New energy vehicles drive the development opportunity period of the whole chain of the lithium battery industry
Time:2022-10-28
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The economic pull of the lithium battery industry has increased
Reporter Shao Luwen
Located in Zaozhuang, Shandong Province, China‘s eastern province, the intelligent production line for lithium-ion batteries is running fully automatically. The lithium batteries produced by this enterprise are widely used in golf chartered cars of domestic and foreign brands, accounting for more than 85% of the global market share of power batteries used in golf chartered cars.
Zaozhuang in Shandong Province was built and prospered by coal, and the leading industries related to coal once accounted for more than 80% of Zaozhuang‘s economic structure. With the depletion of coal resources, the local area is actively exploring the development of lithium batteries as an alternative industry. Today, there are 57 lithium battery enterprises here, forming a relatively complete whole industry chain, and the products are supplied to many well-known enterprises in China and exported to Europe, America, Asia and other regions. At the recently opened 2022 China (Zaozhuang) International Lithium Battery Industry Exhibition, 26 more lithium battery industry projects were signed, with a total investment of 109.5 billion yuan.
As an important part of the new energy industry, the development of the lithium battery industry is one of China‘s measures to promote energy reform and complete the "dual carbon" goal. As the green and low-carbon transformation of the global automotive industry continues to accelerate, the development of the lithium battery industry has ushered in a key strategic window period.
The 2021 China Lithium Battery Industry Development Index white paper released by the CCID Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology pointed out that the scale of China‘s lithium battery industry will rise sharply in 2021, and the lithium battery market size will reach 324GWh, which is 4 times that of 2017. In addition, by the end of 2021, China‘s power battery production capacity accounts for about 70% of the world, and China occupies 6 of the world‘s top 10 lithium battery manufacturers. From a global perspective, China has become the world‘s largest lithium battery consumer market for five consecutive years.
In recent years, China has accelerated the layout of the lithium battery industry in many places, and a number of high-quality projects have been landed one after another. For example, CATL, a lithium battery R&D and manufacturing company, recently signed an agreement with Chengdu, Sichuan Province, to carry out all-round cooperation in the fields of battery exchange operation, research and development, comprehensive utilization of resources, manufacturing of key battery materials, new energy and energy storage. Shandong Zaozhuang signed a project investment agreement with Sunwoda, a lithium battery module solution and product provider, last year to build the "Zaozhuang project with an annual production capacity of 30GWh power battery and energy storage battery", which is expected to achieve an annual output value of about 20 billion yuan after reaching production.
The continuous expansion of the market scale has promoted the continuous technological progress of China‘s lithium battery enterprises. At the 2022 China (Zaozhuang) International Lithium Battery Industry Exhibition, Sunwoda released a super fast charging power battery, related products through the innovation of material system, battery process and key structure, to achieve a single charge can last 600 to 700 kilometers, charge 5 minutes to last 200 kilometers, even at low temperatures of -20 °C energy retention rate is higher than 85%.
"China‘s lithium battery technology level is rapidly improving. At present, the energy density of ternary battery system exceeds 200Wh per kilogram, and the energy density of lithium iron phosphate battery system exceeds 160Wh per kilogram, which is at the international leading level of mass production products. As the market continues to expand, new technologies continue to emerge, and many of them are close to entering the application stage. Liu Baosheng, chairman of the China Battery Industry Association, said.
Liu Baosheng told reporters that the rapid development of the lithium battery industry has also driven the coordinated development of the entire industrial chain in various places, and some regions have formed a complete industrial chain covering the upstream and downstream of lithium batteries. For example, Zaozhuang City, Shandong Province has formed a complete industrial chain and industrial ecology of lithium mining and processing, cathode and anode materials, separators, electrolytes, terminal applications, recycling and dismantling; There are 137 lithium battery new energy enterprises in Yichun, Jiangxi Province, covering lithium resource mining, dressing, metallurgy, lithium battery key materials and spare parts, lithium-ion batteries, energy storage batteries, new energy vehicles, lithium battery recycling and other fields.
