Not surprisingly, the soaring price of raw materials for power batteries became the focus of the conference, and many guests were in full swing, bluntly saying that the huge fluctuation of power battery prices affected the healthy development of the new energy automobile industry.
Zeng Qinghong, chairman of Guangzhou Automobile Group, revealed that the cost of power battery accounts for 40%, 50% and 60% of the total cost of automobiles, and it is increasing. In this regard, he smiled and praised: I am not working in Contemporary Amp Technology Co., Ltd. now?
Zeng Qinghong suggested strengthening the supervision and guidance of the battery industry at the national level, which caused widespread repercussions in the industry. On the same day, Yin Tongyue, Chairman of Chery Automobile, forwarded relevant news in the circle of friends, as if from a distance.
Power battery enters TWh era.
In the first half of this year, China's automobile sales were12.057 million, down 6.6% year-on-year, but the sales of new energy vehicles were 2.6 million, up 1 15% year-on-year, and the penetration rate was as high as 2 1.6%. Driven by demand, the load of power batteries has been rising all the way. From June to June, the national power battery load was 1 10. 1 GWh, up 109.8% year-on-year.
Zeng Qinghong said that at present, the safety and controllability of the power battery supply chain has become a strategic highland of the industry. It is estimated that global battery demand will enter TWh era in 2023.
Zeng Qinghong, Chairman of Guangzhou Automobile Group (Source: provided by the company)
Zeng Yuquan, the chairman of Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. also believes that the automobile industry will be fully electrified and will soon enter the TWh era.
Zeng Yuqun revealed that in the first half of this year, the global market share of Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. reached 34%. At present, the company's products have covered 55 countries and regions around the world, and the shipment of power batteries exceeds 400GWh. One out of every three electric vehicles in the world is equipped with batteries from Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd..
Zeng Yuquan, Chairman of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. (Source: Live Screenshot)
High prices plague the middle and lower reaches of the industry.
Although the market demand for power batteries is very clear, both power batteries and car companies are worried about the high price of raw materials. In the past year, the prices of raw materials such as lithium carbonate and lithium hexafluorophosphate have skyrocketed, and the prices of some lithium battery materials have increased by more than 8 times, which has put some pressure on the middle and lower reaches of the industrial chain, leading downstream car companies to raise product prices, and new energy vehicles have set off several rounds of price hikes.
We can also get a glimpse of the recent performance forecasts issued by a number of A-share listed companies. Thanks to the skyrocketing price of raw materials for power batteries, upstream mining enterprises earned a lot of money and their performance increased collectively in the first half of the year.
The life of car companies is obviously not so good. Although the sales of new energy vehicles of some car companies continue to rise, their profitability is still limited. Zeng Qinghong revealed that at present, except Tesla, all new energy automobile manufacturers are in a state of loss, battery companies have shifted the cost pressure to the OEM, and the OEM has been forced to build batteries and even lay out battery raw materials.
We are even considering buying lithium ore. Zeng Qinghong said that ensuring the safety and stability of the power battery supply chain has become an important foundation for the sustainable development of various car companies and even the healthy development of the automobile industry in major countries in the world, and even a national strategy.
(Source: Live Screenshot)
Therefore, he suggested strengthening the supervision, guidance and overall coordination of the battery industry at the national level, improving the imbalance between supply and demand, and coordinating the price adjustment of raw materials for power batteries to a reasonable range.
(Source: Live Screenshot)
For the skyrocketing price of raw materials for power batteries, Zeng Yuqun thinks that there is a certain speculation component, and the high price brings short-term trouble to the industrial chain. In his view, mineral resources are not the bottleneck of industrial development. At present, the proven lithium resource reserves can produce 160TWh lithium battery, which is completely enough to produce power batteries and energy storage batteries needed by the world.
Unlike petroleum, the battery is gone after use, and most of the materials in the battery can be reused. At present, the recovery rates of nickel, cobalt and manganese are 99.3%, and lithium is over 90%. Zeng Yuqun predicted that after 2035, we can meet a large part of market demand by recycling materials from retired batteries. At the same time, enterprises can also improve the development and utilization level of superior minerals in China through a series of technologies such as extracting lithium from ceramic soil.
There are still multiple challenges in the industrial chain.
Zeng Yuqun said that there are three major challenges in the current power battery industry chain. First, consumers put forward higher requirements for the R&D capability of enterprises; Second, large-scale delivery puts forward higher requirements for the manufacturing power of enterprises; Third, the in-depth development of the industry puts forward higher requirements for the service power of enterprises.
Around the above three aspects, from power battery companies to car companies are stepping up efforts to overcome. For example, a number of battery technologies developed by Guangzhou Automobile Group focus on improving the user experience, including sponge silicon negative plate battery technology, super fast charging technology, magazine battery system safety technology, etc., which mainly solve the pain points of users in battery life, charging and safety.
For a leading power battery company such as Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., it is obviously one of the core issues to continuously improve the battery performance. Zeng Yuqun believes that the innovation of material system is the key to improve the performance of batteries. At present, contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. has found the combination point of various material elements and the best balance point between anode, cathode, electrolyte and diaphragm through algorithm, and then analyzed the real vehicle data, thus giving positive feedback to product development and precipitating diversified solutions.
It is reported that the research and development of sodium ion battery is based on the complementarity of computing power, algorithm and data.
In terms of structural innovation, BYD and Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. both put forward their own plans. Zeng Yuqun said that the Kirin battery recently launched by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. does not need to stack batteries, and can achieve a battery life of 1000 km. There will be several new models using Kirin batteries on the market next year.
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