Ningde times and Daimler hand in hand, byd and Daimler to discuss cooperation

With the success of ningde times and Daimler, the unicorn of the power battery industry has a new heavyweight oligopolies. German media reported that on May 2, local time, Daimler group procurement director SabineAngermann said that Daimler group has signed a contract with ningde times new energy technology co., LTD. (CATL), ningde times into the battery supply chain system of Daimler. In addition, Daimler CEO dieter zetsche recently told the media that in the future, both in China and globally, mercedes-benz electric cars will use Chinese battery cells. In march this year, after taking orders of power batteries for Volkswagen group's MEB project, the list of partners of ningde era has gathered yutong, saic, geely, BMW, Volkswagen and other traditional vehicle enterprises, as well as emerging car manufacturers such as nextev.

Now, with the addition of Daimler, the "circle of friends" in the ningde era has expanded again. Interestingly, why did Daimler choose the ningde era over its "old buddy" byd in the first place?

"It should be a comprehensive decision," said zhang zhiyong, an auto analyst. "the battery supplier's position in the industry, product quality and cost control are all factors."

According to public data, in 2017, the installed quantity of battery in ningde times reached 10.5Gwh, and the number of supporting models reached 390, accounting for nearly 30% of the market share.

At the same time, ningde times in passenger car power battery technology mainstream - lithium ternary has outstanding advantages. It is known that byd is one of the earliest automobile companies to carry out the research and development of lithium iron phosphate power battery. Since then, it has also adhered to the lithium iron phosphate route, while ningde times has always insisted on the parallel routes of lithium three yuan and lithium iron phosphate.

In contrast, ternary lithium battery has higher energy density and stronger endurance. After 2015, ternary lithium battery began to dominate the passenger car market, and this year's new energy vehicle subsidy policy, also greatly enhance the battery unit energy density requirements. Therefore, more familiar with the ternary lithium system, the layout of the earlier ningde era has become the preferred choice of many car companies.

In addition, because many car companies choose ningde era, the scale effect is also preliminary in the company. Data show that in 2015-2017, with the increase of customer orders and the cooperation of the whole industrial chain, the cost of ningde era has been further controlled. In the past three years, the price of power battery system in ningde era is 2.28 yuan /Wh, 2.06 yuan /Wh and 1.41 yuan /Wh, and the unit cost of its power battery system is 1.33 yuan /Wh, 1.13 yuan /Wh and 0.91 yuan /Wh, respectively. However, for well-known automobile companies like Daimler, when choosing partners, they must go through extensive investigation and research, as well as organizing project bidding and other activities, among which cost is an important indicator.

In response to this information, byd officials told the national business daily that "at present, cooperation with Daimler's battery business is also under discussion. In addition, byd's joint venture with Daimler, denso, USES byd's power batteries.

Details of the partnership were not disclosed.

It is understood that Daimler group will invest 10 billion euros in the research and development of new energy vehicles. By 2022, Daimler expects to launch more than 50 new energy vehicles, including more than 10 pure electric vehicles. Thus, Daimler's demand for battery quality and capacity is very large.

In fact, Daimler did not choose byd as its preferred battery partner, partly because of the latter's own business development. Liu yanlong, secretary general of the China chemical and physical power industry association, said it has to do with byd's closed-loop supply model. "In addition to power battery products, byd also has a vehicle business, which may involve competitive considerations."

The reporter learned that, all the time, the vertical system makes byd's battery basically self-production and self-marketing, for other vehicle manufacturers, byd is both battery suppliers will be competitors, and pure battery supply ningde era, and the vehicle enterprises do not have too much direct competition.

In the new market situation, byd is now also starting to accelerate the pace of transformation. Wang chuanfu, byd's chairman, said in March that "nokia should learn from its strategic mistakes and change the relatively closed business model of traditional carmakers".

It is understood that byd's transformation will be divided into two aspects: one is that byd's power battery technology line will be tilted from lithium iron phosphate to lithium ternary. Byd previously announced that from 2018, the company's passenger car units will be replaced by all three lithium batteries.

"The increase in the proportion of ternary lithium batteries is mainly due to the high energy density, low cost and national policy orientation." The above byd relevant person in charge told reporters.

Byd, on the other hand, will spin off its battery business separately. Earlier, at a public event, shen xi, vice general manager of byd's lithium battery business, said the spin-off of byd's power battery business has started and is expected to be completed in 2018 or early 2019. In 2022 or 2023, byd's power battery company will go public independently.

"Regarding the separation of the battery business, I hope to give the battery business group greater decision-making and management authority, so that it can develop independently and help establish a better incentive mechanism for employees." Above byd relevant person in charge said.

But in zhang's view, now, the power battery industry is still in the initial stage of competition, the battery business after the breakup of byd has opportunities. "Compared with the traditional fuel car market, the new energy market has a lot of room for development, the final outcome is still very difficult to determine."

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.