Recently, the Beijing Municipal People's Government on the issuance of the "2022 Municipal Government Work Report Key Task List", the list of key tasks in the 2022 Municipal Government Work Report is listed, involving Tesla Design Center, Xiaomi Automobile Manufacturing Plant, Toyota Fuel Cell R & D Center and other automotive projects.
Among them, Xiaomi Automobile Manufacturing Factory, Weilan New Energy Solid-State Battery Phase I, Toyota Fuel Cell R&D Center, Tesla Design Center, etc. will start construction this year. At the same time, the notice also mentioned that Beijing Benz will be supported to increase production capacity and launch new energy products. Completed the renovation and expansion of the ideal automobile manufacturing base to ensure the smooth installation and commissioning of the equipment. Support the transformation and upgrading of traditional car companies such as BAIC Group.
Tesla Design Center
Tesla hasn't responded to this yet, but rumors of it setting up a design center in China have been around for a long time.
In 2020, when Tesla's Shanghai factory was just put into production, Musk had told the outside world that he would establish a design center in China to build international electric vehicles. Later in 2020, Tesla began hiring for the Center, encouraging anyone who is passionate about cars or design to apply for the job.
At the beginning of last year, foreign media exposed that Tesla was recruiting design directors in China, requiring more than 20 years of design experience and in-depth understanding of the Chinese market. At the same time, informed sources revealed that after the design director is determined, Tesla will open a formal recruitment and form a design team of about 20 people for it.
In July last year, Tesla officially released the recruitment information of the China Design Center, with a total of 11 positions such as chief designer, creative engineer, senior vehicle designer, color texture expert and design quality expert. Judging from the time, the team may have been formed.
During last year's Expo, Tao Ling, Tesla's global vice president, said: "I hope that in the near future, not only the (Tesla) models made in China can achieve nearly 100% localized productivity, but perhaps also witness the (Tesla) models designed and manufactured independently by the Chinese team driving on Chinese roads."
But according to Tesla's plan, the model designed by the Chinese team may not come anytime soon. Musk said on the fourth quarter 2021 earnings call: "Tesla will not release any new car products this year. At least, in 2022, Tesla won't release the rumored cheaper electric model."
In 2021, Tesla's revenue in the Chinese market reached $13.844 billion, a year-on-year increase of 107.8%, and has become the largest market outside the United States. In terms of sales, Tesla's deliveries in China reached 484,130 units last year, accounting for 51.7% of Tesla's global 936,000 deliveries. In any way, Tesla's construction of a design center in China is also the trend of the times.
Xiaomi car manufacturing plant
The planning details of the Xiaomi automobile manufacturing plant have been exposed before: the project will build the Xiaomi Automobile HEADQUARTERS base and sales headquarters and research and development headquarters, and will build an annual vehicle factory with an annual output of 300,000 vehicles in two phases, of which the first and second phases of production capacity are 150,000 units, and it is expected that the first car will roll off the production line and achieve mass production in 2024.
In September last year, another parts giant revealed that Xiaomi Auto plans to launch a new car every year for the next three years from 2024, with a total sales volume of 900,000 vehicles in three years.
On March 30, Lei Jun announced that Xiaomi officially entered the smart electric vehicle industry, saying that in the next ten years, Xiaomi will invest 10 billion US dollars in car manufacturing, and the first investment is 10 billion yuan, and he will personally lead the team. It has been less than a year since the announcement of the car, and its development speed is amazing.
In terms of industrial chain, Xiaomi has invested in many related enterprises such as Longmu Technology, Hesai Technology, Haizhibo Electronics, Hive Energy, Geometric Partners, Ganfeng Lithium Battery, Juxin Microelectronics, Ai Parking, Andun Technology.
In terms of talents, Xiaomi has opened up the recruitment of senior engineers in prototype car process and planning, body architecture experts, vehicle body integration experts, BSP senior R&D engineers and experts, and autonomous driving related positions. Lei Jun himself personally recruited on July 28 last year, releasing Weibo to recruit 500 autonomous driving engineers, with the purpose of developing an L4 level automatic driving system.
Weilan new energy solid-state battery phase I
According to public information, Weilan New Energy was founded in 2016, headquartered in Beijing, with 2 major production bases in Fangshan, Beijing and Liyang, Jiangsu, with a total investment of more than 300 million yuan.
Previously, it was reported that the 150kWh semi-solid-state battery technology released by Weilai came from Solid State Lion, which is Beijing Weilan New Energy Company. From the perspective of parameters and the 2022 mass production time node, Weilan New Energy has publicly stated that the high-nickel ternary solid-state battery above 300Wh/kg is also this battery.
