Why say power battery enterprise should adjust the development strategy in time

In 2017, China's new energy vehicle power battery total matching capacity of more than 37 billion watts, once again became the world's largest power battery application market. However, Liuyanlong, Secretary General of the China Chemical and Physical Power Industry Association, described the "ups and downs" in Nanjing on the 16th to describe the 2017 power battery industry in China. He pointed out that the cruel situation of industry competition began to reveal and gradually changed from a profiteering industry to a microprofit industry.

Increased competition in the industry: the market cake becomes larger and less cake companies

Fangkaizheng, director of power cell industry development research at the China automotive technology research center, said at the seminar that the total amount of new energy automotive power batteries in 2017 exceeded 37 billion watts, a year-on-year increase of more than 30 %. Among them, lithium iron phosphate batteries account for 50 %, and ternary material batteries account for 43 %.

The market cake is getting bigger, but the competition is getting fiercer.

"China has once again become the world's largest market for power cell applications. However, 2017 for our power battery industry, can be described as 'ups and downs'. Mr Liuyanlong said subsidies receding and new subsidies breaking the hotbeds of policy, the power cell industry entering the market transition period, industry competition began to show the cruel situation. On the one hand, the energy density of power batteries continues to climb, raising the threshold for products to enter the market and accelerating the elimination of enterprises; On the other hand, reducing costs has become a general trend. The price reduction pressure is carried upstream step by step, and the power battery has gradually changed from a profiteering industry to a profiteering industry.

"With the deep adjustment of national policies, the concentration of power battery industry will continue to increase." Liu Yanlong pointed out that the top five companies in 2017 will have more than 223 billion watt-hours, accounting for more than 60%; the top 20 enterprises will have more than 32 billion. Watts, accounting for 87%. The first-line enterprises in the industry gradually eroded market share through technological advantages, while the low-end production capacity of second- and third-tier enterprises faced a crisis of being eliminated.

Fang Kaizheng's analysis also supports this trend: in terms of the number of supporting companies, the number of companies in 2017 was significantly reduced to less than 100 compared with 150 in 2016. In particular, the number of manufacturers of lithium iron phosphate batteries is half that of 2016.

In the future, competition may be more brutal.

Mr Liuyanlong says it is an indisputable fact that subsidies will recede further in 2018. Under the new policy situation, the actual demand for the further improvement of the energy density of the system has made it more urgent for the new energy vehicle factory to upgrade the technology of the power battery company.

Fang Kaizheng also mentioned that the power battery enterprise's product technology level and performance has improved significantly. Intelligent manufacturing is cementing the foundation. There has been significant progress in cost reduction.

Take the new products released by the workshop sponsor Tafair New Energy Technology as an example. The 135Ah ternary square aluminum shell battery for the passenger car and special vehicle market has an energy density of 215Wh/kg and a cycle life of 3,000 times. The lithium iron phosphate 115Ah battery for the energy storage and special vehicle market has a cycle life of 10,000 cycles.

Liu Yanlong believes that from the current industry pattern, it can be inferred that in the future, new energy vehicles and power battery industries will concentrate most of their production capacity on a few large enterprises. For other new energy auto companies and power battery companies with different production capacity, the future market competition will be even more cruel.

Enterprise strategy urgently needs to be adjusted: from capacity expansion to quality improvement

In front of the power battery enterprises, there are both positive market expansion, but also more fierce competition challenges. What are the priorities and means of development? These are questions that need to be answered.

The trend of power cells toward high energy density seems irreversible. Some experts are worried about this.

Recently, energy density has been stressed too much, says Wangzidong, director of the National 863 electric vehicle testing center for major dedicated power batteries. In fact, safety, longevity and low costs are the issues that need to be addressed without subsidies in the future. In 2017, the production and sales of new energy vehicles grew by more than 50 %, but the growth in power battery production did not keep pace. The same is expected for the next three years. The improvement of technology should be comprehensive and not only pursue energy indicators.

Linyi, a senior auto industry expert, believes safety is the number one concern for vehicle and battery companies. But from the market point of view, the biggest problem is mileage. New energy vehicles have a good future, but there are still many difficulties on the way to development.

Liuyanlong is the company's "support": whether it is to integrate various resources with upstream and downstream companies, reorganize with large companies, or enter other more subdivided markets, from now on, some power battery companies should begin to consider and plan.

The relevant person in charge of Tafel revealed that it will carry out in-depth cooperation in the whole industry chain, including raw material development, performance verification, supply management, battery research and development, battery modules, finished products for electric vehicle energy storage, battery ladder utilization and used batteries. Safe recycling, recycling of raw materials, etc.

Finally, Liu yanlong stressed that domestic power battery enterprises will face the full range of competition from domestic and foreign companies. Enterprises should take the initiative to change the way of development: they should move from capacity expansion to quality and efficiency, and take the road of differentiated and high-end development.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.