In the digital age, two inventions are seen as one of the most dynamic inventions in the course of history.
One is the semiconductor, which is the basic component that makes up the "brain" chip of modern electronic products, and the other is the lithium battery, which drives the world as an energy source and has now become an indispensable part of our mobile phones and laptops.
Coincidentally, both key technologies are on the track of European and American inventions and the development of Japan and South Korea, and are ultimately dominated by China.
Today we will talk about the game between lithium batteries and China and Japan.
In 2018, China's lithium battery production in the Ningde era finally surpassed that of Japan's Panasonic, and since then, China's lithium battery manufacturing capacity has led the world for many years. From 2015 to 2017, the average annual growth rate of china's lithium battery industry reached about 40%. With the rapid development of the domestic new energy automobile industry and the continuous increase of state support for the automobile industry, China's power battery industry has also developed rapidly. Since 2019, Chinese companies have accounted for more than 70% of the world's total lithium battery production capacity, and Among the top 10 lithium battery manufacturers in the world, China directly occupies 6.
The title of "lithium battery king" has gradually shifted to China, and although Japan retains advanced technology, the rate of de-capacity in China has been very slow. What difficulties and problems has China's battery industry encountered in the development process? What opportunities and challenges will we face in the future? These are all topics of concern to everyone. Here we have invited experts to answer questions. What's happened over the years?
How strong were lithium batteries in Japan before?
The world's first lithium battery was born in the 1970s by employees of an American oil company, but its commercial applications were limited due to its volatile and explosive nature.
Later, the country that improved the lithium battery was not the United States, but Japan.
In 1981, Akira Yoshino of asahi Kasei Corporation of Japan began research on lithium batteries and successfully built the first rechargeable lithium-ion battery prototype in 1983. After more than 20 years of continuous efforts, it was finally developed into a commercial product, becoming one of the world's largest manufacturers of rechargeable batteries. Akira Yoshino's pioneering work in the field of lithium batteries earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019, becoming the well-deserved "father of lithium batteries".
Akira Yoshino
Since then, Japan's first-mover advantage in the field of lithium batteries has been strengthened: mass production, commercialization, and expanded use. Later, without the invention of lithium batteries, our mobile phones and laptops might not exist today, and if they did, it is difficult to say whether they would have been equally convenient.
Lithium batteries have "pushed" the development of smartphones and laptops, which in turn has driven the rapid growth of lithium batteries, especially in Japan, where several large companies – Sony, Hitachi, Mitsubishi and Panasonic – have sprung up, improving the technical level and scale of lithium batteries in Japan.
Even before 2018, a third of the world's battery technology patents were granted to Japan, and the rest were distributed to other countries in the world, with China only ranking third, behind South Korea.
China's lithium battery market: a rising star
Compared with Japan, where lithium batteries are in full swing, China started late. However, with the mainland's emphasis on the new energy industry and the introduction of relevant national policies, the research and development and application of lithium-ion batteries in the mainland have also entered a new stage. At present, a number of enterprises in the mainland have produced lithium-ion battery products that meet international standards. In 1992, lithium-ion batteries began to be used in notebooks and mobile phones in Japan, but the mainland has only just begun to study.
Even now, in China, few can foresee the future of lithium batteries as a leader in portable energy in the new era.
Fortunately, Chen Liquan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, is also the "father of China's lithium-ion batteries". As a scientist and inventor, Chen Liquan composed a song of scientific and technological innovation with his life's work and sweat. At the beginning of the 20th century, nickel-metal hydride batteries were the main policy support for the development of the mainland, but in terms of lithium batteries, they were seriously marginalized and did not get the attention they deserved.
However, academician Chen Liquan said in an interview with Wan Gang, then head of the electric vehicle group of the 863 plan, that the pressure to give lithium-ion batteries a chance is very large.
Since then, through the unremitting efforts of Mr. Chen Liquan, the team has gained an in-depth understanding of the research level and ability of lithium-ion batteries, Mr. Wan Gang chose to accept the opinions of Academician Chen Liquan, and the automotive lithium-ion batteries have since entered the major special projects of China's electric vehicles, which has also become an important opportunity for China's lithium batteries to turn over for the last time.