Yu Huigen, chairman and general manager of Weilan New Energy, once revealed that the company has completed the design and development of hybrid solid-state batteries with high nickel ternary cathodes of more than 300Wh/kg, and has sent samples to a number of international and domestic automakers for testing, with good evaluation results, and successfully passed abuse tests such as needle punching, extrusion, overcharge, and short circuit, with a cycle life of more than 1200 times. According to the 18-24 months of oem introduction cycle, the product is expected to be mass-produced in 2022, and will be adjusted in real time according to market conditions and capital conditions in the later period.
From a technical point of view, Weilan New Energy developed a transitional oxide solid-liquid hybrid battery before the arrival of all solids, by replacing the diaphragm with a flexible solid electrolyte, still with nickel, cobalt, manganese ternary as the positive electrode, the negative electrode is doped with silicon, and the traditional electrolyte still exists. This design can increase energy density while controlling costs. Compared with conventional ternary lithium batteries, its energy density can be increased by about 50%, reaching 360Wh/kg.
In 2019, it was reported that the first phase of the solid-state battery project of Jiangsu Weilan New Energy Battery Co., Ltd. has been laid and started, and it is planned to be put into operation in March 2020, and it is expected to form an annual production scale of 1Wh after completion. But as it stands, the plan may have changed.
Yu Huigen once revealed in an interview that in 2020-2022, the company will promote the mass production of key materials; independent research and development of key equipment to form an overall solution; GWh-level automated production line put into production. In 2023-2025, it plans to achieve large-scale application of products in high-end 3C, high-end power and other fields; master digital factory technology. After 2026, we will promote the series of products that are both technologically and technologically economical; become industry standards and benchmarking enterprises, and enter various mainstream fields.
Toyota Fuel Cell R&D Center
Toyota Fuel Cell R&D Center has not exposed too many details at present, but from the action of recent years, Toyota has launched the layout of hydrogen fuel cells in China in advance.
In June 2020, Toyota and six other companies, including FAW, Dongfeng, GUANGZHOUC Group, BAIC Group and Beijing Yihuatong, announced in Beijing that it had established a hydrogen fuel cell research and development company led by Toyota, United Fuel Cell System Research and Development (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as FRD).
In October 2021, FCRD's first product, the TLPower100, mainly for commercial vehicles, was released to the public, with a rated output power of 101kW, power density (4.9kW/L), durability (30,000 hours), and all aspects of the index have reached the current industry-leading level. FCRD said that in the future, it will continue to launch power products at all stages and products that can meet various standards and quickly introduce them to the Chinese market.
According to public reports, FCRD's current development team size is about 50 people, and it plans to expand to 70 people in the next 2-3 years. Together with the FCRD brother company FCTS (Huafeng Fuel Cell Co., Ltd.), which is responsible for the development of vehicle installation applications, and the FC development team of Toyota's wholly-owned R&D center TMEC, Toyota will employ more than 120 people in hydrogen research and development in its affiliates in China.
Toyota said at the end of last year that since the subsidy situation after the four-year demonstration period is now unpredictable, the current product development goal is TCO parity without subsidies. The general principle of FCRD is to provide cost-effective products, so in the procurement of parts and components to performance and price standards, not limited to Chinese suppliers or overseas suppliers, and even in order to finally provide customers with cost-effective products, but also consider the introduction of overseas excellent suppliers into China. Toyota also mentioned that the FCRD's strategy is to base itself in Beijing, deepen the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and radiate the whole country.
The ideal automobile manufacturing base plant was renovated and expanded
In October last year, the Ideal Automobile Beijing Green Intelligent Manufacturing Base officially started construction in Shunyi, Beijing, and is scheduled to be put into operation by the end of 2023, achieving an annual production capacity of 100,000 pure electric vehicles. The manufacturing base was formerly known as Beijing Hyundai No.1 Factory, with a total investment of more than 6 billion yuan, a total area of 270,000 square meters for renovation and expansion, and a 60% utilization rate, which maximized the revitalization of existing existing plant resources.
The person in charge of Ideal Automobile once said that the Ideal Automobile Beijing Green Intelligent Manufacturing Base will adopt the latest environmentally friendly, efficient and intelligent production technology in China.
Among them, the stamping workshop adopts the leading high-speed steel and aluminum hybrid automatic stamping line, establishes a single-piece identification system for stamping parts, and traces the quality of the whole manufacturing cycle of stamping parts; the number of welding workshop robots is more than 600, which can realize the co-linear flexible production of 4 models, and the automation rate is 100%.
The painting workshop adopts the industry's most environmentally friendly film pretreatment + B1B2 free coating process, and the emission level reaches the highest international and industry requirements; the assembly workshop adopts the whole workshop electric tightening technology, and the key torque mass is 100% traceable.
In addition, the project also plans an intelligent logistics system, unmanned electric inspection and off-line vehicle automatic driving into the warehouse technology, focusing on creating a highly automated intelligent flexible production line.
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