It is said that "after fifteen years is the end of the year", but this Spring Festival, as a "brother" of the global power battery industry, the Ningde era is not too happy. In the face of continuous negative news, although caterpillar times issued a timely statement to debunk rumors, the decline in stock prices was unavoidable. Officially entering the Ningde era in 2022, can it still sit firmly at the top of the industry?
Stock prices plummeted! Negotiating a break with Tesla?
Ningde era: the heart is tired~
On February 13, CATL issued a statement in which it responded uniformly to the negative news that had appeared earlier. In this statement, CATL said that the recent news about the sanctions of CATL, the exclusion of the ChiNext weight index, and the negotiation with Tesla are malicious rumors, which have triggered market misunderstandings and misinterpretations, and affected the corporate reputation of CATL. At the same time, the Ningde era has also officially reported the case to the public security organs, and will pursue legal responsibility for the rumor-mongers according to law.
Regarding the first rumor mentioned in the statement of CATL, the reason is that there is recent information showing that the unverified list issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security has added 33 Chinese companies, and then there is news that CATL is seeking help from professional institutions in the United States to consult the possibility of its sanctions by the United States.
However, Zeng Yuqun, chairman of the Ningde era, recently personally responded to rumors about concerns about sanctions imposed by the United States at a research event, and Zeng Yuqun said that the only thing that ningde era relies on the United States is the chip in the BMS, but it can now be replaced by domestic technology. At the same time, CATL will also enter the US market, and American car companies and energy storage customers are also negotiating cooperation.
However, the performance of the Ningde era in the stock market still shows the concerns of investors and capital about the future development of the Ningde era. On February 10, the stock price of CATL continued to fall, falling by more than 18% at one point, hitting a new low since October 2021, and the market value evaporated by more than 200 billion.
Subsequently, the "talks with Tesla" mentioned in the statement also began to be spread by various media. According to previous reports, Tesla has booked 45GWh lithium iron phosphate batteries to CATL for sales plans in 2022, mainly in Model 3 and Model Y models. However, the news that "Tesla has signed a blade battery purchase order with BYD's Fordy Battery" and Tesla's "ambiguous" relationship with BYD, the Ningde era naturally cannot sit idly by, and then the Ningde era and Tesla also denied this news.
Behind the rumors is the "crisis" of the Ningde era
With the continuous development of the new energy vehicle market, the battery business of CATL in the world has also risen all the way and has become a leading enterprise in the industry. In 2021, the global installed capacity of the CATL era reached 96.7GWh, with a market share of 82.6%, ranking first in the world, compared with the global installed capacity of 36.2GWh in 2020, an increase of 167.13% year-on-year. Such an excellent performance, a large part of the reason is due to the rise of new car-making forces and the electrification transformation of traditional car companies, such as Tesla, which ate 24% of the shipments in the first quarter of 2021, and car companies such as Weilai and Xiaopeng have also become the main customers of the Ningde era.
Although it has grown into a huge battery empire, the competitive pressure faced by the Ningde era is also huge. After all, standing at the outlet of new energy is not only a Ningde era, as a battery supplier, many car companies are not willing to hand over the "power of life and death" to the Ningde era, so they began to look for new battery suppliers, Xiaopeng, Weilai and other car companies have also introduced battery suppliers other than the Ningde era.
In 2021, the global installed capacity of power batteries reached 296.8 GWh, an increase of 102.3% year-on-year. BYD, which relies on blade batteries for significant growth, also announced that it will open up the sale of blade batteries to all brands. In 2021, BYD's installed capacity is 26.3GWh, and the year-on-year growth rate of 168.37% is even ahead of the Ningde era. In addition to BYD, LG Chemical, AVIC Lithium Battery, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, and Yiwei Lithium Energy Enterprises are also developing rapidly. Although these companies are still somewhat far from the Ningde era, in today's rapid development of the new energy vehicle market, it seems that everything is possible.
At the same time, the installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries is also continuing to exceed that of ternary lithium batteries, and the growth rate is significantly higher than that of ternary lithium batteries. For the Ningde era, which relied on ternary lithium batteries to start, it was necessary to increase the proportion of lithium iron phosphate battery production capacity and reduce the production capacity of ternary lithium batteries.
Especially in the case of the decline of subsidies for new energy vehicles, more and more companies have begun to consider lithium iron phosphate batteries with more obvious cost advantages. At the same time, after the advent of BYD blade batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries were more enthusiastically sought after by the market. The Ningde era needs to develop in a field that it is not very good at, which is undoubtedly a bad news.
Honorary Chairman dies
Where is the Ningde era headed?
A series of negative news has not completely subsided, and another bad news has come out of the Ningde era. On February 15, the official website of CATL published an obituary. Dr. Zhang Yujie, Honorary Chairman of CATL, died on February 14, 2022 at the age of 79 due to ineffective medical treatment.
Although the outside world does not know much about Dr. Zhang Yujie, this honorary chairman is a spiritual pillar for the Ningde era. Since its establishment in 2011, Dr. Zhang Yujie has personally participated in and witnessed the development of the Ningde era. Today's NINGDE era can achieve today's achievements, and Dr. Zhang Yujie has played a crucial role.
Plagued by negative news, stock prices falling, and the death of meritorious elders, the Ningde era is in an eventful "spring". This also makes people start to think, how will this industry giant develop in the future?
CATL first set its sights on the power exchange market, after which CATL has officially released its new power exchange service brand EVOGO (Lexing Battery Swap), which also marks the completion of the whole life cycle of the battery from research and development, manufacturing, use and recycling.
However, the power exchange market has not been able to achieve further development before, mainly because the battery pack of the replacement power station needs to unify the battery standard, but for new energy vehicle companies, once the right to formulate the standard falls into the hands of suppliers, all the distribution of benefits will also be decided by the Ningde era, which is obviously unsatisfactory. At the same time, in order not to be too high a voice for suppliers, car companies will also begin to tend to choose multiple battery suppliers.
Uncle Che summed up
It has to be admitted that the ambition of the Ningde era comes from its own huge volume, which is also the biggest capital of the Ningde era. But at the same time, the rapid development of new energy vehicles has also made the industry pattern change rapidly. Car companies want to get rid of the dependence on the Ningde era, competitors continue to update battery technology and strive to catch up, and the "ambition" of the Ningde era to expect the "monopoly" market continues to expand, so that the battery market in 2022 has a lot of points to watch. Do you think that in the next 1-2 years, the Ningde era can still maintain its current advantages? Welcome to leave a message to discuss!