How the Big Three dominate the power battery industry: Panasonic / LG Chemical / Samsung SDI

This article is organized and published by WeChat public number industrial intelligence (ID: robotinfo), please indicate!

At present, the international auto giants have accelerated the strategy of new energy vehicles, which in turn will indirectly promote the explosive development of power batteries, which has become the consensus of the market and industry.

The global power battery company has experienced more than 10 years of development and entered a period of rapid development and technology precipitation. Among them, Panasonic, South Korea's LG Chem and Samsung SDI companies have the greatest influence in the industry. How do they achieve the world's top? The author will analyze the development history, industrial layout, product technology, vehicle customer relationship and market support, supplier chain and other dimensions, hoping to give some reference to domestic automotive power battery.

Viewpoint 1: R&D strength? The right partner → the key to success

From the development process, most of the international power battery companies have accelerated the development and accumulation of power batteries since the beginning of the 20th century. At that time, the power battery industry was still in the primary development stage, and its investment, R&D, and technical research were all high barrier products, resulting in fewer power battery suppliers, and relatively concentrated power battery research and development and power battery capacity.

Later, due to the influence of multiple factors such as energy and environment, the new energy automobile industry began to develop rapidly. Power battery companies have increased their cooperation with vehicle companies, technology companies and parts companies, such as Panasonic and Tesla, LG Chem and Hyundai, Samsung SDI to acquire MBSS and established a stable and long-term relationship with BMW. . It is precisely because of the continuous trust and procurement support given by the vehicle manufacturers that the power battery companies in the initial stage have successfully laid a solid foundation.

Viewpoint 2: Industrial layout? New energy vehicle market → Looking for space for releasing capacity

From the perspective of industrial layout, the development of power batteries needs the support of the new energy vehicle market, in order to effectively release the capacity demand and realize the closed-loop cycle of R&D-production-sales.

At present, Panasonic, LG Chem, and Samsung SDI have achieved base layout in countries such as China, the United States, Japan, and Korea. It is precisely because Tesla, Chevrolet Volt and other new energy vehicles have a good market environment and demand in the United States that Panasonic was released. Battery capacity demand has won the development opportunities for Panasonic batteries.

Viewpoint 3: Technology Routes? Product Performance → Forming Core Competence

From a technical point of view, the current ternary technology route for power batteries has been confirmed, and the ternary cathode material and graphite anode are the international mainstream routes. The choice of technical route is crucial, and AESC, a well-known power battery company, has reached the edge of being eliminated because of the wrong choice of the positive route.

Panasonic battery has been transformed into 21700 by using NCA positive electrode material, which has increased the energy density of power battery. It has won strong market competitiveness by relying on continuous technological innovation and product innovation. LG Chem uses a large number of chemical materials product line synergy. The development of lithium batteries, through the mass production to effectively reduce costs, has the dual advantages of quality and price; Samsung SDI battery field involved in a wide range, although actively follow up but not focused on automotive power battery projects, the company's NCM and NCA products and LG chemistry exist A certain gap. According to Apple's founder Steve Jobs, the creation of a long-lasting company requires great products, which also shows that the core competitiveness of power batteries lies in the quality and performance of the products themselves. Please add industrial intelligence to the public micro-signal: robotinfo Ma Yun are paying attention

Viewpoint 4: Vehicle relationship? Market support Market size → Seize the commanding heights of the future market

The output and purchase volume of vehicle manufacturers determine the amount of power battery, but since the power battery is the core component of new energy vehicles, the cost ratio is over 40%, and the power battery investment is large, R&D and technical barriers are high, and certification. Long time, this has led to the trend of bundled cooperation between power battery companies and vehicle manufacturers.

At present, there are two major types of power battery companies: strategic customers and cooperative customers. For example, Panasonic and Tesla, Samsung SDI and BMW form a long-term stable strategic partnership, while LG Chem has excellent product quality, sufficient output and relatively low price. And become a partner of most car companies. Obviously, the establishment of a “whole vehicle-power battery” relationship is very important.

In recent years, Japan and South Korea's power battery manufacturers' shipments have increased significantly. In 2016, Panasonic, LG Chemical, and Samsung SDI shipments accounted for 76% of foreign markets. At present, new energy vehicles have not yet formed a large-scale market, and power battery companies have adopted low-price strategies to occupy the market, and competition has become increasingly hot.

Due to the wide variety of power battery products, various battery companies have a wide variety of product forms and types, which have resulted in an "eighteen martial arts" to increase market share. Taking LG Chem as a typical example, the first stepped soft pack battery and hexagonal soft pack battery were designed according to market demand, which meets the requirements of different models for the shape and size of power batteries, and has accumulated many customers. Therefore, it is a top priority for enterprises to improve market support and occupy market share, so that power battery companies can seize the bigger market “cake” in the future.

