With the rapid development of electric vehicles, the investment in increasing the production of power batteries is also being carried out around the world. Among them, Panasonic will invest 704 million US dollars to mass-produce new lithium-ion batteries; China's leading power battery company Ningde Times has not stopped investing in this aspect; in order to meet market demand, LG Chem has also continued to increase production investment in the field of materials, and raised hundreds of millions of funds to let battery subsidiaries list, invest in the United States and other places; Toyota, Volkswagen and other powerful car companies have also invested in production.
In addition to the above companies, there are many companies are also engaged in this, the competition is gradually fierce, so attractive power battery market how much potential is there?
The current market size may be just the tip of the iceberg
In recent years, the scale and market value of power battery companies have grown at a speed visible to the naked eye, of which the stock price of Ningde Times has been rising, and the total market value has once exceeded 1.5 trillion yuan.
In 2021, the mainland power battery market continues to be in a state of short supply, although the new year has arrived, but the market status quo has not been improved, it is reported that a number of head companies in 2022 orders have been full, and even some companies have refused to accept new orders.
In recent years, the mainland has continued to lay out in the field of power batteries, and at present, the mainland new energy vehicle market has more than 50 power battery supporting enterprises, and the effective production capacity is also rising year by year. According to incomplete statistics, the current industrial contracted production capacity under construction has exceeded 1500GWh, and such a large increase in production is also to cope with the huge market demand.
According to the published data, enterprises including CATL, BYD, Zhongxin Aviation, Hive Energy, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Ewell Lithium Energy, etc., will have a total planned production capacity of 3TWh by 2025.
Previously, Japan's Fuji Economy predicted that the world market for vehicle batteries will reach about 26 trillion yen (about 1,446.7 billion yuan) by 2035, increasing to 8.5 times the market size in 2020. In addition, the huge scale of power batteries can also be reflected in the increase in demand for its raw materials, TrendForce Jibang Consulting predicts that by 2025, the global demand for cathode materials for power batteries will reach 2.1521 million tons.
In addition to the growth of the market itself, under the blessing of the encouragement policy, the development prospects of the power battery industry will be broader.
Why are companies coming and going?
One of the most important reasons why enterprises are so forward and backward is that there is a market, not only a market, the market size is not small, for enterprises is definitely a piece of "fat meat" that cannot be given up. Previously, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers predicted that china's new energy vehicle sales will reach 5 million this year, an increase of 47% year-on-year, and the growth of electric vehicles is bound to drive the growth of power batteries.
In addition to the large market scale and favorable finding, enterprises choose to increase production and investment in line with the requirements of the times. At present, the world is developing clean energy in order to save energy and reduce emissions and achieve decarbonization goals. As the power source of the car, the power battery has the advantages of long life and safety of use, and compared with gasoline and diesel, the power battery is more green and environmentally friendly, and in the long run, it is more in line with the law of social resource recycling.
For car companies, expanding the power battery business is an inevitable choice to consolidate the development of the company, in this electric vehicle will replace the fuel vehicle environment, the development of power battery, is also an important part of the development of the automobile industry. If the production of power batteries is grasped, then the supply chain of the car will not be affected by other companies.
In the future, it belongs to solid-state batteries or battery recycling
At present, the most common type of power battery is lithium battery, which is charged and discharged by the flow of lithium ions between the positive and negative electrodes. For batteries, safety and capacity are very important, and recently there have been reports that Panasonic will mass-produce new car batteries, and this battery life is the world's first.
It is reported that the new battery 4680 produced by Panasonic has increased its capacity by about 5 times compared to the current battery, and the energy density has also increased by about 16%, and with other technologies, it is expected to make electric vehicles have a higher range, or have a lower cost or weight when the same mileage.
In addition to the technological innovation of the batteries currently commonly used, many people have also turned their attention to solid-state batteries and waste power battery recycling.
Compared with the current market widely used liquid batteries, solid-state batteries have good safety and higher energy density, in recent years, domestic and foreign car companies have accelerated the layout of solid-state battery business, but the raw material cost of solid-state batteries is expensive, and the requirements for production processes and production equipment also have higher requirements, so enterprises are also working hard for it. Some industry insiders have analyzed that at present, liquid batteries are still the long-term mainstream, and it is expected that by 2025, semi-solid-state batteries will gradually achieve commercialization; by about 2030, the steady-state market share of solid-state batteries is expected to reach 20%.
With the heat of power batteries, the recycling problem of products has also followed. In recent years, the loading level of continental power batteries has gradually increased, and the monthly loading of power batteries has continued to hit a record high. Previously, the People's Times commented on the article "Cracking the Power Battery Recycling Topic" pointed out that with the rapid growth of new energy vehicle ownership, the mainland will usher in the first wave of new energy vehicle power battery retirement, and a large number of new energy vehicle power batteries will enter the scrapping link. Some institutions predict that by 2025, China's power battery scrap will reach 91GWh, and the market size of China's waste power battery recycling is expected to reach 26 billion yuan, and a large number of waste power batteries are also new opportunities for the industry.
Write at the end
Throughout the entire industry, there is a very broad space for development of power batteries, so it continues to attract wave after wave of investors, but these investors must control the rudder to grasp the right direction of progress in the ocean of power batteries. At present, the mainland power battery technology has reached an advanced level, and a battery material supply system has been established, but this is far from enough, and the industry can be said to have a very deep space for technological development in addition to huge potential. In the next step, perhaps major enterprises need to invest more energy to develop related technologies, so that more efficient and safe batteries can be put into mass production, reduce battery production costs, accelerate the industrial layout of decommissioned battery recycling, and create a circular economy to improve the value of battery life cycle use.