Ruipu/Honeycomb takes the lead, and power battery "powerful players" intensively expand their strategies

Data shows that the global installed capacity of electric vehicle power batteries in 2022 will be approximately 517.9GWh, a year-on-year increase of 71.8%. In 2022, global power battery sales will be 690GWh, and the battery pack market will reach US$125.5 billion. In the first quarter of 2023, the global installed capacity of electric vehicle power batteries was 133GWh, a year-on-year increase of 38.6%, still maintaining rapid growth.

CITIC Securities predicts that global demand for new energy vehicle power batteries is expected to reach 1,380GWh in 2025. Nomura Securities predicts that the global demand for electric vehicle batteries will grow by 17% from 2023 to 2030; the global demand for electric vehicle batteries in 2028 will be approximately 1,647GWh, and the global demand for electric vehicle batteries in 2030 will be approximately 2,107GWh.

The market demand for new energy vehicles continues to be booming, and power battery manufacturers are very enthusiastic about investing in and expanding production. At the same time, players are also "showing their magical powers across the sea" and releasing blockbuster products. Battery China Network noticed that there were several major projects and actions in early May this year alone.

Ruipu Lanjun, backed by Tsingshan Holdings, a Fortune 500 company, is a dark horse in the industry that has risen rapidly in recent years. On May 9, Ruipu Lanjun's 30GWh annual battery cell and PACK production base project started construction in Fuling High-tech Zone, Chongqing. The project plans a total investment of 10 billion yuan and a construction period of 24 months. It has a planned annual production capacity of 30GWh of energy storage and power battery lithium battery production lines and the construction of corresponding PACK production lines. It mainly produces consumer batteries, power batteries, energy storage batteries, PACK battery packs and other products.

The project plans to put into production the new product "Wunding Battery" independently developed by Ruipu Lanjun, which has the highest volume energy density in the world: 450WH/L. This technology can enable the cruising range of lithium iron phosphate batteries to exceed 700km, the cruising range of medium-nickel ternary batteries to exceed 1,000km, and the cruising range of high-nickel ternary power batteries to exceed 1,200km. Previously, Ruipu Lanjun has deployed R&D and manufacturing bases in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places.

According to data from the Power Battery Application Branch, Ruipu Lanjun will achieve an installed capacity of 4.5GWh of power batteries in the Chinese market in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 163.3%, ranking among the top 10 domestic companies. Ruiplanjun has become a supplier to mainstream car companies such as SAIC, Geely, Stellantis, and Volvo. At present, Ruipu Lanjun already has multiple battery production bases in Wenzhou, Jiaxing, Foshan, Liuzhou, etc., and it is expected that the production capacity will reach 150GWh by the end of 2025.

On the same day that Ruipu Lanjun held the groundbreaking ceremony, Zhengli New Energy held the "25GWh software-defined battery factory commissioning ceremony and new technology launch conference" in Changshu, Jiangsu. Zhengli New Energy announced the "3? 2? 1" R&D strategy for the first time, and was the first in the industry to release a power battery for the electric aviation field - Zhengli? Aviation battery, replaceable "cell" battery pack - Zhengli? Qiankun battery, Zhengli? Energy storage battery, Zhengli? Sodium-ion batteries and other forward-looking technologies and representative products cover all scenarios of land, sea and air applications.

Through unremitting pursuit and exploration of technology, Zhengli New Energy is the first company in the industry to simultaneously meet the four performance requirements of "three highs and one fast": high energy density, high safety, high rate, and fast charging. Through continuous optimization of material systems and battery cell designs, Zhengli New Energy has developed Zhengli aviation batteries with an energy density of 320Wh/kg; while taking into account high energy density, Zhengli aviation batteries can still meet the requirements of 20% SOC. 12C high rate discharge performance.

The day before the release of Zhengli's new products, the mass production roll-off ceremony of the first batch of energy storage cell products 222Ah energy storage cells from the power battery "upstart" Honeycomb Energy was held at the first phase battery cell factory of the Huzhou base. This product has the advantages of large size, high capacity, and long cycle. The product adopts the standard VDA model. Through system optimization and shell size expansion, the energy density is increased, and the lamination process is adopted. The energy density can reach 169Wh/kg, and the cycle life can reach 8000-12000 times.

In addition, on May 8, Sichuan Changhong signed a cooperation agreement on Juheyuan lithium battery production project with Huarong County, Hunan Province. The project will be dedicated to the development and production of products that are widely used in the fields of small polylithium batteries such as smart terminals, the Internet of Things, and e-cigarettes, and will strive to build a high-quality small polylithium battery R&D and intelligent manufacturing base. On the same day, the Xiangyang Municipal Government signed a contract with Ganfeng Lithium Battery. Ganfeng Lithium Battery will invest 10 billion yuan in Dongjin New District to build a 20GWh new energy lithium battery production and research and development project.

In terms of materials, the second phase of the Suzhou Jieli New Energy lithium-ion battery coating separator project under Enjie Co., Ltd. was also put into production in Wujiang District, Suzhou on May 8. The project has a total investment of approximately 1 billion yuan and will start construction in 2021. A total of 2 large-scale high-end lithium-ion battery separator production lines will be built. When put into operation, it can achieve an annual output of 200 million square meters of lithium-ion battery coated separators.

In addition, Putilai plans to invest in the establishment of Zichen Technology (Sweden) Co., Ltd. in Sweden in the near future and carry out the construction of an integrated production and research and development base for lithium-ion anode materials. The total planned investment amount of the project will not exceed 15.7 billion Swedish krona (approximately RMB 10.5 billion). It will build a production and research and development base for anode materials with an annual output of 100,000 tons. It is expected to have a production capacity of 50,000 tons in 2025 and 100,000 tons of anode materials in 2027. Material production capacity.

It is worth noting that the massive expansion of power battery industry chain manufacturers has triggered concerns among industry insiders about overcapacity. According to CITIC Securities’ forecast, global demand for new energy vehicle power batteries is expected to reach 1,380GWh in 2025. However, the current production capacity planning including battery factories, vehicle manufacturers and other cross-border enterprises has exceeded 6,000GWh, far exceeding market demand.

However, when it comes to overcapacity, we cannot just stay at the simple numerical level. The industry is constantly developing, and many people in the industry also show great optimism. Liu Jincheng, chairman of Yiwei Lithium Energy, said that the entire industry chain will have overcapacity by 2024 at the latest. But at the same time, he also pointed out that the only thing that will not have a surplus is high-quality, low-cost battery products.

According to Zhang Qiang, general manager of Lishen Battery, this overcapacity is actually structural. The industry's demand for lithium batteries is still very large, and most of the production capacity will be absorbed by then. There will be a big difference between the planning stage now and actual production. At the same time, technological innovation and progress and collaboration between industries will also help solve the problem of excess.