The reporter noted that Shandong Zaozhuang, Sichuan Yibin, Fujian Ningde, Jiangxi Yichun and other cities are gradually improving supporting measures to support the development of lithium batteries, with the help of building a characteristic lithium battery industry cluster, providing new growth poles for local economic development, and achieving initial results. The lithium battery industry revenue in Zaozhuang, Shandong in the first half of this year has reached the annual revenue of 2021, and the output value of the local lithium battery industry will strive to reach 30 billion yuan by 2023 and 80 billion yuan in 2025. Yibin City, Sichuan Province expects that the production and sales of power batteries will reach 80GWh this year, and the output value of the entire power battery industry in the city will be more than 70 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 300%.
"Driven by the ‘dual carbon‘ vision, China‘s power battery market will still see greater growth in the future, and the boosting effect of lithium-related industries on economic development will be further released." Ma Chengen, senior engineer of the CCID Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said.
Lithium metal batteries stir up the energy density track
Reporter Li Tangning
With the transformation of the global energy structure and the increase in the demand for energy storage in industries such as new energy vehicles, the problem of "endurance anxiety" continues to promote the expansion of the industry‘s technical boundaries and calls for the upgrading of battery energy density. As one of the important technical routes of a new generation of power batteries, China‘s independent research and development of lithium metal batteries has recently achieved large-scale mass production. Industry insiders believe that China‘s battery industry is ushering in a period of vents, 500Wh/kg high energy density lithium metal battery in the field of electric aviation application is gradually maturing, the future application in the new energy vehicle industry is also worth looking forward to.
The demand for energy storage drives innovation
In the first half of this year, China‘s new energy vehicle market continued to be hot, with sales of 2.59 million units, a year-on-year increase of 117%, and a cumulative penetration rate of more than 22%.
This has also led to a year-on-year increase in demand for power batteries. As of July, the cumulative installed volume of domestic power batteries during the year was 134.3GWh, a year-on-year increase of 110.6%. At the same time, the development of electrification in electronic products, power tools and aviation has put forward higher requirements for battery loading weight, safety performance, energy density, etc.
Experts believe that the solution of energy storage problem is an important prerequisite for accelerating the utilization of new energy, and the future development of China‘s power batteries and related industries is of great significance to promote China‘s energy transformation and achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.
In the past few decades, China‘s battery system has undergone many iterations, and the current ternary lithium battery, lithium iron phosphate battery, sodium-ion battery, fuel cell, and lithium metal battery that has recently achieved large-scale mass production "hundred schools of thought", each route in the low battery cost, high cycle life, charge and discharge efficiency, high safety, high energy density and other performance directions. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2021, the energy density of ternary lithium batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries in China will reach an average of 280Wh/kg and 170Wh/kg respectively, compared with 2012, the energy density of power battery cells will increase by more than 220%.
China‘s lithium battery materials are in sufficient domestic supply and the supply chain is complete, and lithium batteries are still the dominant global battery system with their excellent performance. With the progress of R&D investment in the field of lithium batteries, new technologies and materials such as lithium metal batteries have gradually become industrialized.
Professor Zhang Yuegang of Tsinghua University believes that lithium is the lightest metal element in nature, in order to improve the energy density of lithium batteries, the negative electrode technology route will experience the development trend from graphite to silicon carbon and then to metal lithium, lithium metal batteries will be the "ultimate goal" of high energy density batteries.
"Lithium metal batteries use pure metal lithium as the negative electrode, with ultra-high theoretical specific capacity and extremely low potential, which makes lithium metal batteries expected to more than double the cruising range of electric vehicles, which is an important development direction for innovative breakthrough technologies in the current battery industry." Zhang Yuegang said.
Independent research and development continue to make breakthroughs
Lithium metal is extremely active, and as a battery anode, it is technically challenging in terms of safety, resulting in the global research and development of lithium metal battery technology staying in the laboratory stage for a long time.
In this regard, Anhui Mengwei New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. has made a breakthrough in the field of R&D and production. By using a functional electrolyte to effectively solve the key safety issues, 500Wh/kg lithium metal battery products can be supplied in batches. In June 2022, the third-generation METARY Exx products delivered in batches performed well under the test data of low air pressure and wide temperature difference in the adjacent space environment, and will be applied to the new generation of electric aviation aircraft in batches.