Viewpoint 5: Parts supply? Core parts and global procurement → Guarantee quality and capacity supply

With the development of the power battery industry, the globalization of parts supply will become a trend, and the homogenization characteristics of products will become more and more obvious.

On the one hand, Panasonic, LG Chemical, Samsung SDI and other companies strengthen the cultivation of international material supply chain to continuously reduce costs, on the other hand, strengthen the self-control ability of core components, and increase product profit margins by differentiated competition, while further increasing production capacity ability and product quality assurance.

Based on the above analysis, the development of top power battery companies is about to pay attention to the "protracted war". Under the premise of grasping the trend, we always adhere to the concept of cooperation and win-win, plan a reasonable strategic layout, continue to promote technology research and development and innovation, and intensively cultivate the industry market. Continuously optimize the supply chain and win the influence of today's industry through sufficient investment. The successful experience is worth learning.

Stones from other hills can learn. As China's new energy auto industry policy incentives gradually decline, and local power battery companies will participate in international competition, combined with China's actual situation, relevant battery companies can refer to the following recommendations:

· Strengthen R&D cooperation and technical research with vehicle manufacturers, and carry out in-depth cooperation in innovation. The premise is to ensure the consistency of cooperation objectives and the persistence of cooperation time, such as the strategic cooperation relationship between Panasonic and Tesla in the past 10 years.

· Accelerate the concentration of the power battery industry, optimize product structure and actively regulate the dynamic balance between demand and supply. On this basis centralized industry resources to achieve a new breakthrough in ternary lithium batteries and all solid lithium batteries.

· To maintain the competitiveness of differentiated products of enterprises, it is necessary to improve the self-control ability of core materials of power batteries, and at the same time integrate global resources and take the development path of “quality, quantity, price and brand”.

Who will laugh at the final battle of the power battery cathode material?

New energy vehicles are the direction of automobile development. Power batteries are the heart of new energy vehicles. Their technological level and industrial development are of great significance for the large-scale application of electric vehicles. With the increasing concentration of the power battery industry and the gradual maturity of the technology route, the future power battery will develop toward a safer, longer life, and faster charging speed. Please add industrial intelligence to the public micro-signal: robotinfo Ma Yun are paying attention

At present, there are many technical routes for power battery cathode materials, mainly focusing on lithium iron phosphate, ternary materials lithium cobalt oxide and lithium manganate. Then with the continuous advancement of technology, which kind of cathode material technology route is in the power battery Is the field more competitive?

Current status of industrialization of power battery cathode materials

Lithium iron phosphate

Due to its good safety, long cycle life, abundant raw material resources and no environmental pollution, lithium iron phosphate has been sought after by many power battery manufacturers headed by BYD. The success of China's lithium iron phosphate technology route is unexpected for foreign mainstream power battery manufacturers.

There are many advantages of lithium iron phosphate, but the disadvantages are also obvious. In addition to the extremely poor cycle performance at low temperatures, the main drawback is its low conductivity and tap density, and its energy density is only 120-150 wh/kg. At the end of 2016, the state introduced subsidies for power batteries according to energy density, which may hinder the development of lithium iron phosphate power batteries. However, the use of lithium iron phosphate on electric buses is irreplaceable, and the market space is still broad in the future.

At present, battery manufacturers using lithium iron phosphate include BYD, Peking University First, Shenzhen Water Code Hefei, Guoxuan and so on. In the future, lithium iron phosphate will develop in the direction of increasing energy density. It is conceivable to use additives such as graphene and carbon nanotubes to increase the rate capacity, or to increase the voltage with lithium manganese iron phosphate, thereby increasing the energy density by 15-20%.

Lithium acid and lithium nickelate

Lithium cobaltate is the first lithium battery cathode material for commercial application. The first generation of commercial lithium ion battery is the lithium cobalt oxide lithium ion battery that SONY introduced to the market in 1990, and then it has been widely used in consumer products application.

However, the biggest disadvantage of lithium cobaltate is that the mass specific capacity is low, and the theoretical limit is 274 mAh/g. For structural stability considerations only 137 mAh/g can be achieved in practical applications. At the same time, due to the relatively low reserves of cobalt on the earth, the cost of lithium cobalt oxide is high, and it is difficult to spread in large scale in the field of power batteries.

