Auto Potential Technology: Established two years with a valuation of 8 billion yuan GAC power battery unicorn is beginning to emerge

Auto-First | Linsen

Although electric vehicles are increasingly recognized by consumers, slow charging is still a major pain point in the current consumption of electric vehicles.

The electric vehicles currently on sale generally have the ability to charge 80% in 30 minutes, but they are still much slower than fuel vehicles that only need two or three minutes to complete refueling.

In order to eliminate the anxiety of electric vehicles, major automobile manufacturers and power battery companies are trying to find ways to carry out technical research, so there are solutions such as power exchange technology and super fast charging piles.

Guangzhou Juwan Technology Research Co., Ltd. (referred to as Juwan Technology Research), a high-tech company incubated within the GAC Group, has taken another path, that is, XFC (eXtreme Fast Charging) ultra-fast batteries, and the company's goal is to achieve "charging as fast as refueling".

Juwan Technology Research mainly focuses on graphene, relays, three-dimensional structures, spiral feeders, sheet structures, collection points and other technical fields. Among them, graphene is the most important technology. The researchers found that using graphene as a negative electrode material and adding one or two percentages to the battery can improve the charging speed very well. Juwan Technology Research XFC ultra-fast rechargeable battery is based on the research results of the above technology.

At present, the charging rate of Juwan Jiyan XFC ultra-fast battery products covers 3C~6C, the energy density of the battery cells is above 200Wh/kg, and the vehicle is charged at 3C or 6C at room temperature, and the charging time of 0~80% battery power is 15 and 8 minutes, respectively. Among them, Juwan Technology Research's 6C magnification XFC extreme speed battery is installed on the GAC Aean model and also creates a world record of "the fastest electric vehicle charging technology".

On September 30, 2021, the GAC AION V Plus model equipped with Juwan 3C magnification XFC speed battery opened for market sales; on the same day, the same brand model equipped with Juwan 6C magnification XFC extreme speed battery was announced by the state and is expected to be officially mass-produced and listed within this year. 8 minutes to fill 80% of the electricity, will be the biggest competitiveness of this car.

According to Auto-First, at present, developed countries in Europe and the United States are making efforts to promote the development of XFC technology. In the more mature U.S. market, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has also set a near-term goal of shortening the fast charging time of electric vehicles from 0 to 80% to 15 minutes by 2023. Judging from the current research results of Juwan Technology Research Institute, the short-term goals set by the US Department of Energy have been achieved ahead of schedule.

Juwan Technology's XFC ultra-fast battery technology not only allows the industry to see the strength, but also is widely optimistic about the capital community.

Recently, GAC Group announced that Juwan Technology Research has recently completed a round of financing of nearly 1 billion yuan. The A-round investors include Guangzhou Suikai Equity Investment, Hanhui Investment, Shengjing Venture, Guangzhou Financial Holdings, Tencent Investment, Qiande Fund, Borun Capital, Guangzhou City Investment, Nanyue Fund, and Hualian Huiyuan. One of the most interesting is Tencent Investment, as a series A investor, Tencent Investment holds 2.26% of the shares of Juwan Technology Research, and Ma Huateng also enjoys 1.36% of the ultimate beneficiary shares.

The layout of the power battery industry by Internet technology giants has become a new trend. Previously, Xiaomi has invested in ZhongxinHang, Hive Energy, Ganfeng Lithium Battery, Zhuhai Guanyu, Weilan New Energy, and Huawei Hubble has also invested in Weilan New Energy and Zhongke Hai Sodium.

Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, revealed that after completing the A round of financing, Juwan Technology Research was valued at 8 billion yuan, becoming a new unicorn of power batteries.

According to public information, Juwan Technology Research Institute was established in September 2020, when GAC Group decided to take the advanced energy storage materials team as the first incubation object, led by GAC Group, GAC Capital, GAC Research Institute pilot technical team and third-party strategic partner shareholding platform jointly funded the establishment of Guangzhou Juwan Technology Research Co., Ltd., focusing on super fast charging power batteries and a new generation of breakthrough energy storage and its systems research and development, production, sales and service.

Huang Xiangdong, chairman and CTO of Juwan Technical Research Institute

Huang Xiangdong, Chairman and CTO of Juwan Technology Research Institute, is a professor and doctoral supervisor of South China University of Technology, a fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers of China, and the first president of THE GAC Research Institute; dr. Pei Feng, the legal representative and CEO, was the former director of the Pilot Technology Department and the New Energy Department of the GAC Research Institute, presided over the research and development of new energy vehicles and three electric parts, and won the China Automotive Industry Science and Technology Progress Award.

After the establishment of Juwan Technology Research Institute, the research results have been abundant, and it has 12 public patent applications, accounting for nearly 60% of invention patents. Among them, patents with high market value include "three-dimensional structural graphene and its carbon-derived catalytic pyrolysis preparation method" and so on.

According to the plan, after the completion of this round of financing, Juwan Technology Research will continue to strengthen the research and development of XFC ultra-fast charging technology, accelerate the production capacity of XFC ultra-fast batteries, and actively promote the promotion of XFC supercharging ecology. Including the construction of the first phase of the production base and R&D center of Juwan Technology Research Headquarters, and the construction of cooperative production capacity, it is expected that XFC ultra-fast battery production capacity of 8GWh will be added in 2023, with the ability to achieve supporting equipment for 120,000 new energy vehicles.

In fact, Juwan Technology Research Institute is only one of the high-tech enterprises incubated by GAC Group around the "New Four Modernizations". In addition to Juwan Technology Research, the current new energy brand GAC Eian and the shared travel brand Ruqi Travel have achieved good results. Among them, GAC Aeon's sales exceeded 120,000 vehicles in 2021, and the cumulative sales volume in the four months of this year has exceeded 55,000 vehicles, doubling the growth year-on-year. Especially in April, GAC Aean's sales exceeded 10,000 vehicles, surpassing Xiaopeng, Zero Run, Nezha, Weilai and other new car manufacturers.

Auto-First learned that at present, GAC Group is conducting capital operations on GAC Aian, Ruqi Travel and Juwan Technology Research through its capital operation platform and equity investment and financing platform, and all have plans to achieve independent listing. (Some of the pictures are from the Internet)