400GWh! Another top global car company manufactures batteries

As an aspiring car company, it must be ambitious about power batteries.

According to foreign media reports, Stellantis, the European automobile giant and the world’s fourth largest automobile company, recently opened its first battery technology center in Turin, Italy. Stellantis senior vice president Micky Bly said the company plans to expand annual battery production capacity to 400GWh by 2030. At the same time, the company is also working hard to ensure the long-term supply of key materials and chemicals to meet the needs of battery production capacity expansion.

Stellantis' brands include Peugeot, Jeep, Maserati, Chrysler, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Dodge, Citroën and Opel. According to Stellantis' "Dare Forward 2030" strategic plan, the group's annual sales of pure electric vehicles worldwide will reach 5 million units by 2030. All passenger cars sold in Europe are pure electric vehicles, and all passenger cars sold in North America are pure electric vehicles. 50% of the passenger cars and light trucks sold are pure electric vehicles.

It is worth noting that Citroën, a brand owned by Stellantis, will sell a model priced below 25,000 euros next year to attract affordable market customers. The model's design is inspired by Fiat's classic "Panda" model and will compete with the Dacia Spring produced in China and Renault's upcoming Renault 5 EV.

Stellantis said, “We have announced the construction of about 250GWh of battery (annual) capacity globally, but we need to build 400GWh (annual) capacity globally. We have committed to building six battery super factories around the world, and there will be more in the future "Among them, Stellantis plans to have an annual battery production capacity of 150GWh in North America and 250GWh in Europe.

It is understood that Stellantis has invested 40 million euros in the Turin Battery Technology Center and will focus on internal testing and development of electric vehicle cells and battery packs. Testing of battery packs and cells for the new STLA Medium architecture has begun. The 2024 Peugeot 3008 is the first model to adopt this architecture.

01

Iron-lithium and ternary dual route layout

On the battery technology route, in addition to using ternary batteries, Stellantis is also looking forward to lithium iron phosphate batteries. Stellantis reportedly plans to launch electric vehicles using lower-cost lithium iron phosphate batteries in Europe. Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said: "We need lithium iron phosphate batteries and we will use lithium iron phosphate batteries because it is more competitive in terms of cost and can produce more affordable vehicles for the middle class."

Recently, Stellantis technical director Ned Curic said that the company’s latest goal is to develop lighter-weight electric vehicle batteries and eventually reduce the weight by half in order to improve the sustainability of the battery. Ned Curic pointed out that current electric vehicle batteries are too heavy, which makes the vehicles incompatible with sustainable development goals. "We have to think about new materials, new chemistry, new methods to replace heavy materials with lightweight materials." He said.

It is understood that Stellantis has also recently launched an electric vehicle battery prototype that integrates inverter and charger functions within the module. Stellantis said this application frees up space in electric vehicles and makes batteries more efficient in terms of cost and range.

To meet the materials needed for battery manufacturing, Stellantis and Australian battery materials manufacturer Element signed a five-year supply agreement at the beginning of this year. Element will supply battery-grade high-purity manganese sulfate to Stellantis. Previously, Stellantis has signed nickel and cobalt supply agreements with Australian mining company GME Resources, and lithium hydroxide supply agreements with lithium producer Vulcan Energy Resources and US CTR.

02

Battery factories speed up

A large part of Stellantis’ ambitious battery plans is achieved through collaboration with partners. On the one hand, it is a joint venture to build a factory, and on the other hand, it is procurement. Currently, Stellantis's battery suppliers mainly include LG New Energy, Samsung SDI, CATL, Ruiplanjun, Honeycomb Energy and ACC.

As early as 2021, Honeycomb Energy stated that the company had reached a power battery order with Stellantis Group totaling approximately 16 billion yuan. In the future, Stellantis' batteries will come from both Hive Energy's Chinese factory and the company's European factory in Saarland, Germany. From cells and high-voltage storage systems to battery management systems, Cellular Energy will provide the Stellantis Group with a broad product portfolio.

According to Battery China, Ruipu Lanjun has begun to supply power batteries in batches to Citroën STAL-Ami models owned by Stellantis from July 2022. In addition, Ripulanjun's battery system products will also be used in Stellantis' brands OPEL, citron, Fiat, Vauxhall and other related models, totaling approximately 240,000 vehicles.

As a supplier to European car companies such as Stellantis, in September last year, CATL announced plans to build a second battery factory in Europe. The project will be implemented jointly with Mercedes-Benz, with an investment of 7.3 billion euros, and the planned annual production capacity will reach 100GWh. The project also plans to supply batteries to Volkswagen, BMW and Stellantis.

ACC is a battery company jointly established by Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz and Total Energy. In May this year, ACC's first super battery factory was completed in France. The battery factory has a total investment of 800 million euros. It will start trial operation and production this year and has a target production capacity of 40GWh by the end of 2024. In addition, ACC will gradually build battery factories in Germany and Italy. By 2030, the total annual production capacity of ACC's three battery factories will reach 120GWh, which can meet the assembly of 2.5 million electric vehicles in Europe.

In addition to European factories, Stellantis' battery projects are mainly located in North America. In March 2022, Stellantis and LG New Energy signed an agreement to jointly establish Canada's first large-scale electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in the form of a joint venture. The project will invest more than 5 billion Canadian dollars. The factory is expected to be put into operation in the first quarter of 2024, with a planned annual production capacity of more than 45GWh.

In May 2022, Stellantis and Samsung SDI announced that they would invest more than US$2.5 billion to build the first joint battery factory. It is expected to open in the first quarter of 2025 in Indiana, USA, with an initial production capacity of 23GWh/year, which will eventually increase to 33GWh/year. . In July this year, the two parties planned to open a second joint venture factory in the United States to produce electric vehicle batteries. The goal is to start production in 2027, with an initial production capacity of 34GWh/year.

It is worth noting that Stellantis also participated in the financing of Silicon Valley battery startup Lyten, which has raised $200 million in new funding to expand the production of lithium-sulfur batteries, lightweight composite materials and sensors for electric vehicles. Lyten aims to produce the first batch of commercial cells by the end of this year and deliver them to customers in early 2024.