Similar to lithium cobaltate, the ideal lithium nickelate is a hexagonal layer structure of α-NaFeO2 type. The theoretical capacity of lithium nickelate cathode material is 275mAh/g, which can reach 180-200mAh/g, and the average lithium insertion potential is about 3.8V. . Compared with lithium cobaltate, nickel has a larger reserve than cobalt and is relatively cheaper. However, lithium nickelate is difficult to synthesize and has poor cycle performance. Pure phase lithium nickelate is not practical.

Comparison of six indicators of some power battery electrode materials

Lithium manganese oxide

Lithium manganate is very close to the currently used lithium cobalt oxide and ternary materials. Its battery production process is very mature. The power battery production line is basically compatible with the existing production line. In particular, Japan and South Korea intend to use 18650 type batteries to form a power battery module. The technical idea makes the production of lithium manganate power battery easier to achieve.

The biggest disadvantage of lithium manganate is its poor temperature cycling performance, but it also has its own unique advantages compared to lithium iron phosphate.

(1) The volumetric specific energy of lithium manganate is better than lithium iron phosphate

The capacity of lithium manganate is about 25% lower than that of lithium iron phosphate, but its voltage is 15% higher than lithium iron phosphate, and the compaction density of lithium manganate is about 40% higher. Therefore, the volume specific energy of lithium manganate is higher than that of iron phosphate, lithium 25-30%.

(2) The consistency of lithium manganate is better than that of lithium iron phosphate

Since the lithium manganate product does not contain carbon, the performance parameters of the product are stable and the consistency is very favorable for the production of the power battery.

Spinel structure of lithium manganate

At present, Sonny of Japan, China CITIC Guoan, Suzhou Xingheng and other enterprises are developing and producing lithium manganate power batteries, and there will be a good market in the future in low-speed electric vehicles and electric vehicles with low cruising range.

Ternary material

The ternary materials are mainly nickel-cobalt lithium aluminate (NCA) and nickel-cobalt-manganate (NCM). Among them, NCA is the material with the highest specific capacity among commercial cathode materials.

Nickel cobalt cobalt aluminate (NCA)

Because Co and Ni have similar electronic configurations, similar chemical properties, and small differences in ion size, lithium nickelate and lithium cobaltate can be equivalently substituted to form a continuous solid solution and maintain a layered α-NaFeO 2 structure, in order to obtain A more stable high-nickel solid solution material, in addition to the addition of cobalt, can further improve the stability and safety of the material, thus forming a lithium cobalt aluminum aluminate ternary material.

Although NCA has a high specific capacity, its shortcomings are also obvious. The future development trend is to develop high-nickel low-cobalt NCA to reduce cost and increase capacity; and to develop high-pressure real NCA to increase the volume ratio; in addition, the coating process is used to reduce NCA, sensitivity to humidity.

At present, the United States Tesla is using NCA cathode material power battery, the technology is in the leading position. Japan's 18650 batteries with NCA and silicon carbon anode combination has a capacity of up to 3500mAh and a cycle life of more than 2000 times. Various indications are that NCA is positive. Materials are highly competitive in power battery applications.

Lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM)

Nickel-cobalt-manganese hydride (NCM) ternary material has the advantages of high specific capacity, long cycle life, good safety and low price, but it also has the disadvantages of relatively low platform and low initial charge and discharge efficiency.

Currently, nickel-cobalt-manganese hydride (NCM) is mainly used in South Korea LG, Zhejiang Weihong Power and Zhuhai Yinlong. In the future, the development trend of NCM is mainly to produce low-cobalt layered ternary materials. The main reason is that cobalt is a scarce resource. Reducing the amount can reduce the cost; the other direction is to develop a high-nickel layered ternary material. Although the high-nickel system is difficult to synthesize and is prone to lithium-nickel mixing, the increase in nickel content can significantly increase the gram capacity, and the high-nickel system is the power, one of the ideal materials for batteries. In addition, NCM should also pay attention to the problem of water absorption of materials.

At this stage, some domestic manufacturers adopt the technical route of ternary NCM/lithium titanate anode combination to avoid the problem of poor safety and cycleability caused by the formation of lithium dendrites that may exist in the carbon anode. The power battery produced by this module has the characteristics of good safety, high charge-discharge rate and long cycle life (up to 5000-10000 times), and thus has attracted much attention in the field of power batteries.

To sum up

Policy trends, the future power battery industry market is broad, the average annual growth rate of new energy vehicle power battery market in the three years can reach about 50%, but the entire battery industry is fiercely competitive, industry integration is continuing, the power battery market demand will further Concentrate on the dominant companies.

