Electrical Equipment / Components & Telecoms

In recent years, driven by the development of the new energy vehicle industry, China's power battery industry has continuously expanded in scale, improved in technological level, continuously improved in quality assurance system, and continuously improved in industrial ecology. The industrial development has achieved significant results.

In 2023, the new energy vehicle industry has entered a new stage of overlapping and integrated development. Faced with the global competitive environment and its growing development needs, the power battery industry has entered a new stage of development. The entire industry chain is actively adjusting its development mode, striving to ensure industry safety, controllable resources, capacity deployment, and green and low-carbon development. A new sustainable industrial ecology is being formed.

What strategic opportunities and challenges will China's power battery industry face in the new development stage? Starting from this issue, Automotive Weekly will launch a series of reports on the investigation of the power battery industry, analyzing the advantageous position of China's battery industry through research and interviews with experts, academicians, and market and technology leaders in the new energy vehicle and power battery industry; Visit leading Chinese battery companies globally; Interview authoritative figures to evaluate the innovation of next-generation batteries and materials; Provide suggestions for improving the full lifecycle management of power batteries.

According to import and export data, in 2022, China sold 6.887 million new energy vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 93.4%, accounting for 61.2% of global sales. The sales of new energy vehicles account for 25.6% of the total sales of new vehicles, achieving the 2025 planning goal three years in advance.

Driven by the strong demand for new energy vehicles, the power battery market in China is also growing rapidly. According to import and export data released by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, the total installed capacity of power batteries in China reached 294.6GWh in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 90.7%. Ningde Times, BYD, and China Innovation Airlines have consistently ranked among the top three in terms of vehicle installation volume, and continue to expand their leading advantages.

In the development process of automobile electrification, battery technology innovation has played a leading role. It is precisely because of the battery revolution that has driven the new energy vehicle revolution. "Zhang Yongwei, Vice Chairman and Secretary General of the China Electric Vehicle Association of 100, said that 10 years ago, Japanese and Korean battery companies dominated the market, and now China has entered the first tier.

Maintain rapid growth in production and sales

Benefiting from the positive performance of the downstream new energy vehicle market, the production and sales of power batteries in China continue to increase. The latest import and export data released by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance shows that in terms of production, the import and export data shows that from January to March, China's cumulative production of power batteries was 130.0 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 26.3%. The cumulative production of ternary batteries is 45.7GWh, accounting for 35.1% of the total production, with a cumulative year-on-year increase of 15.1%; The cumulative output of lithium iron phosphate battery is 84.1GWh, accounting for 64.7% of the total output, with a cumulative year-on-year growth of 33.4%.

In terms of sales, from January to March, the cumulative sales of power batteries in China reached 108.5 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 66.8%. Among them, the cumulative sales of ternary batteries were 44.7GWh, accounting for 41.3% of the total sales, with a cumulative year-on-year increase of 62.5%; The cumulative sales volume of lithium iron phosphate battery is 63.6 GWh, accounting for 58.6% of the total sales volume, with a cumulative year-on-year growth of 70.2%.

In terms of exports, import and export data shows that from January to March, China's power battery enterprises exported 25.8 GWh of batteries. Among them, the cumulative export of ternary batteries is 18.7 GWh, accounting for 72.6% of the total export; Lithium iron phosphate battery exports 7.0GWh accumulatively, accounting for 27.2% of the total exports.

In terms of loading volume, import and export data shows that from January to March, the cumulative loading volume of power batteries in China was 65.9 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 28.4%. Among them, the cumulative installed capacity of ternary batteries is 20.9GWh, accounting for 31.7% of the total installed capacity, with a cumulative year-on-year decrease of 2.2%; Lithium iron phosphate battery has a cumulative loading of 44.9GWh, accounting for 68.2% of the total, with a cumulative year-on-year growth of 50.5%.

Specifically, in March this year, the top five domestic power battery companies in terms of vehicle installation volume were Ningde Times, BYD, China Innovation Airlines, Guoxuan High Tech, and Yiwei Lithium Energy. Among them, Ningde Times ranks first with a monthly loading volume of 12.49GWh, accounting for 44.95%, leading a group of manufacturers. Following closely behind is BYD, with a power battery load of 7.40GWh, accounting for 26.65%. The third ranked China Innovation Aviation has a battery loading capacity of 2.86Wh, accounting for 10.28%. In addition, Xinwangda, LG New Energy, Funeng Technology, Honeycomb Energy, and Jiewei Power also make it to the top ten on the list.

