Just as countless mobile phone manufacturers have sprung up in the market after the popularity of Android mobile phones, the same scene has emerged in today's car-making market. Before there are new car-making forces Xiaopeng, Ideal and Weilai, and then Baidu, Apple and Xiaomi, recently Huawei has released a deeply involved in research and development of the M5, Huawei's former vice president Li Yinan also invited the media to visit its new energy vehicle production base. According to this trend, even if one day OPPO and VIVO say that they want to build cars, no one will be surprised.
When many companies and market investment poured into the car-making track, presumably the happiest is the power battery company, such as Ningde Times, Panasonic, LG and so on. After all, the most precious thing in fuel vehicles is the engine, and the most precious thing on new energy vehicles is the battery. According to industry insiders, more than 25% of the cost of a new energy vehicle is spent on the battery part.
As one of the most well-known battery manufacturers in China, the position of CATL in the power battery market is naturally self-evident, according to the research report of south Korean research institute SNE Research, CATL accounted for 31.8% of the global power battery market in the first 11 months of 2021, ranking first, 11.3% higher than the market share of LG in the second place.
The founders threw away the iron rice bowl and started a technology venture into an Apple supplier
Behind the technology-based enterprises, there is often a technology-based founder Zeng Yuqun, at the age of 17 was admitted to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, benefiting from the distribution system at that time, after graduation, he returned to a state-owned enterprise in his hometown in Fujian Province, but only three months later, Zeng Yuqun smashed the iron rice bowl and joined a foreign-funded enterprise specializing in magnetism and electricity in Dongguan, which was the beginning of Zeng Yuqun's technological exploration.
Although Zeng Yuqun has become the youngest factory director in the factory at the age of 31 with excellent work ability, he knows that he is no longer able to have greater development in this foreign company, so he and his two friends become the new company ATL. With the patent authorization of polymer lithium batteries obtained from Bell Labs, Zeng Yuqun led the team to improve dozens of electrolyte formulas, solved the problem of battery bulges, and thus became apple iPod battery suppliers.
In 2011, Zeng Yuqun saw the future development of power batteries, and because of the intensification of competition in the digital lithium battery industry, he sold ATL to Japan's TDK and used the funds obtained to found the Ningde era. At that time, no one expected that in ningde, there would be a world-class enterprise.
Backed by BMW development, becoming the world's first
At the beginning of its establishment, NINGDE era can be said to rely on BMW and live, in 2012, relying on the opportunity to develop a power battery system for BMW Brilliance "Zhinuo 1E", Zeng Yuqun led the team to study the hundreds of pages of standard specifications provided by BMW, completely opened the whole process of power battery system production and research and development, and became a supplier of BMW 530Le. With bmw's endorsement, CATL has squeezed into the forefront of power battery suppliers.
By 2017, the spring of the power battery market that Zeng Yuqun was looking forward to had finally arrived, and the Ningde era had become the world's first with an installed capacity of 11.84GWh. Traditional automakers such as BAIC, SAIC, geely, etc. have invariably chosen the Ningde era when entering the field of new energy vehicles, and since then Tesla, Xiaopeng and Weilai have also become customers of the Ningde era.
In June 2018, the market value of CATL was 78.6 billion yuan when it was listed, and the highest market value in the three years since its listing was as high as 1.6 trillion yuan, an increase of more than 20 times. However, it now seems that the Ningde era, which has always been strong in power batteries, is also being "abandoned" by automobile manufacturers because of its strength. This can be seen from the more than 200 billion yuan of market capitalization that has evaporated in the Ningde era.
The introduction of new suppliers to build their own factories, the Ningde era is being "abandoned" by car companies
Not long ago, Xiaopeng, one of the new car-making forces, was rumored to have quarreled with Zeng Yuqun at the headquarters of the Ningde era because of the introduction of AVIC lithium batteries. Since then, although Xiaopeng Automobile has debunked rumors, it has only said that "the quarrel is completely a rumor", and said that it will improve the supply chain, which probably shows that Xiaopeng is ready to access new suppliers.
Coincidentally, some time ago, a PERSON from GAC revealed to the media that since May 2020, GAC has not used the battery of the Ningde era on the new model. And the relationship between GAC and AVIC lithium battery is just like the relationship between BMW and Ningde era, GAC is using its own technical standards to help AVIC lithium battery move forward, which will make Ningde era a strong opponent in the future.
Not only that, but also because of the high cost of batteries, some car manufacturers are trying to enter the industry on their own, such as Volkswagen said that it will build six power battery factories in the next decade, Great Wall Motors has also founded Honeycomb Energy, and in a new round of financing, it has obtained Xiaomi's capital investment. Although the power battery market is still expanding, and other emerging battery manufacturers have not yet become a climate, ningde era does not want to become the next Nokia, perhaps it should be time to start thinking about how the future will change.