From the 1990s to the present, Chen Liquan, who is in his 80s, has been at the forefront of lithium battery materials science research, and many of his students have worked in the battery materials departments of key universities in China. Mr. Chen has published many papers in journals such as Science Bulletin and Journal of Energy and Environment, and is one of the famous lithium battery experts in China. He is also the chief scientist of the National 863 Program project "Key Technologies and Applications of High-performance Lithium-ion Power Batteries". I have to say that in the field of lithium batteries, the most valuable thing is not the breakthrough in technology, but to walk in the forefront of the times, adhere to the forefront of the industry, and can be called the "father of China's lithium batteries".
Academician Chen Liquan
Since then, the development direction of lithium batteries has also quietly changed. Over the past few years, electric vehicles have become one of the hottest topics worldwide, and this topic is gradually becoming a reality as battery technology continues to advance and improve. At present, electric vehicles are in a period of rapid development. If it's because of laptops and cell phones, then electric cars are the next target, and it's because of them that Japan is starting to be replaced by China.
China began to overtake Japan
How did China, which started late, surpass Japan, which is dominated by technological superiority? Chinese enterprises have also encountered some problems in their development. What are the successes of Japanese companies? What enlightenment will the management experience of Japanese companies bring to Chinese companies? This article will explore the following aspects. Then let's look at the ingredients and the market.
First of all, the problem of raw materials, the most important component of lithium batteries is the cathode material component, the cathode material represents the basic performance of lithium batteries, accounting for more than half of the cost of lithium batteries, and the core material of lithium battery cathode materials happens to be cathode materials.
As of 2020, the continental lithium metal reserves are about 4.5 million tons, accounting for only about 7% of the world's total, of which about 85% comes from brine in salt lakes, which is difficult to extract.
Fortunately, our strong competitors such as Japan and South Korea have even less lithium, while the United States has only slightly higher lithium than China, and most of the world's lithium mines are currently in South America and Australia. If we can find enough high-quality resources overseas, coupled with our own strong technical research and development team, then we will have more room for development. Because, the battery industry is a high-profit industry. Therefore, who can take the lead in completing the overseas layout is the most critical step in the competition for battery supremacy for lithium resources.
Data from China Energy Network
The mainland happens to be a particularly early start in this field, the distribution is very widespread, since 2017, the major domestic battery giants are actively acquiring global lithium mines. With the continuous improvement of China's economic strength and scientific and technological level, China is playing an increasingly important role in the global new energy vehicle industry chain. China has become the world's largest producer and consumer of lithium-ion power batteries. At present, China owns half of the world's lithium ore resources, and lithium battery production accounts for 80% of global production.
The raw material problem is repaired, and the market comes. Now the battery of electric vehicles is very mature, but there is still a long way to go for electric vehicles to truly popularize. At present, the mainland is the world's largest producer and consumer of power batteries, and more than 80% of the world's lithium-ion batteries come from China. In recent years, the development of electric vehicles has exceeded the expectations of many people, and the "main battlefield of lithium battery consumption" in many countries is shifting from electronic products to electric vehicles.
These include Europe and the United States, which are rich in oil and shale gas and are relatively unsuitable for electric vehicles because parts of the country have lower winter temperatures and poor resilience to electric vehicles.
Looking back at Europe, in recent years, Europe has been paying special attention to carbon-neutral environmental loads and is eager to develop electric vehicles to solve its own problems, and investing in lithium batteries in Europe is obviously a better choice than the United States.
If we look at the production of battery factories in China and Japan, we can see that China's long-term investment targets are mainly concentrated in Europe, while Japan is still in the era of electronics and invests more in the United States, which is one of the reasons why Panasonic's investment in the United States has suffered long-term losses.
The question is like that old joke about shoes, is it sold in the United States, where you don't need to wear shoes at all, or in Europe, Europe is looking for a new kind of shoe "shoe" The answer is obviously not the latter. Because the Japanese have long known that there are huge business opportunities in the Chinese market, and they have long understood that China is one of the world's largest shoe producers and consumers. So, who's to say that China won't buy it? The answer is self-evident: China is better off than Japan.
Not only that, but China itself is also a huge market, with sales of new energy vehicles in China as of January last year being 168,000 units, accounting for more than half of global sales.
Of course, due to the late start of the lithium battery industry in the mainland, compared with Japan, there are still deficiencies in core technologies and patents. However, we must also see that with the gradual maturity of the domestic market and the strong support of national policies, China's battery industry will surely usher in a new stage of development. We believe that China's battery companies will grow better and better! In Japan, where investment is relatively conservative, we should not be too proud.