Recently, Mengwei Technology‘s lithium metal battery automation manufacturing line and z21 innovation laboratory in Hefei Economic Development Zone were officially opened, realizing a breakthrough in lithium metal batteries from the laboratory stage (TRL3) to the mass commercial delivery stage (TRL6-8). Industry insiders believe that this marks that China‘s independent research and development of a new generation of power battery technology enterprises on the road to large-scale mass production has achieved significant progress, and also shows that China is in a leading position in the batch delivery of 500Wh/kg high-end energy power battery products.
Lisha Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Mengwei Technology, said that Mengwei Technology has carried out continuous systematic innovation research on lithium metal batteries from the four key links of basic materials, battery cell technology, manufacturing equipment and structural design, and completed innovative breakthroughs in a series of key technologies such as lithium anode protection, flame retardant electrolyte, and diaphragm modification, effectively inhibiting the growth of lithium dendrites of the negative electrode and greatly improving the stability of the lithium metal anode. At present, the prototype sample of the new ultra-high energy density lithium metal battery of 600Wh/kg has been successfully verified in the company‘s innovative experimental platform. In terms of cost, although lithium metal batteries in the early stage of industrialization have a slightly higher cost than existing large-scale production of traditional lithium-ion batteries, with the advancement of future technology and large-scale applications, the cost will be gradually diluted and continue to decline.
Market entities are actively deployed
Industry insiders generally believe that whoever masters the next generation of battery technology has the opportunity to get a head start in the future electric vehicle market. At present, the world‘s major battery companies and locomotives are actively deploying automotive power batteries. Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that in the future, China‘s power battery innovation should gradually develop from battery structure innovation to material system innovation, and in the next 10 years, the battery system will undergo multiple technological changes to achieve large-scale production of next-generation batteries with energy density of 500Wh/kg by 2035.
The relevant person in charge of Huakong Fund also said that lithium metal batteries are lighter in weight, higher in energy and longer in battery life, as they gradually mature in aviation applications, the requirements of general aviation and new energy vehicle battery technical indicators will also converge, it is expected that in the next 5 to 10 years, lithium metal batteries can be maturely applied in short- and medium-distance commercial electric aviation, and it is also worth looking forward to in the application field of new energy vehicles.
Jiangsu power battery shows the advantages of industrial clusters
Reporter Zhu Cheng
Jiangsu power battery industry ranks first in the country, attracting many global shipment "TOP10" enterprises including CATL, BYD, China Innovation Aviation, Hive Lithium Battery and so on. The reporter recently learned that Jiangsu power battery industry shows a strong growth trend, and many companies optimize the industrial layout and seize new opportunities for development while strengthening scientific and technological innovation.
The power battery industry has grown strongly
From January to September this year, China‘s automobile sales reached 19.47 million units, a year-on-year increase of 4.4%. Among them, sales of new energy vehicles reached 4.567 million units, a year-on-year increase of 110%, and the market share reached 23.5%. As the "heart" of new energy vehicles, power batteries, which account for about 40% of the cost of the whole vehicle, are also ushering in a period of development opportunities.
Jiangsu has more than 160 lithium battery and key material equipment enterprises, and 8 of the "TOP10" enterprises in the domestic power battery market have R & D centers or industrial bases in Jiangsu. At the same time, Jiangsu has accumulated a number of domestic market segment "TOP5" enterprises in key fields such as cathode materials, anode materials, separators, electrolytes, functional auxiliary materials, manufacturing equipment, testing and certification, and the integrity of the industrial chain has reached 92%.
The relevant person in charge of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology introduced that although the power battery industry has faced unfavorable factors such as raw material prices and rising recruitment costs since the beginning of this year and the short-term impact of the epidemic, the two high-certainty tracks of new energy vehicles and energy storage have become the "ballast stone" for the rapid growth of Jiangsu power battery industry.
Data show that in the first half of this year, the total output value of Jiangsu‘s lithium battery industry was nearly 120 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 84.6%; Battery production and sales were 84.80GWh and 79.72GWh respectively, up 77.9% and 82.0% year-on-year.
