Since the beginning of this year, despite the sound of domestic power battery overcapacity, the momentum of power battery expansion in the first half of the year is still unabated.
According to incomplete statistics from Gasgoo, in the first half of this year, power battery companies invested in a total of 56 new projects at home and abroad, with a total investment of more than 190.2 billion yuan and a planned power battery production capacity of more than 626GWh.
Expand production in adversity, rationality first
Although there will be continuous new investment projects for power batteries in the first half of 2024, compared with last year's investment projects of tens of billions of yuan, this year's investment amount tends to be rational.
According to incomplete statistics from Gasgoo, there were only 6 10-billion-level projects in the first half of this year, involving companies including BYD, EVE Lithium Energy, Lihua Power, Judian New Energy and Funeng Technology.
Among them, BYD's 10 billion project had two new disclosures in the first half of the year. On January 4, BYD (Xuzhou) sodium-ion battery project started, with a planned annual production capacity of 30GWh, mainly producing sodium-ion battery cells and PACK and other related supporting products. Subsequently, on June 1, the project was filed and approved by the Management Committee of Xuzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone.
Also on the road to expansion is Funeng Technology, whose mechanical and electrical engineering project in Guangzhou's 30GWh power lithium battery production base started construction on March 4; On June 29, the base began trial production.
It is reported that the overall construction of the base includes the mechanical and electrical installation of battery cell workshop, formation workshop, PACK workshop, power station room and other single units. After the project is completed and put into operation, it will achieve an annual production capacity of 30GWh of power batteries, which is expected to drive a number of upstream and downstream supporting industries such as cathode materials, silicon carbon anodes, and lithium battery equipment to settle in Guangzhou.
EVE, on the other hand, has expanded its investment of 10 billion yuan overseas. On March 24, according to the United Kingdom Times, EVE is negotiating to invest in the construction of a factory in United Kingdom, with an estimated investment of at least 1.2 billion pounds, or about 10.8 billion yuan.
Source: Screenshot of EVE's official website
EVE is reportedly looking to build a 20 GWh EV battery factory outside Coventry, which could eventually reach 60 GWh, making it the largest gigafactory in the United Kingdom, with an agreement expected to be signed in the coming weeks.
It should be pointed out that under the dual pressure of market competition and potential overcapacity, in addition to the decline in the amount of investment in power battery expansion projects, there are even two new power battery construction projects that have died.
ON MARCH 19, KEXIANG ANNOUNCED THAT AFTER FRIENDLY CONSULTATION WITH THE XINFENG COUNTY GOVERNMENT, IT WOULD TERMINATE THE 2 BILLION YUAN 6GWH SODIUM-ION NEW ENERGY BATTERY PROJECT SIGNED A YEAR AGO.
According to the announcement, after the company signed the investment intention contract with the Xinfeng County People's Government, the two parties did not reach a formal investment agreement, and the company did not have any corresponding capital expenditure.
On the evening of May 30, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co., Ltd. and Anhui Ankai Automobile Co., Ltd. both announced that they had decided to terminate the joint venture with BYD's Fodi Battery and other enterprises.
According to the announcement, after the signing of the joint venture framework agreement, the company conducted due diligence and evaluation on the relevant parties to the proposed joint venture company and the patented technology to be contributed, and communicated with the relevant parties on the joint venture, but failed to reach an agreement on the joint venture. After careful consideration and consensus with all parties, it was decided to terminate the joint venture framework agreement.
It is reported that Ankai Bus, JAC, Fodi Battery, and Zhejiang Energy Storage reached a framework agreement in September 2022, and the four parties plan to jointly invest in the establishment of a joint venture company, and the joint venture company will build a new energy power battery production plant to carry out power battery projects.
The investment in solid-state battery and sodium battery projects has not decreased
Although the market investment tends to be rational, new technologies such as solid-state batteries and sodium batteries are still hot spots for investment.
With its core advantages of higher energy density, excellent thermal stability and enhanced safety attributes, solid-state batteries precisely meet the urgent needs of the electric vehicle market for long range and high safety. According to Gasgoo, in the first half of this year, the number of (semi-)solid-state batteries and sodium batteries signed and started reached 18, of which 11 projects were signed and started, with a total investment of more than 38.5 billion yuan and a production capacity of more than 125GWh.
The main entities that started construction and signed contracts in this field include Valin Group, Judian New Energy, Zhonggu Times, Heyuan Lithium Innovation and Hunan Jiusen Angao. Among them, the 10 billion yuan project of Judian New Energy and the project with an annual output of 30GWh in Jiusen Angao, Hunan Province are 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: Linwu County Rong Media Center
On May 20, Jiusen New Energy cooperated with Sichuan Angao to successfully hold the launching ceremony of the solid-state battery pilot test. The project plans to realize the R&D, production and marketing of solid-state batteries in three phases. The first phase relied on the Chenzhou Lithium Battery Industry Research Institute to establish a solid-state battery research center, and used the existing production line of Jiusen Angao to transform and improve quality, and began to achieve mass production on June 18; In the second phase, a total investment of 2 billion yuan will be invested to build a power solid-state battery production line with a capacity of 15GWh, and a preliminary strategic cooperation agreement has been reached with Huawei. After the completion of the first two steps, the third phase plans to invest another 3 billion yuan to expand production to 30GWh, with an annual output value of 20 billion yuan.
Sodium batteries are considered to be an important option that is expected to break the bottleneck of lithium resources and reduce battery costs due to their low cost, resource abundance, and specific performance advantages.
In the first half of the year, there were 7 sodium battery-related expansion projects, with a total investment of more than 17 billion yuan and a planned production capacity of 46GWh.
At present, semi-solid-state batteries and sodium batteries in mainland China are accelerating into the stage of commercial application. According to the data released by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, in the first half of 2024, semi-solid-state batteries and sodium-ion batteries on the mainland will be installed, with 2,154.7MWh of semi-solid-state batteries and 1.5MWh of sodium-ion batteries.
Image source: China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance
It is worth noting that from the perspective of investment subjects, in the first half of this year, there were few leading companies in the new investment and construction projects of (semi-)solid-state batteries and sodium batteries, and most of them were start-ups and second- and third-tier enterprises.
There are two reasons for the above phenomenon. First of all, under the fierce competition in the terminal market and the pressure of capacity clearance, the price of power batteries continues to fall. According to data, in June 2024, the average price of lithium iron phosphate energy storage cells was 0.41 yuan/Wh, down 4.2% month-on-month. This decline has put the cost bottom line of start-ups and second- and third-tier enterprises in a serious challenge.
Secondly, the situation of the "two strong" in the field of power batteries is still difficult to shake in the short term. In the face of this, start-ups and second- and third-tier enterprises with technical strength take new technologies and new market opportunities as a breakthrough to ensure that they can achieve "lane change and overtaking" in the fierce market competition.
Article source: Gasgoo Auto Community
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