In terms of technical routes, the current cathode materials for commercial lithium-ion power batteries are mainly lithium manganate (LMO), lithium iron phosphate (LFP), and ternary materials (NMC). Each material has its own advantages and disadvantages, and it has its own Application areas and market needs. Among them, power tools, HEVs and electric bicycles are the main application areas of LMO. New energy public transportation buses and taxis will still be dominated by LFP. In the future, the most likely situation in the field of power batteries will be that lithium iron phosphate and ternary materials will go hand in hand.

Development Status of Ternary Lithium Cathode Materials

With the completion of new capacity production, the power battery with ternary lithium material as the positive electrode has replaced the power battery with lithium iron phosphate as the positive electrode in the past. As a result of such a change, the cobalt, which is the most elastic material in the ternary lithium material, has risen in price as mentioned in the article I mentioned earlier. But what exactly is the ternary lithium material, what is NCM, NCA, and what is 111, 532, 622, and 811, and how will it develop in the future, please listen to me slowly.

By definition, a ternary material refers to a material consisting of three chemical components (elements), components (simple substances and compounds) or parts (parts). In the positive electrode material of a lithium battery, it generally refers to a material having a chemical composition of LiNixXyCozO2. Where X is Mn is NCM, and X is Al, which means NCA. The so-called 111, 523, 622, and 811 all refer to the ratio of the three numbers x, y, and z in the NCM material. For example, x:y:z in 622 is equal to 6:2:2, and its chemical composition is LiNi0. .6Mn0.2Co0.2O2. In fact, from the perspective of the microstructure of materials, NCA and NCM are very similar, so they have many sub-species of different element ratios similar to NCM, but LiNi0.8Al0, which is currently used by Panasonic, is currently the most industrially scaled manufacturing. 05Co0.15O2, so the final NCA evolved into a special reference to it.

It can be seen that the so-called ternary materials actually refer to a large class of materials then the problem will come. Which one of them is the future development direction? From the current popular seller reports, everyone The development expectation of NCM is relatively consistent, the earliest is 111, followed by 532, and then there are many 622 leading companies to the 622, the future will become 811. This trend is due to the fact that Ni and Co are the main active materials in the NCM material, and Mn is only added to maintain the stability of the material during charge and discharge, in which the mobility of lithium ions is weak, compared with Ni. The Co voltage is higher and the capacity is larger. Therefore, in order to continuously increase the specific capacity of the material, the development trend is inevitably toward more and more Ni, and the direction of Mn is decreasing, so it is naturally from 111 to 523 to 622, finally to 811 (as shown in Table 1).

Table 1. Specific capacity of various NCM materials

Source: "Development Trend of Cathode Materials for High Energy Density lithium ion batteries"

But for the future NCM or NCA, the views in these reports are quite different. However, whether it is wrong or not even the industry is difficult to draw a consistent conclusion. In fact, NCA and NCM are two very similar lithium-electrode cathode materials, all developed from lithium cobalt oxide—where Ni and Co are the main electroactive atoms, Al and Mn, which only function to stabilize the material structure. Therefore, whether it is NCM or NCA, who is the key in the future depends on who has higher Ni content after industrial application. There is no difference between the two technical routes. Even NCM may have better stability due to Mn, the advantage of security.

Source: High-tech lithium battery

However, as far as the current situation is concerned, the Ni content of the positive electrode material NCA in the industrialized application of Tesla battery has reached 80%, and the latest experimental variety of Sumitomo has exceeded 85%, while NCM can be higher than NCA. The next 811 is still far from being industrialized. It can be seen that the market for the highest-end capacity lithium battery will be mainly the NCA route for a period of time. However, due to the backwardness of NCA manufacturing technology and supply chain, it is difficult to produce large-scale NCA battery capacity in the short term. If we want to compete with Japan and South Korea, I am afraid that it can only be placed on the domestic technology leading company at 811.

Fortunately, the technical difficulties of 622 have been broken. When the positive electrode materials companies such as Shengsheng and Shanshan have the capacity to supply 622 materials, the national core enterprises such as Guoxuan and CATL have already realized the industrial application of 622 batteries. Then, in the future one or two years later, it is not entirely impossible to let the 811 enter the car. Therefore, for investors who are deeply involved in this field, in the context of the structural overcapacity and the goal of achieving 300Wh/kg energy density in 2020, it is particularly important to find such an investment target with the potential to realize 811 industrialization technologies.

The original article submitted for submission will be awarded 30% of the appreciation within three days from the date of publication (the amount of appreciation will be 20 yuan to be rewarded), and the appreciation after three days will be regarded as donation; the reward will be granted for seven working days rear.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.