How should China's power lithium battery industry break the current foreign technology monopoly?

Battery manufacturing equipment technology gap

At present, the development speed of domestic power batteries has surpassed that of foreign countries, but the manufacturing equipment paired with batteries still has a large gap with foreign manufacturing equipment. This includes equipment accuracy, speed, reliability, unmanned, visual, information, and so on, which has a certain relationship with the overall level of industrialization in China.

According to the survey conducted by the OF week Industrial Research Center, in the process of lithium battery production, there are several stages of equipment that have not yet been fully localized, such as coating machines, winding equipment, lithium battery formation, and equipment for dividing containers. Although there are manufacturers in China, there are very few companies that have mastered the relevant technologies or technologies to achieve first-class standards. The level of substitution in these three Chinese productions is relatively high. Even so, compared with foreign manufacturers, there is still a big gap.

Taking the coating machine as an example, domestic coating machines are in urgent need of improvement in both accuracy and speed. The average coating speed of imported equipment is about 80m/min, although Shenzhen Yakang (acquired by Wintech) will be in 2016. The coating speed of 100m /min, the world's first zero-speed butt double-sided adhesive slit extrusion coating machine, but the average level of domestic equipment is 40-50m/min. There is still a big gap.

Due to the backwardness of domestic manufacturing equipment, battery manufacturers in the pursuit of better battery quality, when choosing production equipment, often directly choose to purchase equipment of higher international level. Reducing the R&D investment in manufacturing equipment technology, relying on money to buy equipment, the core technology is still in the hands of foreign equipment manufacturers.

In the case of unstable external environment, it is particularly necessary for domestic enterprises to carry out research and development and manufacturing of special-scale and unified planning equipment through the development of large-scale and continuous manufacturing technologies and equipment. On the one hand, in response to emergencies, once a black swan incident occurs, foreign companies sever supply equipment, at least some of their own equipment is available; on the other hand, upgrading equipment levels can also improve the performance of China's power lithium battery, and stand in the foreign crowd. It is also an effective measure to achieve "Made in China 2025" and truly support China's response to peripheral technological pressures. Therefore, China's lithium-ion enterprises or equipment manufacturing enterprises should increase investment in research and development, adhere to independent intellectual property rights, and independent innovation. When designing and manufacturing equipment, we should also make full use of modeling and simulation analysis, pay attention to mechanism research, and make full use of upstream and downstream resources, actively and effectively communicate, clarify development goals, and fully consider the cost in the whole life cycle.

Power lithium battery automation level is low

At present, the production scale of the power battery system has a certain space compared with the number of batteries required for the 5 million new energy vehicles in 2020. The main reason is that from the market point of view, from the second half of 2015, China's power battery system began to explode, and the domestic power battery product design and manufacturing process technology upgrade did not keep up with the development speed, especially the battery module. In terms of key production processes, design and verification are not fully improved, and the pass rate is low, and it is difficult to achieve online automatic testing and quality tracking. Therefore, the production of power battery systems is still dominated by semi-automation, and only a few battery manufacturers have realized the automated production of power battery modules or modules. In addition, the early market demand for more types of products, different car companies frequently change the battery, resulting in insufficient scale effect, which is the main reason for the company did not invest in automated production equipment.

Take the power battery PACK system as an example. Analysts at the OF week Industrial Research Center believe that the level of automation of PACK is not high, and it is related to China's national conditions. The layout of China's power battery industry is closely related to the layout and geography of the new energy vehicle industry park. Therefore, when the battery design PACK is often modified according to different vehicle models, different cores and different circuit designs are differentiated. The requirements have created difficulties in automation design. As a result, enterprises cannot use fixed one or several modes when performing battery PACK, and often need to adjust according to the battery demand of the vehicle.

On the one hand, with the stable cooperation between car companies and battery companies, after the battery design is mature, production specifications and scale, the automation process of lithium battery manufacturers is expected to accelerate; on the other hand, "process detection and information management" Gradually deepening the core production management methods and intensifying product competition will force companies to prioritize quality control, which will also prompt enterprises to accelerate the process of automated production.

Industry chain or cross-industry collaboration is still not close

There is a lack of assistance between different types of participating entities and enterprises in the upstream and downstream of China's power battery industry chain. In terms of improving the energy density of the power battery, it is difficult and ineffective to improve the energy density of the battery by means of the anode material R&D companies alone.

If the power battery company can cooperate with the upstream raw material enterprises, the difficulty in increasing the energy density of the battery will be reduced, and the effect will become significant. The reality is that in addition to Ningde era, BYD and other lithium giants can form a close cooperative development relationship with upstream raw material companies, and the cooperation between the remaining 200 lithium-ion companies and anode materials companies and other battery materials companies. Not enough. In addition, the participation of companies such as BMS and battery pack system PACK is particularly important in the process of grouping of batteries.

In addition, in some specific aspects of the power battery industry, cross-industry and cross-field collaboration is very urgent. The power battery enters the end of life, and the utilization of waste batteries and waste recycling have become new air outlets. In the process of ladder utilization, it involves multiple fields and multiple industries, including the coding in the production process of power batteries, the use of scrapped new energy vehicles, and the use of used batteries in electric power, energy storage and material recycling. Therefore, in the entire life cycle of power batteries, more industries are needed to cooperate in a wider field. However, so far, the cooperation of China's power battery life cycle is in its infancy, the relevant regulations are not perfect, and the cooperation between enterprises is not close.

Therefore, in the lithium battery industry chain, battery companies, BMS R&D companies, battery pack systems PACK companies, equipment companies, testing centers and vehicle companies need more joint development, strengthen supply chain coordination, and give full play to their respective advantages, to promote strengths and avoid weaknesses. In addition, cross-domain outside the industrial chain is also the profit point of the power battery industry chain. If cross-industry cooperation such as gradient utilization and material recycling can be formed, it will undoubtedly create a wider moat for the power battery industry chain, and the resist external risk is more favorable.

Long squatting in the hand, you can shackle the dragon. In the current situation that China's manufacturing industry is experiencing foreign countries, especially the economic resilience of the United States, only by mastering key technologies and equipment and building a wider moat around the industrial chain can we not be restrained and resist external risks. Confidence is more expensive than gold. Under the existing power lithium battery scale and market conditions, we are confident that in the near future, China's power lithium battery industry can break the current foreign technology monopoly and take the initiative in its own hands, not only to do Big, more to be strong.

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