Japanese companies are stepping up their efforts to compete for the Chinese lithium battery market

When Japanese friends come to the house to visit, they often talk about the future of China's auto industry, especially the great development of electric vehicles in China in recent years. “Do Chinese people like to buy ‘Tesla’?” Japanese friends often ask. So I took them downstairs and stood on the street of Wudaokou in Beijing. "Tesla" is basically a passing time.

Japanese friends then marvel that Beijing's "Tesla" must have more than Tokyo! Of course, I will also tell them that the future growth of the Chinese electric car market lies not only in the "Tesla" produced in the United States, but also in the many thriving local brands.

The size and growth potential of the Chinese electric car market are also seen by relevant Japanese companies. A key component of electric cars is lithium batteries, which are the strengths of Japanese companies. Lithium battery technology was developed earlier in Japan. Japanese companies therefore have a number of patents on metal materials such as lithium battery electrolytes and positive and negative electrodes. They have rich experience in observing electron microscopes and lithium battery recovery for detecting the purity of lithium batteries. This allowed them to smell huge business opportunities in the Chinese market.

For example, lithium batteries require extremely high purity of the material. If metal debris is mixed, there may be a case of battery fire and explosion. Once foreign bodies are discovered, production needs to be stopped immediately. The scale of production of automotive batteries is huge. The suspension of production means that companies face millions or even tens of millions of yuan in economic losses. Therefore, electric vehicle companies need to use a highly accurate electron microscope to conduct strict detection to prevent the above situation.

Hitachi Hi-tech, a company known for its leading electron microscopy production, directly invested in opening the Hitachi Hi-Tech Science Park in Shanghai in March this year. It focuses on electron microscopes and is equipped with a variety of related analytical instruments. The intention of aiming at the Chinese market in the future is very clear.

With the popularity of electric vehicles, there will be a large number of abandoned lithium batteries to be recycled, which also contains huge business opportunities.

Japan's Mitsubishi Materials Co., Ltd., which used to produce copper and lead, has also begun to shift its focus to the development of lithium battery recycling. Another Japanese company, Fuji Film, which is famous for producing cameras, also has relevant technology for battery recycling and is actively looking for opportunities to cooperate in China.

Japanese Nissan announced in February 2018 that it plans to invest 60 billion yuan in China to directly produce electric vehicles.

Japanese companies are well aware that the world's biggest future market for electric vehicles must be in China, where the center for the production of lithium-ion batteries for cars is located.

"We have seen that China has more papers published than Japan, second only to the United States, which is the second largest in the world, indicating that China is already the world leader in many fields of research," said Zhengyihua, head of leading analysis unit at Hitachi China Business Group. So our focus is changing -- China was originally a market for products and solutions for customers, and China will be a research and development center for cutting-edge products, leading technological change. "

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