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Mobile WebSiteIn mid-May, the Volkswagen Group announced that it will establish a battery factory with its partners in Europe. Diss, the CEO of Volkswagen Group, bluntly stated that “this will be an important milestone for the future development of the Volkswagen Group”.
From the cooperation of battery suppliers to self-built battery factories, under the wave of new energy development, how to have a stable and high-quality source of power batteries has become a new direction for domestic and foreign auto companies.
Battery manufacturer into "Xiangxiang"
Cooperating with professional battery manufacturers to carry out battery procurement is the main way for OEMs to realize the supply of electric vehicle batteries.
At the end of 2018, Daimler announced that it will promote the company's electrification transformation through a power battery procurement plan with a value of more than 20 billion euros. It is expected that by 2022, more than 130 electric Mercedes-Benz will be launched. Passenger car products.
Volkswagen, which has electrification as its main direction, has also selected China's Ningde era, South Korea's SK Innovation, LG Chem and Samsung SDI as its power battery suppliers. Among them, the Ningde era will supply batteries for pure electric vehicle products in China.
Overseas car companies such as BMW and Volvo have also chosen the Ningde era to cooperate on power batteries. In July 2018, BMW Brilliance signed a Strategic Cooperation Agreement with Ningde Times. According to the agreement, Ningde Times became a strategic partner of BMW Brilliance in the field of lithium-ion batteries, which will provide electricity for the next generation of power batteries for BMW Brilliance's new energy vehicles. core. In May of this year, Volvo also incorporated the Ningde era into its own power battery supplier system. Together with LG Chem, Ningde will provide lithium-ion batteries for Volvo's next-generation electric vehicles and Polestar.
Power battery supply restricts vehicle production capacity
There are technical barriers and industry barriers in the production of power batteries. For car companies, leveraging professional battery manufacturers is a better way to quickly meet the power battery supply. However, as the core area of electric vehicles, Sanpower Technology has data showing that battery costs account for 30% or even 50% of the cost of complete vehicles. For such key components, auto companies are naturally reluctant to rely too much on external suppliers.
In fact, as more and more OEMs join the electrified team, the supply of power batteries is gradually facing a situation of gluttony.
According to foreign media reports, because LG Chem can not supply enough batteries, Audi is planning to cut the established capacity of pure electric SUV products e-tron. In this regard, Volkswagen Group CEO Des also urged power battery partners to increase production capacity and build a super battery factory.
The "number one flow" in electric vehicles - Tesla, is also facing the constraints of insufficient battery production. As the exclusive supplier of Tesla's automotive power battery, Panasonic supplies batteries for Tesla's Model S, Model X and Model 3. Recently, Matsushita said that with the mass production of Tesla Model Y in 2020, the company's battery may not be enough to meet the development needs of Tesla. In April of this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk also publicly stated that the speed of Panasonic's production of batteries hindered the Model 3 to expand production.
Host factory built battery factory
In order to reduce the dependence on external battery suppliers, the construction of battery factories in the mainframe factory has gradually become a trend.
As early as September 2018, the Volkswagen Group released news that it plans to build solid-state batteries in its own battery factory in Europe, and is expected to start mass production between 2024 and 2025. In fact, Volkswagen is not the first to eat crabs in its own battery factory. At the end of last year, Daimler publicly stated that it plans to invest 1 billion euros to build a power battery production network covering 8 power battery factories on three continents. The first power battery factory in Kamenz, Germany, has been put into production.
Domestic car companies have chosen a joint venture with battery manufacturers to ensure a stable supply of batteries. In December 2018, Geely Automobile said that its subsidiary, Zhejiang Jirun, will establish a joint venture with Ningde Times to develop, manufacture and sell batteries, battery modules and battery packs, and provide a stable supply of core power batteries for Geely new energy vehicles. .
It is also a consistent practice in the Ningde era to establish a joint venture with domestic mainstream car companies. At present, the Ningde era has successively entered into joint ventures with BAIC, SAIC, GAC and Dongfeng Motor. For example, Pride, a joint venture between Ningde and BAIC, mainly supplies battery packs for BAIC New Energy and Beiqi Foton. In the era of SAIC and SAIC, which was jointly established with SAIC, the former is responsible for battery production and the latter is responsible for battery pack production. After meeting SAIC's battery demand, the surplus capacity is also open to other new energy OEMs.
Battery core is the core competitiveness of battery companies
It can be seen that the joint venture with a professional battery manufacturer or a self-built factory provides a stable power battery source for the main engine factory, which can better match the production cycle of the vehicle; on the other hand, it is also beneficial to reduce the power battery manufacturing cost. To obtain more effective cost control.
In fact, car manufacturers build their own battery factories, which are also divided into production battery packs and production batteries. For pure electric vehicles, the battery pack manufacturing process is called the fifth largest process beyond stamping, welding, painting, and final assembly. Previously, most of the battery factories built by automakers mostly produced battery packs. For example, in 2017, Geely, SAIC, Daimler and BMW Brilliance have all laid battery pack production lines or factories in China. However, at this stage, including Geely Automobile and SAIC Group, the production of batteries is included in the production scope of their own battery factories.
In this regard, some industry experts pointed out that the production of batteries has high technical requirements, the production of batteries, has a higher technical threshold, is the core competitiveness of battery companies, the main source is still professional battery supply. Business.
