Entering 2024, the power battery industry will set off a new round of construction and expansion. According to incomplete statistics from Gasgoo, in the first quarter of this year, power battery companies invested in a total of 31 new projects at home and abroad, with a total investment of more than 123.4 billion yuan and a planned power battery production capacity of more than 328GWh.
In the first quarter, 12 major projects started at once
It can be seen from the expansion table of power batteries in the first quarter of 2024 that 12 projects are under construction.
For example, on the first working day of 2024 (January 2), Valin Group's new semi-solid-state battery and energy storage system integration project held a groundbreaking ceremony. According to reports, the total investment of the project is 2 billion yuan, and the annual planned investment is 300 million yuan, mainly covering the development, design, production and sales of micro-nano structure semi-solid lithium batteries, sodium batteries and other battery cells and battery pack products, which are widely used in new power energy storage and new energy vehicles.
Image source: Bengbu release
On January 9, the SINOMACH Judian semi-solid-state battery project officially started. It is reported that the project is invested and constructed by China Machinery Industry Construction Group Co., Ltd. and Fujian Judian New Energy Co., Ltd., with a total investment of 5 billion yuan, covering an area of 600 acres, and is expected to achieve annual taxable sales of about 9 billion yuan after full production.
On March 4, the electromechanical project of Funeng Technology's annual output of 30GWh power production base started in Guangzhou. It is understood that the total investment of the project is about 10 billion yuan, and the construction content includes the mechanical and electrical installation of battery cell workshop, formation workshop, PACK workshop, power station room and other single units, which is expected to be officially put into operation in 2025. After it is put into operation, it will achieve an annual production capacity of 30GWh of power batteries, and the output value is expected to reach 20 billion yuan.
Judging from the construction period of the first quarter of the project, most of the projects are planned to be put into operation within the year, and will be completed in 2025 at the latest. In other words, by the end of 2025, the above projects will be completed and put into operation, which will bring more than 100GWh of new production capacity to the entire power battery market.
The above-mentioned projects were intensively started in the first quarter, which is not unrelated to the continuous growth of the new energy vehicle market. As one of the core components of power batteries, analysts at Gasgoo Automotive Research Institute predict that by 2025, China's power battery demand is expected to reach 900GWh.
In addition, there are 13 more in the proposed contract stage, including LG Energy Solution's battery project in Nanjing.
On March 28, Jiangning Binjiang Development Zone signed a contract with South Korean battery giant LG New Energy, with a total investment of about 800 million US dollars (about 5.77 billion yuan), mainly involving power batteries, energy storage batteries and other production projects.
It is foreseeable that with the implementation of more projects, the mainland power battery industry will usher in a new round of capacity release, which will strongly support the vigorous development of the new energy vehicle industry.
(Semi-)solid-state batteries and sodium batteries have become the focus of expansion
From the perspective of battery types, it can be found that in the total expansion projects in the first quarter, there were 14 projects to expand the production of sodium batteries and (semi-)solid-state batteries, nearly half.
With higher energy density, better thermal stability, and potentially reduced safety risks, semi-solid-state batteries meet the market's strong demand for improved range and safety of electric vehicles.
In the first quarter of this year, a total of 8 (semi-)solid-state battery projects were signed, with a total investment of more than 29 billion yuan, and its production capacity is expected to exceed 90GWh. The main entities that started construction and signed contracts include Valin Group, Judian New Energy, Zhonggu Times, Heyuan Lithium Innovation, etc.
Among them, the 10 billion yuan solid-state lithium battery and PACK manufacturing and production project signed by Judian New Energy is particularly eye-catching.
On February 29, the Management Committee of Shanxi Xiaoyi Economic Development Zone, Shanxi Pengfei Group Co., Ltd., and Fujian Judian New Energy Co., Ltd. held a signing ceremony for an annual output of 10GWh solid-state lithium battery and PACK manufacturing and production project.
According to the agreement, the signatories will invest about 10 billion yuan to build an annual output of 10GWh solid-state lithium battery and PACK manufacturing and production project in Xiaoyi Economic Development Zone, covering battery cell workshop, electrolyte depot, power center, etc., focusing on solid-state lithium battery technology research and development and battery assembly manufacturing, which can be widely used in power, energy storage and other fields.
Image source: Xiaoyi Radio and Television Station
With its potential cost advantages, resource abundance and potential in specific performance, sodium batteries are regarded as an important option that is expected to break the bottleneck of lithium resources and reduce battery costs.
