The positive electrode material of the core component of lithium battery is an important variable affecting the cost of new energy vehicles.

The biggest cost of new energy vehicles is in the battery, motor, and electronic control "three major power" systems, accounting for 50% of the total cost, of which the power battery cost is the highest. The positive electrode material is the core component of the lithium battery, and the cost ratio is the highest, about 40%, followed by the electrolyte and the separator. The negative electrode material accounts for the lowest proportion, and 90% of the negative electrode material is composed of graphite.

It can be seen that the positive electrode material is an important variable affecting the cost of new energy vehicles.

The cathode material includes lithium manganate, lithium iron phosphate, cobalt, and nickel. The most important power batteries on the market are classified into lithium iron phosphate batteries and ternary lithium batteries according to the cathode materials, although both belong to secondary batteries. It can be used repeatedly for charging and discharging, but due to the difference in materials, there is still a big difference in the performance that is finally reflected to the use level.

Unlike lithium iron phosphate, the density of ternary lithium batteries is high, which means that the specific energy and specific power of ternary lithium batteries are greater under the same volume or weight. lithium iron phosphate batteries pay more attention to high temperature resistance, but in the case of normal temperature and low temperature, ternary lithium batteries perform better. In terms of charging efficiency, the charging efficiency of the ternary lithium battery is also higher.

It is precisely because of the above advantages of the ternary lithium battery, the proportion of shipments of ternary lithium batteries in recent years has gradually increased. As a benchmark for the new energy automobile industry, Sla is equipped with a ternary lithium battery. In addition to Tesla, other famous car companies, including BMW and GM, use new energy power batteries. It is a ternary lithium pool. Domestic automakers such as Jianghuai, BYD, and Beiqi have also begun to replace their ternary lithium batteries with their original lithium iron phosphate batteries. It is estimated that the ternary materials will grow at a compound growth rate of over 40% by 2020.

The ternary lithium battery uses lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide as the positive electrode material, and the price trend of related metals has an important impact on cost.

Taking the price of battery-grade lithium metal in Xinjiang as an example, in the past three years, it has risen from 10,000 yuan/ton to 10,000 yuan/ton, an increase of 120%.

The price of domestic lithium cobalt oxide experienced five price increases in the past six months, indicating that demand has increased steadily and formed effective support for the later price trend.

In addition to the rise in lithium prices, the price of metallic cobalt is also rising. Taking the trend of Wuxi Cobalt price index as an example, the price of cobalt in the middle of the year fell below 400 yuan/kg, and has recently risen to 550 yuan/kg, just half a year. The cumulative increase is close to 40%, and people can't help but be amazed.

The production and sales volume of downstream new energy vehicles in the second half of this year ushered in, and led to a sharp rise in the price of raw materials in the upstream. The leading company with a large amount of lithium and cobalt mineral resources is undoubtedly the biggest beneficiary.

At present, the global proven lithium reserves are 1400 tons, and the current annual output is about 35,000 tons. China's annual lithium production is about 2,000 tons, ranking fourth in the world. At present, the world has proven 148 tons of cobalt metal reserves, China has proven cobalt metal reserves of only 470,000 tons, the current annual production of China's cobalt mine is about 0.73 tons, accounting for only 6% of global production.

As the world's largest new energy vehicle market, its own resource exploitation naturally cannot meet the market demand. Relevant listed companies actively carry out global bureaus and buy minerals in countries with abundant reserves such as Congo and Australia. Along with the high growth of new energy vehicles, leading companies with forward-looking layouts in the field of resources naturally earned a lot of money.

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