It is worth mentioning that in the list of major projects in 220 provinces in Jiangsu in 2022, 11 involve the upstream and downstream industrial chain of power batteries. With the landing and production of these new projects, the advantages of Jiangsu power battery industry cluster will be further revealed.
Scientific and technological innovation has become the focus of competition
Not long ago, Qingtao (Kunshan) Energy Development Co., Ltd. and SAIC Motor cooperated to establish SAIC Qingtao‘s "Solid-State Battery Joint Laboratory", planning to develop solid-state power batteries with a long endurance of more than 1,000 kilometers and apply them to new models of SAIC‘s own brands.
"At present, we have made a number of breakthroughs in the research and development of solid-state battery technology, and are accelerating the construction of production lines to prepare for the follow-up volume." He Hongcai, general manager of Qingtao Energy, said.
For a period of time, lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium are the two main development lines of power batteries, but due to the high price of nickel, cobalt and other raw materials, the market demand for power batteries taking into account safety, specific energy and cost is getting higher and higher, exploring new technology routes has become a common choice for many enterprises.
Hive lithium battery recently released, the company‘s all-solid-state battery laboratory in China to complete the research and development of 20Ah grade chalcogenide all-solid-state prototype cells, its sulfide technology route has been equipped with kilogram-level independent synthesis of solid electrolyte materials, solid electrolyte membrane continuous preparation, all-solid-state pouch cell assembly, and new equipment development and other independent research and development capabilities.
In the first half of the year, China Innovation Airlines, which ranked third in the domestic power battery installed volume, launched One-Stop battery technology and products, through ultra-thin shell wall, multi-dimensional shell molding, multi-functional composite packaging, in-situ dust-free assembly integration and other technologies, the weight of the battery structure was reduced by 40%, the number of parts was reduced by 25%, and the production efficiency was increased by 100%.
A number of interviewed entrepreneurs told reporters that with the advent of the "T-watt" era of domestic power batteries, related technological innovation has become the focus of enterprise competition; However, many entrepreneurs believe that the iteration of power battery technology may not be as fast as imagined, and the parallel of new and old technology routes will be a long-term trend.
"The prospect of the power battery industry is good, the development space is huge, and many new technology routes in the market go hand in hand and make the cake bigger, but even the best technology must withstand the test of the market." Wang Xiaoqiang, vice president of China Innovation Aviation, said that at present, a large number of domestic power battery projects have been launched, and it seems that the total production capacity is large, but marketable products are still in short supply.
Many companies are choosing to accelerate their expansion
The reporter found that a number of Jiangsu power battery companies have accelerated the pace of expansion.
"The western region has abundant natural resources, human resources and policy resources, and it is very worthy of attention and tapping from the perspective of developing the lithium battery industry." The person in charge of Hive Energy said. According to reports, since last year, the company has signed contracts to build development bases in Suining, Chengdu, Dazhou and Shangrao, Jiangxi, Sichuan, covering the production, research and development of power batteries, and the integrated ecological industrial park of "source, grid, load and storage".
In addition, a number of upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain have also increased their expansion. Longpan Technology built a large-scale production project of energy storage cathode materials in Suining, Sichuan, and Sinoma Technology set up a lithium film manufacturing base in Inner Mongolia.
The reporter learned that the production of power batteries involves one drying, two forms and other procedures, and finally 30% of the electricity is brought out of the factory, and the energy consumption of the whole process is high, which has also become an important reason for some enterprises to accelerate their expansion.
"The western region is rich in green energy, and once an industrial cluster is formed, it will help enterprises reduce costs and increase efficiency." Wang Xiaoqiang said. It is reported that the project built by China Innovation Aviation in Chengdu with investment of "tens of billions of yuan" is progressing smoothly.
Yang Kai, secretary general of Jiangsu Power and Energy Storage Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, said that the accelerated expansion of power battery companies will be a trend. For Jiangsu, more innovation resources should be prioritized for scientific and technological innovation, and after high-quality enterprises form an industrial scale, the industrial chain should be promoted to the middle and high end of the value chain.