Therefore, the sodium battery sector also showed a strong momentum of expansion in the first quarter, with a total investment of more than 16 billion yuan in 6 related projects, involving companies including BYD, Huana New Energy, Kexiang Co., Ltd., Kunyu Power Supply, etc.
Among them, BYD (Xuzhou) sodium-ion battery project has a total investment of 10 billion yuan, with a planned annual production capacity of 30GWh, mainly producing sodium-ion battery cells and PACK and other related supporting products. After the project is completed and put into operation, it will build a 100-billion-level green and low-carbon industrial cluster for the Xuzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, where the project is located, and inject new strong momentum into Xuzhou's construction of a demonstration city for a new energy system.
Self-construction and co-construction are parallel, and car companies have gradually landed batteries in production
In the first quarter of this year, we also found that many car companies participated in the power battery expansion project. For example, joint projects represented by Geely and CATL, FAW and BYD, Jiangling Motors Group and Jingwei Hengrun have been implemented one after another.
On January 29, the Sichuan Economic and Information Commission agreed to the energy-saving review opinions of the first phase (expansion) of the Yibin project of the Times Geely Power Battery Production Base of Times Geely (Sichuan) Power Battery Co., Ltd. It is reported that after the completion of the project, the production capacity of 10GWh/year lithium-ion power battery will be added, and the whole plant will reach an annual production capacity of 25GWh lithium-ion power battery.
In 2022, the FAW Fodi new energy power battery project jointly built by China FAW and BYD will start. On February 2 this year, the first phase of FAW Fodi's new energy power battery project was officially put into operation in Changchun.
It is reported that the total investment of the project is 18 billion yuan, operated by FAW Fodi New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., according to the third phase of 45GWh production capacity planning, each phase of the construction of 15GWh, after all put into operation, nearly 600,000 vehicles can be equipped with blade batteries, is expected to reach an annual output value of 20 billion yuan.
Image source: China FAW
On March 16 this year, the Jingwei Hengrun Automobile Intelligent Electric Platform Project started. Previously, in September 2022, Jingwei Hengrun announced that the company, Jiangling Group and the Management Committee of Nanchang Xiaolan Economic Development Zone planned to sign the "Project Contract", and the company planned to jointly establish Jiangxi Jingwei Hengrun Technology Co., Ltd. with Jiangling Jingma, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jiangling Group, as the main body of the implementation of the project of building an intelligent electric platform for automobiles. It is mainly engaged in the R&D, production and sales of automotive electronic products (including automatic driving systems, T-BOX, gateways, differential lock controllers, headlamp controllers, etc.), new energy vehicle battery packs, and integrated chassis.
Specifically, the total investment of the project is about 3 billion yuan, and the construction of automotive electronic products and new energy vehicle battery pack R&D and production projects. After the first phase of the project is completed and put into operation, it will form a production capacity of 1 million sets of automotive electronic products and 5GWh energy vehicle battery packs.
In addition, while working with power battery companies, in the first quarter of this year, the battery factories developed and built by car companies have also made new progress.
On January 21, the groundbreaking ceremony of the battery and new energy power technology plant project of Nanqi Jiangbei New Area Base was held. It is reported that NAIC Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SAIC, and the base is one of the important manufacturing bases of SAIC's own brand vehicles.
After the completion of the first phase of the project, it will have an annual production capacity of more than 240,000 sets of batteries, and the installed capacity is expected to reach more than 10-13GWh. According to the project plan, the main construction of the plant will be completed in August this year, and a stable mass production capacity will be formed by the end of the year.
On February 28, the first phase of the R&D Science and Technology Innovation Center, a construction project of Leaprun Wuyi New Energy R&D Science and Technology Innovation Center, was held in Wuyi County, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province. With a total investment of 830 million yuan and a total construction area of 220,000 square meters, the project plans to build a new R&D laboratory, a science and technology innovation center and its supporting facilities.
It is understood that the first phase of the R&D science and technology innovation center has a total investment of 260 million yuan, and will add key production lines and equipment such as on-board module lines, on-board PACK lines, energy storage module lines, and energy storage PACK lines, which will form an annual output of 384,000 sets of battery capacity, including 144,000 sets of on-board batteries, 120,000 sets of energy storage batteries and 120,000 sets of low-voltage batteries.