National Power Battery Innovation Center Introduction

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized the establishment of the National Power Battery Innovation Center (hereinafter referred to as the “Innovation Center”), hoping to improve the domestic power battery technology level as soon as possible through the cooperation of scientific research units, institutions and enterprises.

Before the establishment of the Innovation Center, there was a power battery research and development platform in China, namely Guolian Automotive Power Battery Research Institute Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Guolian Research Institute”). The National League Research Institute was established in September 2014. It is positioned as the research and development of advanced power batteries, the transformation of results and industry services. The main task is to promote the upgrading of China's power battery industry through technological innovation. The platform was established by nine companies, namely Beijing Nonferrous Metals Research Institute, Tianjin lishen, FAW, Dongfeng, Changan, SAIC, BAIC, Brilliance and Guangzhou Automobile.

Why do existing research and development platforms need to build innovation centers? What is the relationship between the two? In this regard, the reporter interviewed relevant experts and business leaders.

National Power Battery Innovation Center is moving forward in doubt

■Initiation of the Innovation Center has a reason

It is understood that the Innovation Center is basically composed of the team of the National League Research Institute. On this basis, the two units of Ningde Times New Energy and Huading New Power Fund have been added, with a contribution of 40 million Yuan and 270 million Yuan respectively, becoming a new shareholder. The extension of the Innovation Center is more than 50 units of China Power Battery Innovation Alliance, including battery companies, battery materials companies, battery equipment companies, universities and research institutes.

For the reason of establishing an innovation center, Baiqing Xiong, vice president of Beijing Nonferrous Metals Research Institute and chairman of Guolian Automotive Power Battery Research Institute, explained to reporters that this is to make the platform's institutional mechanism more flexible and also increase the battery enterprise discourse. Among the 9 shareholders of the National League Research Institute, 7 car companies and 1 battery company, the battery company's right to speak is too small, for this purpose introduced the battery company Ningde Times New Energy as a new shareholder. Also consider Beijing as a central enterprise non-ferrous metals The research institutes account for 50% of the total. In order to avoid excessive rigidity of the system, it is not conducive to development. Government funds and social funds have been introduced to spread the equity to make the organizational structure more reasonable."

■The work goal is ambition

Baiqing Xiong told reporters that the positioning of the Innovation Center is consistent with the National League Research Institute. In terms of R&D, the Innovation Center has a clear plan for the R&D of the entire industry chain, including battery materials, individual cells, and battery modules. The current research is on battery positive and negative materials, battery cells, battery packs, battery testing and basic frontier issues.

In terms of division of labor, Beijing Nonferrous Metal Research Institute and Research Institute are responsible for battery materials research; universities, research institutes and battery companies conduct battery cell research, battery packs require vehicle companies to participate; battery companies are responsible for commercial applications. .

In Baiqing Xiong 's view, from laboratory to commercial application, an important part of the development of complete manufacturing technology is needed. The innovation center has a complete set of solutions for technology conversion. At present, the R&D platform has established a “prototype miniature factory”, including a single-cell core pilot production line with an internationally-advanced equipment level of 200 million watt-hours per year. The annual production capacity of the advanced cathode material pilot line is 1,000 tons. “Magnification 5 to 10 times on this scale is a mass production plant that can output complete industrial technology, including complete manufacturing technology, process specifications, complete quality management system and even personnel training.” Baiqing Xiong said.

Baiqing Xiong told reporters that the ultimate goal of the Innovation Center is to build a “prototype miniature factory”. The final research and development results will adopt the technology transfer method, and the investment shareholders will enjoy the priority use rights, followed by the alliance members. The proceeds from technology transfer will be distributed according to the proportion of equity, and intellectual property rights will be shared, but not for free use. Shareholders can obtain the right to use at a more favorable price. In addition, the Innovation Center will give priority to the shareholders' mandated research and development tasks.

According to the plan, in the next five years, the core of the Innovation Center - Guolian Research Institute will further increase investment, plans to invest 2 billion Yuan to build a collaborative innovation of power battery with R & D and design capabilities, test and verification capabilities, pilot incubation capabilities and industry service capabilities. Platform, and will focus on investing 3 billion Yuan to implement lithium battery upgrade projects. By 2020, the National Association of Research Institutes will comprehensively break through and master the complete set of manufacturing technology for the new generation of lithium-ion power batteries with a specific energy of 300-350Wh/kg. It is expected to drive more than 20 billion Yuan of industrial investment and support the industry to form a new generation of power battery products. The scale reached 20 billion Yuan / year.

Miao Wei, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, previously put forward clear hopes and requirements for the National Power Battery Innovation Center. After 1 to 2 years of trial operation, the Power Battery Innovation Center can explore the formation of better organizational mechanisms, operational management models and investment. At the same time, as the first of the five major projects of "Made in China 2025", it is hoped that by exploring and forming an effective development model and path, the National Power Battery Innovation Center can provide demonstration and reference for the construction of other innovation centers.

■Enterprises and experts have doubts

To further understand the situation of the Innovation Center, the reporter called the shareholder companies to find out how they would use the platform, but the results made the reporter somewhat surprised.

The reporter has called the new and old shareholders Ningde Times and BAIC Group. The relevant responsible persons of the two companies seem to know little about the innovation center, and they all know the situation of the innovation platform first.

As the shareholders of the company did not know much about the situation or were inconvenient to comment, the reporter turned to the opinions of the heads and experts of the peripheral enterprises. The reporter called Mr. Liu, the person in charge of a battery company, and he bluntly told reporters what the intention of setting up the innovation center was. He did not understand. He believes that for products involving people's livelihood and security, the state can adopt a compulsory approach to control. Power batteries are industrial products with a very high degree of marketization. This approach is similar to the operation mode of the planned economy period and is not conducive to market competition. "Because all enterprises have their own interests, it is difficult to truly achieve the convergence of interests, and it is very likely that a situation of 'union and no alliance' will be formed." Mr. Liu said.

I can't understand more than the person in charge of this company. An industry expert also said that he could not understand the reporter. This expert raised several questions to the reporter. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has been studying in the battery field for many years. After the establishment of the Innovation Center, how do the two work? Enterprises such as BYD and Ningde have been “deep-working” in the battery field for many years. Will the R&D base and capabilities of the Innovation Center be stronger than these companies?

At present, there is still doubt in the industry about whether the innovation center will work. It is undeniable that the purpose of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to form an innovation center is to hope that enterprises and scientific research units can work together more closely and cooperate with innovation. However, many people in the industry are undecided about whether this model can achieve the expected results, but it also expresses the hope that the innovation center can quickly find a suitable development path and can effectively promote the development of China's power battery technology.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.