conclusion to this round of demonstration application work.
According to the content specified in the Notice, the fourth-year fuel cell vehicle demonstration application reward amounted to approximately 2.57 billion yuan, covering 15 provincial-level administrative regions and 39 cities (districts). This was the final disbursement with the highest reward amount and the broadest coverage across the four-year demonstration period, fully reflecting the state's sustained support for the fuel cell vehicle industry and demonstrating the remarkable achievements of this round of demonstration application.
It was reported that, as of the disclosure of the fourth-year reward funds, the cumulative reward amount over the four-year demonstration period reached approximately 7.68 billion yuan. Notably, the demonstration list exhibited significant dynamic adjustment characteristics: Guangdong and Anhui, after being absent from the second- and third-year reward lists, successfully returned to the list in the fourth year; provinces such as Shanxi, Liaoning, and Xinjiang joined the reward list in the final year of the demonstration period, further expanding the demonstration coverage and promoting the deployment of fuel cell vehicle technology in more regions.
Specific fund allocation revealed significant disparities in demonstration performance among provinces and cities, with a prominent leading effect at the top. Guangdong Province ranked first nationwide with a reward amount of 1.0493 billion yuan, accounting for 40.8% of the total reward in this round; its subordinate city Guangzhou secured 924.9 million yuan in rewards, leading all cities nationwide. Henan Province followed closely with 438.98 million yuan, accounting for 17.1% of the total reward and ranking second nationwide, while Zhengzhou received 358.16 million yuan, second only to Guangzhou. The combined reward amount of Guangdong and Henan accounted for nearly 58%, highlighting their demonstration leadership role and making them the core benchmarks of this round of demonstration application. In addition, Foshan (120.92 million yuan), Tangshan (98.44 million yuan), and Lvliang (219.61 million yuan) emerged as exemplary representatives among prefecture-level cities with their outstanding demonstration performance.
According to the subsidy rules for fuel cell vehicle demonstration city clusters, each of the five demonstration city clusters had a reward cap of 1.7 billion yuan over the four-year demonstration period, with the reward amount eligible for a maximum 10% increase to 1.87 billion yuan if demonstration tasks were exceeded. Based on this calculation, the theoretical total subsidy cap for the four-year demonstration period ranged from 8.5 billion to 9.35 billion yuan. Using the standard reward cap of 8.5 billion yuan, the cumulative four-year reward amount disclosed this time reached 90.4% of the cap, fully demonstrating that the demonstration city clusters achieved a high overall completion rate with significant progress toward demonstration targets.
In terms of cumulative four-year reward amounts, the top five cities were Shanghai (approximately 1.22 billion yuan), Beijing (approximately 1.17 billion yuan), Tangshan (approximately 1.12 billion yuan), Zhengzhou (approximately 1.08 billion yuan), and Guangzhou (approximately 980 million yuan). These cities, leveraging their well-established industrial layouts and mature application scenarios, served as the core bases of this round of demonstration application, accumulating valuable experience for the large-scale development of China's fuel cell vehicle industry.
It was reported that the settlement of fuel cell vehicle demonstration application reward and subsidy funds is an important component of energy conservation and emission reduction subsidy funds. According to the previously amended "Interim Measures for the Management of Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Subsidy Funds" by the Ministry of Finance, the fuel cell vehicle demonstration application policy concluded at the end of 2025, with the settlement period extended to 2027. This fourth-year reward fund disclosure was a key step in the settlement process. The timely disbursement of these reward funds will further stimulate the enthusiasm of enterprises to participate in the development of the fuel cell vehicle industry, promote coordinated upgrading across the industry chain, and inject sustained momentum into the high-quality development of China's hydrogen energy and fuel cell vehicle industry.
