Written by / Meng Wei
Editor/ Zhang Nan
Design / Shi Yuchao
Batteries will be key to Japan's carbon neutrality by 2050, and they are the most important technologies for electrifying cars and other mobile devices, which are crucial to adjusting power supply and demand, which in turn helps promote the use of renewable energy.
At the end of April, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry revealed that Japan plans to formulate a national-level battery strategy this summer, including specific government support measures, which plans to increase the global production capacity of Japanese battery companies by nearly 10 times to 600 GWh, with the goal of occupying 20% of the global rechargeable battery market in 2030.
Nobutaka Takeo, head of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said: "We will increase our support to help the Japanese battery industry regain global market share, and in the past few years, we have lost market share in the battle against our opponents in China and South Korea." ”
Japan's sense of urgency
Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Japan's market share of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles in the world fell from 40% in 2015 to 21% in 2020, and the share of batteries used in energy storage systems fell from 27% in 2016 to 5% in 2020.
Although the overall market share of rechargeable batteries in Japan is not given, we can also see the urgency of Japanese companies and governments for the development of related industries from the changes in global power battery installed capacity in the past two years.
In 2020, among the top 10 companies in the global power battery installed capacity, Panasonic became the only Japanese battery company to enter the list, ranking third, with a market share of 20.2%, closely following the Ningde era and LG New Energy.
In 2021, its market share fell by 18.4%, still ranking third; in January-February 2022, Panasonic's market share was 10.8%, surpassed by BYD and slipped to fourth place.
Therefore, the battery strategy expert group of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry proposes that their goal is to increase the domestic production capacity of batteries used in electric vehicles and energy storage systems from about 20GWh to 150GWh by 2030, while expanding the global output capacity of Japanese battery manufacturers from the current 60-70GWh to 600GWh.
In this process, in addition to Japanese battery companies, it may also rely on Japanese car companies to step up the layout of battery production capacity.
Nissan and Honda, while both have aggressive electric vehicle strategies, rely more on partners in batteries.
Nissan's partners are the driving force behind China's vision.
In 2018, Nissan sold its battery business to Envision Technology, and the two sides established a deep strategic cooperative relationship with Envision Power as the main body, Envision Power and Nissan jointly developed a new generation of battery technology and products, while Nissan invested and Envision Power jointly laid out overseas markets.
Honda said it would purchase Ultium lithium-ion batteries from GM in North America and explore the possibility of joint ventures with other local battery manufacturers, cooperating with CATL in China, while in Japan itself, it would purchase battery products jointly developed by Envision Power and Nissan in Japan.
Toyota Motor's production capacity layout is relatively perfect.
Their current battery layout is mainly in three technical routes, and the new bipolar nickel-metal hydride battery, new lithium-ion battery and solid-state battery jointly developed with Toyota Automatic Loom.
Toyota motor has previously revealed that it will respond flexibly on the supply side according to the changing needs of consumers.
For example, when the adoption of EVs exceeds expectations, Toyota motor will further increase its production capacity, providing a higher target than the 180GWh currently under discussion, reaching more than 200GWh.
Bet on solid-state batteries
Another goal of Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in its national battery strategy is to fully commercialize all-solid-state batteries around 2030.
Japanese car companies believe that as an advanced technology that can change the industry, the energy density of all-solid-state batteries is close to twice that of traditional lithium-ion batteries, and it has excellent charging and discharging performance, which will further shorten the charging time.
At the same time, battery costs can be reduced to a lower rate due to the reduction in the use of expensive raw materials. All-solid-state batteries will further accelerate the popularity of electric vehicles.
In addition, 2030 has also been the time point for the mass production of all-solid-state batteries announced by Japanese car companies.
Toyota motor said that the company is currently researching and planning to develop high-power, long range, short charging time of the all-solid-state battery.
In June 2020, toyota-made electric vehicles equipped with all-solid-state batteries were tested on the test route and reached the stage of obtaining vehicle driving data.
After improving these data, in August 2020, electric vehicles equipped with all-solid-state batteries officially obtained licenses and began driving experiments.
Toyota Motor put forward in 2021, the goal is to achieve small-batch production of all-solid-state batteries in 2025, the first application to hybrid models, and the first step in realizing the commercial application of all-solid-state batteries on the car.
"During development, we learned that the ions in all-solid-state batteries move at high speeds in the battery, resulting in high power output. We hope that this feature can be used on HEVs to take advantage of all-solid-state batteries. Toyota motor said.
Toyota hopes to continue to discover the problems of all-solid-state batteries through step-by-step commercialization attempts.
For example, we will continue to conduct research on the development of solid electrolyte materials to solve the problem of short battery life objects, and finally by 2030, after ensuring production technology and stable quality, we will achieve mass production, and full practicality and commercialization.
On April 11, 2022, Nissan Motor Company also announced a pilot production facility for stacked soft-pack all-solid-state battery cells, planning to build a pilot plant in Yokohama, Japan in fiscal year 2024, and continuously conducting research on pilot production in terms of materials, design and manufacturing processes, and plans to officially put into operation in 2028.
In terms of battery costs, Nissan plans to reduce the cost of batteries to $75 per kWh by fiscal year 2028, while through continuous innovation, the cost will be further reduced to $65 per kWh in the future to achieve cost parity for electric vehicle models and fuel models.
On April 12, Honda also announced its solid-state battery promotion plan in its newly announced aggressive electric vehicle strategy, "will invest about 43 billion yen (about 2.13 billion yuan) to build an all-solid-state battery demonstration production line, and will set up a pilot production line in the spring of 2024 and apply it to models launched after 2025."
In addition to the company's announcement of the timetable, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will provide nissan and Honda with about 151 billion yen (about 7.49 billion yuan) of funds to support the development of all-solid-state batteries.
This article was originally produced by Automotive Business Review
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