List of new power battery projects in the first half of 2024: investment is becoming more rational, and new technologies are still hot spots

This year, despite constant reports of overcapacity in the domestic power battery industry, the momentum of power battery production expansion remained unabated in the first half of the year.

According to incomplete statistics from Gasgoo, in the first half of this year, power battery companies invested in a total of 56 new projects at home and abroad, with a total investment of more than 190.2 billion yuan and a planned power battery production capacity of more than 62 6G Wh.

Expanding production in adversity requires rationality first

Although there have been continuous new power battery investment and construction projects in the first half of 2024, this year's investment amount has become more rational compared with last year's investment projects worth tens of billions of yuan.

According to incomplete statistics from Gasgoo, there were only six billion-level projects in the first half of this year, involving companies such as BYD , EVE Energy, Lihua Power , Judian New Energy , and Farasis Energy.

Among them, BYD's billion-level projects had two new disclosures in the first half of the year. On January 4, BYD (Xuzhou) sodium-ion battery project started construction. The project plans to have an annual production capacity of 30GWh, mainly producing sodium-ion battery cells and related supporting products such as PACK. Then on June 1, the project was filed and approved by the Xuzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee.

Farasis Energy is also accelerating its expansion. The electromechanical engineering project of its annual 30GWh power lithium battery production base in Guangzhou started construction on March 4; on June 29, the base began trial production.

It is reported that the overall construction content of the base includes the electromechanical installation projects of the battery cell workshop, formation workshop, PACK workshop, power station, etc. After the project is completed and put into production, it will achieve an annual production capacity of 30GWh of power batteries, which is expected to drive a number of upstream and downstream supporting industries such as positive electrode materials, silicon-carbon negative electrodes, and lithium battery equipment to settle in Guangzhou.

Yiwei Lithium Energy is expanding its 10 billion investment to overseas. On March 24, according to the British Times, Yiwei Lithium Energy is negotiating to invest in building a factory in the UK, with an estimated investment of at least 1.2 billion pounds, or about 10.8 billion yuan.

EVE Energy reportedly wants to build a 20 GWh electric vehicle battery factory outside Coventry , which could eventually reach 60 GWh, making it the UK's largest super factory, with an agreement expected to be signed in the coming weeks.

It should be pointed out that under the dual pressures of market competition and potential overcapacity, in addition to a decline in investment amounts in power battery expansion projects, two new power battery projects even aborted.

On March 19, Kexiang Co., Ltd. announced that after friendly negotiations with the Xinfeng County Government, it terminated the 2 billion yuan 6GWH sodium-ion new energy battery project signed a year ago.

According to the announcement, after the company signed an investment intention contract with the People's Government of Xinfeng County, the two parties did not reach a formal investment agreement, and the company did not have any corresponding financial expenditures.

On the evening of May 30, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co., Ltd. and Anhui Ankai Automobile Co., Ltd. both issued announcements, deciding to terminate the joint venture factory construction with BYD's Fudi Battery and other companies.

The announcement shows that after the signing of the joint venture framework agreement, the company conducted due diligence and evaluation on the parties involved in the proposed joint venture and the patented technologies to be invested, and communicated with the relevant parties on the joint venture, but failed to reach an agreement on the joint venture. After careful consideration and consensus with all parties involved, it was decided to terminate the joint venture framework agreement.

It is reported that Ankai Bus, JAC Motors, Fudi Battery, and Zhejiang Energy Storage reached a framework agreement in September 2022. The four parties plan to jointly invest in the establishment of a joint venture, and the joint venture will build a new energy power battery production plant and carry out power battery projects.

Investment in solid-state batteries and sodium battery projects remains hot

Although market investment tends to be rational, new technologies such as solid-state batteries and sodium batteries are still hot spots for investment.

Solid-state batteries, with their core advantages - higher energy density, excellent thermal stability and enhanced safety properties, precisely meet the urgent needs of the electric vehicle market for long driving range and high safety. According to incomplete information from Gasgoo, in the first half of this year, the number of (semi-) solid-state battery and sodium battery projects signed and started reached 18, of which 11 projects were signed and started, with a total investment of more than 38.5 billion yuan, and the production capacity is expected to exceed 12 5G Wh.

The entities that have started construction and signed contracts in this field include Valin Group, Judian New Energy, Zhonggu Times, Heyuan Lithium Innovation and Hunan Jiusen Angao, etc. Among them, Judian New Energy's 10 billion yuan project and Hunan Jiusen Angao's annual production of 30GWh project are particularly noteworthy.

On February 29, the Management Committee of Shanxi Xiaoyi Economic Development Zone, Shanxi Pengfei Group Co., Ltd., and Fujian Judian New Energy Co., Ltd. held a signing ceremony for a 10GWh annual solid-state lithium battery and PACK manufacturing project.

According to the agreement, the contracting parties will invest approximately RMB 10 billion to build a solid-state lithium battery and PACK manufacturing project with an annual output of 10GWh in Xiaoyi Economic Development Zone, covering battery cell workshops, electrolyte storage, power center, etc., focusing on solid-state lithium battery technology research and development and battery assembly and manufacturing, which can be widely used in power, energy storage and other fields.

On May 20, Jiusen New Energy and Sichuan Angao cooperated to successfully hold a solid-state battery pilot launch ceremony. The project plans to achieve solid-state battery research and development, production and listing in three phases. The first phase relies on the Chenzhou Lithium Battery Industry Research Institute to establish a solid-state battery research center, using Jiusen Angao's existing production line for transformation and quality improvement, and has started mass production on June 18; the second phase has a total investment of 2 billion yuan to build a 15GWh power solid-state battery production line, and has reached a preliminary strategic cooperation agreement with Huawei ; after the completion of the first two steps, the third phase plans to invest another 3 billion yuan to expand production to 30GWh, with an annual output value of 20 billion yuan.

Sodium batteries are seen as an important option for breaking the lithium resource bottleneck and reducing battery costs due to their low cost, resource abundance and advantages in specific performance.

In the first half of the year, there were 7 sodium battery-related expansion projects with a total investment of more than 17 billion yuan and a planned production capacity of 46GWh. The expansion entities included BYD, Huana New Energy, Kexiang Co., Ltd., Kunyu Power Supply and Sodium Energy Era.

At present, my country's semi-solid-state batteries and sodium batteries are accelerating into the stage of commercial application. According to data released by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, in the first half of 2024, my country's semi-solid-state batteries and sodium-ion batteries were installed on vehicles, with the installed capacity of semi-solid-state batteries reaching 2154.7MWh and sodium-ion batteries reaching 1.5MWh.

It is worth noting that from the perspective of investment entities, in the first half of this year, there were few leading companies in the newly invested projects of (semi-) solid-state batteries and sodium batteries, and most of them were start-ups and second- and third-tier companies.

There are two reasons for the above phenomenon. First, under the fierce competition in the terminal market and the pressure of clearing capacity, the price of power batteries has continued to fall. Data shows that in June 2024, the average price of lithium iron phosphate energy storage cells was 0.41 yuan/Wh, a month-on-month decrease of 4.2%. This decline has posed a severe challenge to the cost bottom line of start-ups and second- and third-tier companies.

Secondly, the situation of the two giants in the field of power batteries will remain difficult to shake in the short term. Faced with this, start-ups and second- and third-tier companies with technical strength use new technologies and new market opportunities as breakthroughs to ensure that they can achieve "overtaking in the lane" in the fierce market competition.