Nowadays, China's power battery industry has achieved leapfrog development. Zhang Yongwei said, "In the past, China mainly focused on battery integration. Now, it has formed the world's most complete and largest power battery industry system from material research and development, battery production, recycling, and equipment support. The four major raw materials of positive electrode, negative electrode, electrolyte, and separator have basically freed themselves from import dependence, and the localization rate of lithium battery equipment has reached over 90%, with the localization rate of key process equipment reaching over 80%

Solving the technical problem of "neck sticking"

The performance of power batteries is also constantly improving. Zhang Yongwei stated that the cost-effectiveness of electric vehicles in China has rapidly improved, and the range of electric vehicles has increased from over 100 kilometers in the past to 600-800 kilometers, or even higher. Some models have become competitive in terms of cost compared to gasoline vehicles.

However, it is undeniable that compared to gasoline powered vehicles, electric vehicles still have issues with safety, range, charging capacity, and value preservation.

From scratch, electric vehicles have entered the next stage, which is how to achieve 'good'. In the view of Wang Yu, Chairman of Funeng Technology (Ganzhou) Co., Ltd., new energy vehicles can be promoted from "good" to "good" from four aspects. Firstly, to achieve full range, the battery pack power needs to be increased by 25%, providing end users with a very good experience; Secondly, eliminate charging anxiety, with the goal of filling 400 kilometers in 10 minutes and drinking a cup of coffee to meet the requirements; Thirdly, control the price of the battery pack at $100 per kilowatt hour; Fourthly, rely less on cobalt and lithium resources.

How to do a good job and implement the range is related to material and product design, "Wang Yu said. In terms of design, many efforts have been made, but the fundamental range problem cannot be solved yet. To truly solve this problem, we still need to start with materials, and new materials are needed. Eliminating charging anxiety mainly solves the problems of ion and electron conductivity, and reduces impedance. To solve the problem of cost, it is necessary to comprehensively solve it from four aspects: materials, design, manufacturing, and recycling. Because the cost not only depends on the materials, but also on the battery design.

Sun Shigang, an academician of the CAS Member, pointed out that China's new energy vehicles account for more than half of the world's total new energy vehicles. Under the goal of "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality", the development speed will be faster. This demand has put forward increasingly high requirements for power cells and fuel cells, including energy density, power density, safety, service life, extreme environmental applicability, and cost reduction.

So we need to further strengthen technological research in this area. Not only to solve the bottleneck "bottleneck" technical problems, but also to achieve transcendence from the source and promote the foundation of our country's self-reliance and self-improvement. We hope that through such efforts, we can lead the development of the next generation of power cells and fuel cells, "said Sun Shigang.

Enterprises compete to go to sea

While consolidating their domestic market position, Chinese power battery companies also rely on their technological, scale, and cost advantages to actively expand overseas markets.

According to statistics, there is still a production capacity gap of 400GWh in the overseas market by 2025 and 2026, "said Zhao Weijun, Executive Director of Yuanjing Power and President of China." The localization of production capacity in the automotive industry determines who can meet it, and whoever can go global will have an opportunity

Liu Jincheng, Chairman of Huizhou Yiwei Lithium Energy Co., Ltd., also holds the same view. He believes that the development of the power battery industry cannot be limited to domestic development, but also needs to achieve international development. In terms of global manufacturing, global services, global cooperation, and other aspects, Chinese battery companies should not still adopt a bottomless approach globally, but should position themselves as trustworthy, reliable, and harmonious development.

On the one hand, domestic lithium-ion battery companies have strong competitiveness, and this is also true in overseas markets. On the other hand, because the domestic market has become too competitive, it has become a red ocean, while the foreign market is still a blue ocean. Therefore, we are going overseas to exchange technology for the market. "Zhang Xiaocong, Vice President of Marketing at Ruipu Lanjun Energy Co., Ltd., revealed that on the basis of the existing five domestic production bases, The company will launch investment layouts for factories in Europe and Indonesia this year, with plans to achieve a total battery capacity of 200GWh by 2026.

Guoxuan High Tech is also actively exploring overseas markets. On March 15th, Guoxuan High Tech reached a strategic cooperation agreement with Japan's Edison Energy. The two sides will work together to explore the Japanese energy storage and recycling market, promote the popularization of renewable energy in Japan, and promote Guoxuan batteries to enter the Japanese market.

Going global has become a consensus among Chinese power battery companies, but Zhang Xiaocong also pointed out that in order for power battery companies to survive overseas, they must excel in six aspects: patent layout, technological innovation, extreme manufacturing, supply chain control, economic strength, and internal management. We cannot be satisfied with the results we have achieved now. Because when we go abroad, our competitors will become even stronger