Power battery "three strong competition"

LG Energy Solution will focus on expanding production in North America. Since the beginning of this year, it has announced the construction of battery factories in Ontario, Canada, Arizona, the United States and other places. Not long ago, LG Energy Solution also held a signing ceremony with Honda, agreeing to invest $4.4 billion to jointly build a power battery factory in the United States. Currently, LG Energy Solution has two completed factories in Michigan and Ohio, and joint venture factories in Tennessee and Michigan are under construction. Shin Young-jun, senior vice president of LG Energy Solution, said that by 2025, LG Energy Solution is expected to increase its global production capacity to 540GWh, of which North America will account for more than 40%.

BYD's capacity expansion is mainly focused on the domestic market. According to statistics, since the beginning of this year, BYD has signed contracts and established battery production bases in seven cities, including Xiangyang, Changchun, Yancheng, and Guiyang, with an estimated additional planned capacity of 187 GWh. In addition to the new and expanded bases in Wuhu, Chuzhou, and Xi'an last year, it is expected that the planned capacity will reach 600 GWh by 2025.

When talking about the reasons why major battery manufacturers are accelerating their overseas expansion, Zeng Youpeng believes that local battery manufacturers in markets such as Europe and North America have not really risen, and there is a lot of room for improvement in the process of full electrification. The demand for power batteries in the European market accounts for about 1/3 of the world, but battery products mainly rely on imports, while the electrification rate of North American cars is less than 10%, which brings a lot of market space for major battery manufacturers.

Zhao Zhenyue believes that at present, leading automakers are more inclined to choose suppliers with global advantages to reduce investment and costs, which has prompted major battery manufacturers to accelerate the pace of building factories overseas. BYD is a complete vehicle manufacturer and started its overseas expansion relatively late. However, with the overall spin-off and independent listing of its battery business, it will shift from domestic supply to marketization, which may accelerate the layout of overseas production capacity.

A second round of restructuring may be coming

At present, there are various power battery technology routes with different performances. According to the material system, they are divided into lithium iron phosphate and ternary; according to the packaging form, they are divided into cylindrical, square, and soft-pack batteries; CTP, CTC and other battery structure innovations are also emerging. But in general, long life, true safety, ultra-fast charging, and high specific energy are the direction of power battery technology innovation and the mainstream demand of the market.

According to relevant person in charge of CATL, the company is constantly innovating technology and iterating products. In the field of materials, ternary lithium and lithium iron phosphate are advancing in parallel, and M3P and sodium-ion batteries are deployed in advance. At the same time, the company is actively promoting next-generation batteries such as solid-state batteries, cobalt-free batteries, and negative-electrode metal-free batteries; in the field of structure, it is the first to explore and promote CTP, CTC, and A/B modes.

LG New Energy's technology layout is mainly centered around ternary materials. It is the world's first company to mass-produce ternary cathode materials. It is also developing lithium iron phosphate, cobalt-free batteries and all-solid-state batteries. Zheng Yuandou, general manager of LG New Energy China, introduced that LG New Energy has built a differentiated competitive advantage in cutting-edge material technology and manufacturing processes, and has the world's leading NCMA (quaternary lithium battery) technology with higher energy density, polymer and sulfide all-solid-state batteries with better safety performance, and lighter lithium-ion batteries.

BYD is optimizing and innovating in a single field, that is, while focusing on the lithium iron phosphate route and blade battery technology in terms of materials and structure, it is also researching new battery forms. A few days ago, BYD announced a patent for a "hexagonal" battery. According to reports, the battery cell is in the shape of a hexagonal prism, and looks like a honeycomb when viewed from above, which is different from the current mainstream cylindrical, soft-pack, square and other batteries. The patent describes that the battery can increase the capacity of the pole core, and the shell can accommodate more electrolyte to extend the service life of the pole core. At the same time, when multiple batteries are connected into a battery module, the external space utilization rate is effectively improved, the battery short circuit or open circuit is avoided, and the arrangement requirements of battery modules of various sizes are met, so that the battery module can be suitable for various environments.

Some people believe that the first round of battery supply chain restructuring benefited from the decline of soft-pack batteries and the rise of square-type batteries. In this round of restructuring, CATL quickly broke into the market with technologies such as lithium iron phosphate, high-voltage ternary batteries, and CTP, and its market share continued to hit new highs. In the second round of restructuring, new battery structures and material systems, such as large cylinders, Kirin batteries, ultra-high nickel, and lithium iron manganese phosphate, will become important innovations. In this round of restructuring, the competitiveness of Chinese battery companies, led by CATL and BYD, will continue to improve, leading the continued development of the power battery market.