Eight major car companies will invest more than $266 billion in the next five years, and the global electrification transformation will usher in a "big release"

Three days after it was revealed that investment in electrification would triple, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance released a number of joint projects and development initiatives for the future of 2030 on January 27.

In this "roadmap for common development", the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance plans to invest 23 billion euros in electrification over the next five years and plans to launch 90% of the 35 new pure electric models on the five main pure electric platforms by 2030. In the field of power batteries, which are crucial in the electrification transition, the alliance plans to reduce battery costs by 50% by 2026 and 65% by 2028. By 2030, a global 220GWh battery production capacity will be formed.

The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance nearly tripled the investment from previous plans. But even so, in the global tide of electrification, it is still a drop in the ocean. According to preliminary statistics from the Financial Associated Press reporter, the total investment of the world's eight mainstream car companies in the field of intelligent electric vehicles in the next five years will reach 266.5 billion US dollars (about 1.7 trillion yuan). If you add Toyota's $70 billion by 2030, that number would be as high as $336.5 billion.

Five pure electric platforms and all-solid-state batteries are the core of the "roadmap"

The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance's "Roadmap for Common Development" released on January 27 includes three parts involving electric and digitalization in addition to the "leader-companion" model, which is further emphasized. Among them, cmf-A EV, KEI-EV, LCV-EV, CMF-EV and CMF-B EV will be launched in the vehicle field, while CMF-EV, as the benchmark platform for the new generation of pure electric models of the alliance partner, will be equipped with a new high-performance motor and ultra-thin battery, aiming to integrate and optimize all specific elements of the 100% electric power system. By 2030, more than 15 models will be produced on the CMF-EV platform, with an annual production capacity of more than 1.5 million units.

"Nissan plans to launch 23 electric models by fiscal 2030, including 15 all-electric models." Although the goals of the companies in the alliance were not "broken down" in the latest "roadmap", Makoto Uchida, a director, representative executive, president and CEO of Nissan Motor Corporation, who was previously interviewed by the Financial Associated Press, said that Nissan Plans to achieve 100% electric drive of new models in its core market in the early 2030s.

In the field of batteries and refueling, in addition to the cost and capacity targets mentioned above, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance also plans to achieve mass production of all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) by mid-2028 and reduce the battery cost to $65 per kWh to achieve cost parity for all-electric models and fuel models, thereby accelerating the global electrification transition.

"Nissan plans to build a pilot plant in Yokohama, Japan, in fiscal year 2024, and we are ready." Makoto Uchida revealed that Nissan Motor, as the "leading innovator" in the alliance's all-solid-state battery mass production plan, has set a target cost and will promote the development of all-solid-state batteries as planned. "By 2026, Nissan will invest 140 billion yen (about 7.9 billion yuan) to launch a mass-produced electric model equipped with an original all-solid-state battery (ASSB) by fiscal 2028."

According to Nissan, as of 2021, Nissan Motor has invested 1 trillion yen (about 56.42 billion yuan) in electric drive and advanced technologies such as powertrain, production and charging infrastructure, and will continue to invest 2 trillion yen (about 112.84 billion yuan) in the next five years to accelerate the layout of electric drive products and technological innovation. "The amount of investment is indeed relatively large, but considering Nissan's future career development, this is an investment that must be made." Makoto Uchida said frankly.

$7 billion, GM's largest single investment hit a pure electric pickup truck

Just a day before the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance released the "roadmap for common development," Across the ocean, GM officially announced the largest single investment in the company's history — plans to invest $7 billion in a new battery factory in Lansing, Michigan, and to transform the Orion assembly plant at Chevrolet Bolt to produce electric versions of chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pickups. Upon completion of this investment, GM will have an annual production capacity of 600,000 pure electric pickup trucks in the United States.

"Today we're taking another step by investing in the U.S. to vertically integrate battery production and increase eviction capacity in North America to establish GM's EV leadership." GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement.

Along with investment in the production and manufacture of complete vehicles, it is the battery. On Jan. 25, South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solutions said it would jointly invest $2.1 billion with General Motors to build another electric vehicle battery factory in the United States. A regulatory filing filed by LG Chemical, the parent company of LG Energy Solutions, shows that the former and General Motors are expected to each contribute half of the shares through their joint venture in the United States, Ultium Cells, which will be the third joint venture battery plant between the two companies in the United States. The investment will be made in batches by 2026.

The combined investment of more than $8 billion over the two consecutive days is just part of GM's total investment of $35 billion in electrification by 2025. On June 16 last year, GM announced that it will increase its investment in electric vehicles and autonomous driving, and plans to increase the amount of investment from $27 billion to $35 billion between 2020 and 2025.

This is the second time in 15 months that GM has announced additional investment in electric vehicles. In March 2020, Mary Barra, chairman and CEO of GM, announced at GM EV Week that GM will invest $20 billion in electrification and autonomous driving from 2020 to 2025, and plans to launch 20 electric vehicles in 2023.

However, just eight months after the launch of this ambitious investment plan, Mary Barra released the revised investment plan again in November 2020 – an increase of 35% from the previous investment to $27 billion, and the number of models set at 30 models by 2025.

Global investment in electrification will exceed $330 billion in 2025

"Spurred" GM to make the biggest single investment decision in the company's history, or it was Ford Motor, a fellow and rival. On Jan. 6, When Releasing its December 2021 U.S. market car sales figures, Ford motor said it would nearly double annual production of the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup truck to 150,000 units, but that number is still lower than the total of nearly 200,000 units since the opening of bookings. In addition, due to better-than-expected market demand, Ford Motor also plans to triple the annual production of the Mustang Mach-E pure electric SUV to more than 200,000 units by 2023.

Affected by this news, in the early trading of January 13, local time, Ford's stock price hit a new high in 52 weeks, which also helped Ford's market value exceed $100 billion for the first time, surpassing General Motors with a market value of about $90 billion.

"Ford will eventually surpass Tesla in U.S. electric vehicle sales, but first hope to surpass General Motors, and we will increase electric vehicle production to 600,000 units in two years." Previously, Ford CEO Jim Farley had made a bold statement.

However, in terms of the amount of investment in electrification alone, Ford has lagged behind GM. In February and May last year, Ford motor announced its investment plans in smart electric vehicles twice, and the plan for May was 36% more than the plan three months ago, to $30 billion, but still lower than GM's $35 billion.

More radical than GM and Ford is the Volkswagen Group. On December 9 last year, the Volkswagen Group announced an investment plan of 159 billion euros for the next five years, with an estimated total investment of 159 billion euros for 2022-2026. Of this, a total of about 89 billion euros will be spent on electric vehicles, hybrids and digitalization, an increase of 16 billion euros from the previous plan, while the investment in new technologies of 89 billion euros will increase by about 50% to 52 billion euros.

Following the decision to triple the investment of Ford, Hans Dieter P tsch, chairman of Volkswagen's Supervisory Board, said, "The resolution adopted today shows that we are firmly pushing for the transformation of the Volkswagen Group." Our investments will focus on all key aspects of future mobility, as well as the systematic implementation of the Group's strategy. ”

"Global investment in the electric vehicle industry is expected to total $330 billion by 2025." Stephen Dyer, head of the automotive industry in Asia Pacific, a market consulting agency, believes that although the investment is huge, it is difficult to form a profit in the short term, "For any oem, it needs to be constrained by scale, pricing power and fixed costs." ”