Volkswagen once again joins hands with billionaire lithium battery giant

News from Volkswagen Group (China) shows that Volkswagen Group (China) recently announced that it has joined hands with Jiangsu Huayou Energy Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Huayou Cobalt, to release a "30KW78KWh full-time active balancing echelon mobile energy storage system" Pilot project.

It is reported that the echelon mobile energy storage system released this time is based on Volkswagen’s retired ternary power batteries , and uses Huayou’s retired power battery rapid sorting technology, efficient and safe BMS management technology, full time domain equalization technology and other patented technologies , while maintaining the original battery pack structure, Volkswagen Group (China) and Jiangsu Huayou jointly developed a digital control system tailored for ladder battery applications to ensure the safe operation of energy storage equipment. This product has functions such as power supplementation, demand capacity expansion, peak shaving and valley filling, and emergency power use. It can achieve optimal power operation through intelligent matching.

The energy storage system will be put into use first in the Huayou Cobalt factory, and in the future it is planned to gradually expand to the Volkswagen Group's production base in China.

Image source: Volkswagen Group (China)

Volkswagen China once again joins hands with Huayou Cobalt

In fact, the release of this energy storage system is the second cooperation between Volkswagen China and Huayou Cobalt on two levels.

The first is another exploratory development for the retired power battery market. Prior to the release of this energy storage system, Volkswagen China and Jiangsu Huayou had used retired Volkswagen power batteries to build low-speed two-wheeler ladder batteries and launched pilot products.

The second is in-depth cooperation in the power battery industry chain. In March 2022, Volkswagen China signed two memorandums of understanding on strategic cooperation with Huayou Cobalt and Tsingshan Holding Group. The first is to form a joint venture between the three parties to develop nickel and cobalt resource development business in Indonesia. The planned construction scale of the joint venture is to produce approximately 120,000 tons of nickel metal and approximately 15,000 tons of cobalt metal annually, which can meet the supply of nickel and cobalt raw materials required for approximately 160GWh batteries.

The second is that Volkswagen China and Huayou Cobalt plan to establish a joint venture in Guangxi and other places to engage in nickel cobalt sulfate refining, ternary precursors and ternary cathode material production, etc., to jointly create internationally competitive new energy lithium battery materials Integrated manufacturing platform.

From raw material manufacturing to the step-by-step utilization of decommissioned power batteries, the scope of cooperation between Volkswagen China and Huayou Cobalt has continued to expand, and the cooperative relationship has continued to deepen, which is enough to show the trust between the two parties in each other and the common goal of exploring and building a new energy industry value chain. . It is reported that under the guidance of the NEW AUTO strategy, Volkswagen China will continue to deepen exploration with partners such as Huayou Cobalt to create a sustainable closed-loop value chain covering the entire life cycle of batteries, from raw material acquisition to recycling.

Huayou Cobalt wins the first long-term order for ternary precursors in 2023

In addition to expanding cooperation with Volkswagen China, 12 days ago, on January 4, Huayou Cobalt won its first long-term order for ternary precursors in 2023.

In the evening of the same day, Huayou Cobalt announced that the company had signed purchase agreements for ternary precursors with POSCO CHEMICAL CO., LTD. and Zhejiang Puhua New Energy Materials Co., Ltd. (referred to as Puhua Company).

According to the agreement, Huayou Cobalt and its subsidiaries plan to supply a total of approximately 160,000 tons of battery material ternary precursor products to Posco Chemical from January 2023 to December 2025. In addition, Huayou Cobalt and its subsidiaries plan to supply a total of approximately 15,000 tons of battery material ternary precursor products to Puhua Company from January 2023 to December 2025.

Overall, the supply of ternary precursors involved in the two purchase agreements reached 175,000 tons. According to industry public data estimates, a 1GWh ternary lithium battery requires about 1,400 tons of precursors. The total battery capacity corresponding to the 175,000 tons of ternary precursor supplied this time reaches 125GWh, which is enough to meet the battery consumption of approximately 1.6 million pure electric vehicles .

Huayou Cobalt did not clearly announce the transaction price in the announcement. However, the average price of ternary precursors in the past three years has been between 107,000 yuan/ton and 144,000 yuan/ton. At the end of December 2022, the price of ternary precursors including type 523, type 622 and type 811 will be approximately between 110,000 yuan/ton and 130,000 yuan/ton. Based on this rough calculation, the amount involved in Huayou Cobalt's two supply agreements is approximately between 19.25 billion yuan and 22.75 billion yuan.

Weike.com Lithium Battery noted that this is Huayou Cobalt’s second three-year long order after winning Tesla ’s three-and-a-half-year long order for ternary precursors at the end of July 2022!

Summarize

Whether it is Volkswagen joining hands with Huayou Cobalt and others to invest in nickel and cobalt raw material projects, or Posco Chemical and Tesla "sweeping goods" ternary precursors, the common logic behind it is that with the rapid development of the new energy vehicle market, The technology of automobile companies and power battery companies is developing towards high energy density, and the trend of high nickel is obvious. It is expected that high nickel of cathode materials will become the mainstream development direction in the future.

Huayou Cobalt currently has a ternary precursor production capacity of 325,000 tons and is under construction (including joint ventures). It has developed and mass-produced a variety of 8-series and 9-series precursors, and reserves a variety of new high-nickel and NCMA precursor products. In 2022, we will also actively build nickel and cobalt resource projects around the world either by ourselves or jointly with automobile companies, which will help us seize the opportunity in advance in the future high nickel trend.

In the secondary market, as of the close of trading on January 17, Huayou Cobalt reported 63.84 yuan, with a total market value of 102 billion yuan.