China Automobile Association will open the White List of Power Battery White List light approval heavy supervision

A few days ago, Dongyang, executive vice president of the China Automobile Industry Association (hereinafter referred to as "China Automobile Association") announced at a forum that he will carry out the evaluation and release of the white list of automotive power batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. According to the "Notice on the Declaration of the White List of Automobile Power Battery and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Industry"(hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") published by the China Automobile Association, The China Automobile Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance of China will organize the implementation of the "Interim Administrative Measures for the White List of Automobile Power Battery and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Industry"(hereinafter referred to as "Administrative Measures"). The first batch of automotive power batteries and hydrogen fuel cell industry white list declaration work has also been officially launched.

It is reported that the "Management Measures" is a follow-up document of the previous "Standard Conditions for the Automobile Power Battery Industry"(hereinafter referred to as "Standard Conditions"). The enterprise applies on a voluntary basis to promote excellence. As subsidies recede, the white list will no longer be linked to subsidies, which, in the view of Fangjianhua, partner and president of the new energy car venture capital sub-fund of the National science and technology results conversion fund, means that regulation of the industry may not be binding.

However, on the other hand, from the "regulatory conditions" that emphasized the scale of enterprise production capacity in the past, it has changed to the "management measures" that now pay more attention to R&D input and certification standards, fully reflecting the changes in the management ideas of the competent authorities for the industry. As long as the industry consensus and scientific evaluation are reached, it can also promote China's power battery industry from the speed and extensive growth in the past to pursue high-quality development.

White list light approval heavy supervision

The importance of power batteries to the development of new energy vehicles is self-evident. Xinguobin, deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said: "Power batteries are the heart of electric vehicles and are the key to the development of the new energy vehicle industry. How far can new energy vehicles go, and ultimately depends on how far can power batteries go? In March 2015, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued and implemented the "Standards and Conditions." As of the last batch of catalogues released in 2016, a total of 57 companies entered the catalogue.

It is understood that the implementation of the "Standards and Conditions" has been recognized and valued by the industry, enterprises have a high level of enthusiasm for reporting, and local governments and investment organizations have used it as an important assessment condition for project establishment and capital support. Vehicle enterprises also use it as an important reference indicator for the parts and components supporting system, basically forming an industrial atmosphere for industrial standardization and development, with remarkable results. Among them, in promoting the progress of independent brand battery enterprises, the "standard conditions" play an extremely important role in supporting and encouraging.

According to relevant research data, in 2017, China's power battery shipments were 44.5GWh, up 44.5% year-on-year. The scale and shipments both maintained global leadership, the industrial ecology developed healthily, and the international competitive advantage increased steadily. At the same time, however, China's power battery industry has entered a new stage of development. On the one hand, industrial structure, manufacturing processes, technological innovation and many other aspects still need to be improved; on the other hand, international vehicle and power battery technology has rapidly emerged to domestic power. Battery companies have brought tremendous pressure, and the entire industry chain needs to work closely together to jointly overcome the key technical bottlenecks of power batteries.

In order to promote the progress and maturity of the battery industry, industry regulation management is also one of the key contents. At the end of last year, Xinguobin pointed out that in the future, the relevant management work of the industry will focus on supervision after the event and no longer put forward specific requirements for the production conditions and capabilities of enterprises. The China Automobile Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance needs to do relevant work. It is in this context that the Management Measures have emerged.

Business reporting incentives not linked to subsidies

Previously, the "Regulations" also emphasized voluntary declarations, but the enthusiasm of battery companies to declare actively. Liu Zhengyao, deputy director of the Research Institute of CITIC Guoan Mengli New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. pointed out that many power battery companies have actively declared their entry into the catalogue because of concerns about the stability of the policy: "Will future policies will enter the catalog as a vehicle announcement or On the request of the card, whether the enterprises that have not entered the catalogue will lose the qualification to sell in the market, we are not sure about this.” Then the subsidy policy will be completely quit in 2020, and the “Administrative Measures” will no longer be linked to the subsidy policy. Under the enthusiasm of battery companies to declare?

Companies that have long been committed to automotive power battery production and research and development will still actively declare, especially those that have previously entered the list of "standard conditions", according to the head of a battery company who did not want to be named. The person in charge told reporters that although the "Administrative Measures" has added requirements for enterprise integrity and compliance with relevant national standards for product coding and filing, it has also raised the standard for the proportion and number of R&D personnel. However, for most battery companies that have carried out research and development work, it is not difficult to reach the threshold of new or improved. Although it has not been included in the content of the document before, in fact, the work of corporate integrity and product code filing has long been carried out.

But as Mr Fangjianhua is concerned, the lack of binding force associated with subsidy policies has shifted from the Normative Conditions to the Regulatory Measures at the competition level. Or will further accelerate the development of Samsung and LG and other foreign battery companies in China, thus bringing more pressure and challenges to the independent brand battery companies. In fact, in the previous batch of "Road Motor Vehicle Product Information Bulletin", you can already see the presence of LG chemical battery products, and the number of new energy car companies that use foreign battery companies 'products has continued to increase.

The person in charge said that this year's independent battery companies are not too good, the price of upstream raw materials is still rising, and the decline in domestic subsidies has led to lower battery prices for vehicle companies, which has greatly reduced the profit margin of autonomous brand battery companies. If faced with the direct competition of foreign battery enterprises, some small and medium-sized independent brand battery enterprises will probably be unsustainable. 鈥淚n view of the size of foreign battery companies compared with domestic battery companies, it is highly likely that when going into the domestic market on a large scale, orders will be obtained by way of price reduction. This will have a huge impact on the independent brand battery companies. "The person in charge told the reporter.

Market liberalization is a foregone conclusion.

Fangjianhua pointed out that in order to make the "Management Measures" become a self-regulatory platform for the power battery industry and provide scientific reference for vehicle companies when choosing supporting power battery products, it is necessary to reach a consensus among the industry, especially power battery companies. And won the downstream vehicle company's recognition.

In addition, the evaluation and evaluation of power battery companies covers a wide range of aspects, including hardware conditions(equipment, scale, capital) and software conditions(R&D capabilities, manufacturing capabilities, management levels, supply chain strength), as well as product quality, especially operational effectiveness, Comprehensive, impartial and real-time evaluation is not an easy task.

Therefore, Fangjianhua suggested that in order to ensure that the evaluation work is scientific, reasonable and fair, more resources can be gathered, such as testing institutions, new energy vehicle regulatory platforms, and large new energy vehicle operating companies. We will jointly evaluate the self-regulatory white list of the power cell and hydrogen fuel cell industries.

With regard to autonomous brand battery companies, the person in charge said that although it is no longer linked to the subsidy policy or will lead to "more wolves," but the liberalization of the industry is the general trend, independent brand battery companies still need to work on their own capabilities and strength, speed up the technological revolutionary breakthrough. For example, accelerating the development process of lithium electricity upgrade, while achieving the goal of 350 watt-hours per kilogram of monomer and 260 watt-hours per kilogram of system, we will increase the research and development of new system batteries such as solid state batteries and strive to keep up with the international leading level.

In the near future, the new energy vehicle market in China will welcome more foreign-owned products. Foreign battery companies such as Panasonic, Samsung and LG, which already have strong brand influence in the international market, have a greater chance to localize production in China. "The impact of foreign brands is certain. We must be prepared in advance to continuously improve the market competitiveness of products and companies in order to ensure that they firmly occupy their own place in the domestic market. "The person in charge said.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.