As a major producer and seller of new energy vehicles, how much independent technology do we have?

According to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in 2019, China's production and sales of new energy vehicles were 1.242 million and 1.206 million respectively, with production down 2.3% year-on-year and sales down 4% year-on-year. This is the first time in the past 10 years that the annual sales of China's new energy vehicle market have fallen year-on-year, which is also a manifestation of the decline of the overall automobile market in 2019. However, even in this environment, China's dominant position in the global new energy vehicle market has not been shaken. According to EVsales data, global new energy vehicle sales in 2019 reached nearly 2.21 million, which means that China contributed more than 50% of the new energy vehicle market share in 2019. In terms of market share, China is undoubtedly the world's largest producer and seller of new energy vehicles.

Of course, the reason why new energy vehicles can flourish in the domestic market is inseparable from the promotion of policies and the active response of various car companies, which has given new energy vehicles a great impetus. But the market is the market, and technology is technology. In recent years, as the dividends of the new energy vehicle market have been decentralized, major automobile companies have entered the new energy vehicle market while also developing more advanced new energy vehicle technologies. But once we talk about technology, it is inevitable to compare it with foreign technology from the perspective of the country, especially for China, which has the largest production and sales volume. How are the core technologies of the three electrics of new energy vehicles performing today?

When it comes to China's new energy vehicle technology, I believe many people first think of domestic battery technology. After having two companies, CATL and BYD, that focus on the research of new energy power batteries, domestic power battery technology is also rising rapidly. After achieving domestic production, Tesla also chose to cooperate with CATL, and future models will be equipped with batteries provided by CATL. You should know that Tesla Model 3 currently uses Panasonic and LG. Now that it cooperates with CATL, it also means that this company, which has led the new energy vehicle market from the beginning, recognizes China's battery technology.

Moreover, in April of this year, DeepTech and CB Insights (CB Insights is a world-class authoritative venture capital data company that regularly publishes economic development trends and lists of unicorn companies. This list is of great investment guidance value for the domestic power battery market.) released a selection of Chinese power batteries and upstream and downstream companies. The list is classified according to three technical routes: fuel cells, lithium-ion (liquid) batteries and solid-state batteries. SinoHytec, CATL and ProLogium Technology were listed as representative companies.

The list gives the following reasons for the selection of CATL: After nearly a decade of rapid growth, CATL has now become the world's largest battery manufacturer (parameters | pictures), with a market value of more than 250 billion. After experiencing the competition with BYD and eventually winning by relying on technology, CATL's current competitors are Panasonic, Samsung SDI and LG Chem.

In contrast, BYD also has quite good achievements in the field of power batteries. For example, the blade battery launched by BYD some time ago achieves a longer mileage by changing its internal structure. At the same time, the heat dissipation function of the blade battery is better than that of ordinary batteries, so the safety is naturally improved.

At present, drive motors are mainly divided into several categories, including DC motors, AC motors and hub motors; DC and AC motors can be further divided. At present, the industry pays more attention to AC asynchronous motors, permanent magnet synchronous motors and switched reluctance motors. Through comparative analysis of several common motors, it can be seen that permanent magnet synchronous motors have the advantages of high efficiency, wide speed range, small size, light weight, high power density and low cost, and have become the main drive motors in the pure electric passenger car market.

However, at present, there is a certain gap between domestic motor technology and the advanced level abroad. It is understood that the proportion of invention patents reflecting the level of motor technology in China is only 50%, far lower than the 90% level abroad. Moreover, there is room for further improvement in lightweighting and integration. At present, foreign countries have achieved integrated integration such as "motor + transmission". Therefore, in terms of lightweighting, today's Chinese brand new energy vehicles still have relative shortcomings.

If there is still room for improvement in the technology of China's new energy vehicles, it must be the electric control technology. In the electric control technology, IGBT (insulated gate bipolar transistor) technology is the core of the current electric control technology. In the cost structure of new energy vehicles, the most expensive is the power battery, followed by IGBT. As one of the "dual cores" with the power battery cell, IGBT, which accounts for about 5% of the vehicle cost, is becoming more and more important. But at present, there is still a certain gap between domestic IGBT technology and foreign technology. 70% of IGBT in electric control comes from overseas companies, and the remaining 30% is still solved by self-construction and outsourcing. For a long time, domestic IGBTs have been imported from international giants such as Infineon and Mitsubishi, and "one core is hard to find".

But just some time ago, the BYD IGBT project with a total investment of 1 billion yuan was officially started in Changsha. The project is designed to produce 250,000 8-inch wafers per year. After it is put into production, it can meet the production capacity demand of 500,000 new energy vehicles per year. Today, BYD's IGBT chip wafer production capacity has reached 50,000 pieces/month, and it is expected to reach 100,000 pieces/month in 2021, and it can supply 1.2 million new energy vehicles a year, which is equivalent to the total number of new energy vehicle sales in 2019. From this information, it can be seen that Chinese brands have officially broken the previous monopoly of IGBT by foreign companies, and the technology display will become more and more reliable. In addition, BYD has officially reached a cooperation with Huawei. The former has a leading industry technology display in the field of new energy vehicles, and the latter has the world's top technical strength in 5G and smart technology. The combination of the two will bring us different new energy vehicles.

In general, China's new energy vehicle technology has a significant strength in the world. Although it is still relatively lacking in some areas, automobile manufacturers have already made early arrangements. I believe that in the future, China's new energy vehicle technology will lead the world and become the most advanced new energy vehicle country in the world. For automobile manufacturers, new energy vehicle technology may be another way out for Chinese brands. Once new energy vehicles are popularized, the world status of Chinese automobile brands will achieve a qualitative leap.