The lithium ion battery 18650 price industry should master core technology

As the heart of new energy vehicles, power batteries have always been the lifeblood of the new energy vehicle industry. With the domestic new energy vehicle sales entering a high-speed development track, power batteries have also ushered in an unprecedented wave of growth. Core technology, cost control and investment scale have become key factors in the development of power batteries. At the same time, how to deal with the rise in upstream material prices and how to deal with the coordinated development of power batteries and the environment also directly affect the next development trend of power batteries-

Recently, the "China (Qinghai) Lithium Industry and lithium ion battery 18650 price International Summit Forum" hosted by the Qinghai Provincial People's Government, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People's Association was held in Xining, Qinghai. More than a thousand people from the industry at home and abroad discussed and exchanged ideas on the theme of "Promoting the coordinated development of the lithium industry."

Level improvement and intensified competition

According to statistics, the total sales of new energy vehicles in my country currently exceed 50% of the global share, reaching 777,000 units in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 53.3%. According to industry experts, by 2020, the sales of new energy vehicles are expected to reach 2 million units, and the corresponding demand for power batteries will reach 88GWh.

The technical level of power batteries in my country has been rapidly improved, and some indicators have reached the international advanced level. Among them, the energy density of lithium ion battery 18650 price monomers exceeds 240Wh per kilogram. Large-scale production has also led to a rapid decline in the cost of power batteries. The price of battery monomers has dropped from 5 yuan/Wh in 2012 to about 1 yuan/Wh at present. At the same time, the degree of automation of lithium battery production equipment has also been greatly improved. The automation rate of first-line enterprises has exceeded 65%, which has played an important role in ensuring product quality.

At the same time, my country's lithium ion battery 18650 price market has seen a coexistence of tight supply and overcapacity. Data show that China's lithium ion battery 18650 price production capacity has exceeded 200GWh in 2017, but the overall capacity utilization rate is only 40%. The market is clearly polarized, high-end high-quality products are in short supply, and low-end production capacity is difficult to sell, showing a structural overcapacity. Huang Shilin, vice chairman of CATL, predicts that the overcapacity of power batteries may continue after 2020.

The competitive environment in the field of power batteries has also gradually moved from the initial extensive competition to refined competition. With the intensification of market competition, some low-threshold and technologically backward lithium ion battery 18650 price companies have gradually been eliminated, and the industry reshuffle has accelerated. Data shows that the number of Chinese lithium ion battery 18650 price supporting enterprises has dropped from about 150 in 2015 to about 100 in 2017, and one-third of the enterprises have been eliminated.

Upstream materials are in great demand

Although my country has abundant lithium resources, its endowment is poor, its utilization rate is relatively low, and its key materials nickel and cobalt resources are scarce, and its dependence on foreign countries is high. With the development of the industry, battery companies have shifted from competing for customers to competing for upstream materials and resources. "Lithium, cobalt and nickel resources around the world are in great demand, showing the characteristics of oligopoly. In the long run, there are risks to resource security." Zhang Yongwei, Secretary-General and Chief Expert of the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People's Association, said that the prices of upstream materials such as lithium and cobalt required for lithium battery production have risen rapidly in recent years, and the demand for lithium and cobalt has increased sharply. According to statistics, the shipment volume of power lithium batteries in my country reached 39.1GWh in 2017, accounting for about 50% of the overall scale of the lithium battery industry. Among them, the shipment volume of automotive power batteries reached 38GWh, accounting for 65.4% of the global shipment volume of automotive power batteries. It is expected that with the development of new energy vehicles and energy storage markets, the production and sales scale of lithium batteries will further expand, which will also bring huge demand for resources such as lithium and cobalt.

In recent years, the prices of raw materials such as lithium and cobalt have been rising. Taking cobalt as an example, the price of cobalt was 200,000 yuan/ton in 2016, and the current price has exceeded 600,000 yuan/ton, which has doubled in less than three years. As an important battery material, cobalt accounts for about 13% of ternary batteries. This has formed a huge resistance to the effective reduction of lithium ion battery 18650 price costs. Therefore, it is necessary to continuously improve the technical level of battery energy density and other technical levels through continuous technological innovation and breakthroughs, explore new battery materials, and get rid of bottleneck constraints. Zhang Xiyong, general manager of Beijing Automotive Group Co., Ltd., predicts that power batteries will still be dominated by ternary batteries in the next 10 years, while developing in the direction of high nickel and new system batteries.

The prices of upstream materials continue to rise, and vehicle manufacturers need to transfer costs due to the decline in purchase subsidies, which puts double pressure on battery companies.

"The country should formulate a medium- and long-term resource development plan, take lithium, nickel, cobalt and other resources as strategic resources, and strengthen resource exploration, evaluation, mining and resource recycling." Chen Qingtai, chairman of the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People's Association, suggested that market supervision should be strengthened to guide prices to return to rationality and encourage enterprises to deploy upstream resources globally to prevent upstream resource monopoly.

Technological innovation and coordinated development

At present, the competition areas of the international electric vehicle industry are mainly concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region, China, Japan and South Korea. my country's electric vehicle industry has made remarkable achievements in production, production capacity, shipments, and especially in competitiveness. China, South Korea and Japan are the current leaders in the global lithium ion battery 18650 price field. China has the most complete lithium ion battery 18650 price industry chain in the world and the largest market size. Japan and South Korea have certain advantages in technology research and development and manufacturing processes. For China's lithium ion battery 18650 price industry, winning in quantity is a phased result, and how to continuously improve quality and technology is the key.

From the perspective of upstream and downstream enterprise relations, vehicle and parts companies are interdependent. Battery companies focus on the research and development of battery cell performance, while vehicle companies focus on the use of batteries. Therefore, it is necessary to jointly respond to challenges and cooperate between upstream and downstream companies. Let lithium ion battery 18650 price manufacturers participate in R&D and design with vehicle manufacturers from the front end, so that battery manufacturers can fully understand the supporting needs of the main vehicle manufacturers, so as to avoid the cost increase caused by fighting alone and information opacity, and jointly promote the iteration and evolution of electric vehicle industry technology.

Chen Qingtai believes that competing in production scale is only a shallow competition. For lithium ion battery 18650 price companies, the most important thing is to master core technologies. Therefore, they must produce, develop and pre-research one generation with a global vision to ensure that they always stand at the forefront of the world. Among them, the most critical thing is to gather talents and maintain sufficient R&D investment. Battery companies must also cooperate with colleges and universities and research institutions with the support of the state to carry out basic research on power batteries.

At the same time, from the perspective of the development stage, the earliest on-board power batteries put on the market have begun to enter the retirement period, and the first wave of large-scale retirement is about to come. The recycling and cascade utilization of power batteries are of great significance to the economy and resource reuse of the entire life cycle of environmental protection. More and more companies in my country have begun to study and layout the lithium ion battery 18650 price recycling and cascade utilization industry. In the future, the electric vehicle industry will also work closely with renewable energy. This combination can not only achieve green travel, but also absorb a large amount of renewable energy, which has important economic and environmental significance.

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