china's lithium battery industry has undergone tremendous changes: from lagging behind japan and south korea to moving globally
2024-10-04
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in 1999, 31-year-old zeng yuqun "went overseas" from a state-owned enterprise and co-founded atl (new energy technology co., ltd.) with liang shaokang, chen tonghua and others, specializing in consumer electronic batteries.
a year later, dr. qilu, who had studied and worked overseas for many years, returned to china as a professor at peking university and founded menguli with the support of citic group corporation.
in the context of the same era, lithium-ion secondary batteries, as a new type of high-energy-density green energy battery, are rapidly surpassing other secondary batteries such as nickel-metal hydride batteries and nickel-cadmium batteries, and have become the focus of major global technological innovation. japan's sony and panasonic took the lead in realizing the commercial use of lithium batteries in the field of consumer electronics. riding on the wave of consumer electronics such as mobile phones and mp3s sweeping the world, the global lithium battery industry has formed a pattern of competition between japan and south korea.
at the same time, china's lithium battery industry was in the ascendant. the production process, product performance, and industrial chain integrity were thousands of miles away from those of japan and south korea. key materials such as separators, electrolytes, and cathodes have been monopolized by foreign capital for a long time.
in 2001, mengguli founder qi luhe and his team realized the localization of cathode materials for small lithium-ion batteries, breaking my country's long-term dependence on imports of battery material products for the first time. because of this, qilu is known as the founder of china's lithium manganate and lithium cobalt oxide cathode materials.
in 2003, qilu developed a 100ah power lithium-ion secondary battery in the laboratory for the first time. in 2004, the beijing municipal science and technology commission decided to install the 400ah/400v battery pack developed by mengguli on buses for long-term testing to prepare for the operation of buses for the 2008 beijing olympics. in addition to mengguli, atl, which zeng yuqun co-founded, has also received some orders for olympic buses.
the 2008 beijing olympics was an important turning point for china's new energy vehicles. the 50 electric buses at the olympics verified the feasibility of using lithium batteries in automobiles.
in 2011, zeng yuqun simply plunged into the r&d and manufacturing of power batteries, and founded catl as his second venture. together with zeng yuqun and qi lu, more and more professionals are investing in entrepreneurship in the lithium battery industry. the magnificent picture of china's power battery industry has since begun.
spark
the germination of china's lithium battery industry was concentrated between 1994 and 1999. at that time, china's lithium battery industry was like a wasteland. however, the global migration wave of the lithium battery industry chain from europe and the united states to japan, south korea, taiwan, and mainland china has become clear. byd, the four giants in lithium battery consumption, , bak, atl and lishen were all born during that period. china's lithium battery industry showed a vibrant side, with patches of green growing on the grassland.
beijing's successful bid for the olympic games in july 2001 became an incentive to promote the development and growth of china's lithium battery and power battery industries. in the context of global emission reduction and environmental protection, the beijing olympics plans to use electric buses as operating vehicles because zero-emission electric buses are in line with the positioning of "technology olympics" and "green olympics". in september 2001, china's ministry of science and technology established a major electric vehicle project for the first time in the "863" plan.
in 2003, the beijing new materials development center (a public institution directly under the beijing municipal science and technology commission, later merged with the beijing new energy technology development center) where mo ke worked received a task - to investigate the status of china's lithium battery industry chain and prepare for the 50-year-old beijing 2008 olympic games. taiwan electric bus project is looking for battery suppliers and material suppliers. there is another requirement issued at the same time as the task: use domestic suppliers as much as possible. if there are none, foreign suppliers can be considered.
mo ke revealed that although the main suppliers of the 50 olympic electric buses were domestic battery manufacturers, most of the raw materials used were imported, which showed that the foundation of china's lithium battery and power battery industry was still very weak at that time.
however, 50 electric buses were successfully operated without failure during the beijing olympic games, which gave higher decision-makers confidence in developing electric vehicles. in 2009, the state council issued the "automotive industry adjustment and revitalization plan" to arrange funds to support the development of the new energy industry. in the same year, china released the "ten cities demonstration, promotion and application project of thousands of energy-saving and new energy vehicles" to provide financial subsidies for the production and promotion of new energy vehicles. it plans to launch 1,000 new energy vehicles in each of 10 cities for demonstration within 3 years. run. because the cities that signed up were so enthusiastic, more than 20 cities actually participated in the "ten cities, thousand vehicles" project.
mo ke believes that "ten cities, thousands of vehicles" is the first key node in the true sense of china's electric vehicles and power battery industry. although the main products are electric buses and sanitation trucks, it has brought tangible product demand. at the same time, let the industry see the government's determination, more companies and people have entered the field of automotive power batteries, and the situation of china's power battery industry beginning to emerge.
time continued to advance to 2011, with the rise of smartphones and tablets, global demand for lithium batteries still maintained high growth, but lithium battery companies were reshuffled with the rise of apple and the loss of market positions by nokia and motorola. affected by the low-price sales competition between china and south korea, japan's global lithium battery market share dropped from 65.3% in 2002 to 34% in 2011. after experiencing brutal growth in the first ten years, chinese and korean battery companies have become important poles with their low cost and high-quality customer support, forming a three-legged pattern of china, japan and south korea.
the core driving force for china's real rise to become a global hegemon in the lithium battery industry comes from the explosion of china's electric vehicles 10 years later.
great changes in 10 years
going back 12 years ago, the now world-famous power battery giant was just a little-known small company. catl has just been independent from the power battery department of new energy technology co., ltd. (atl) for a year, and has just received an order from bmw. this is its first big order in the true sense. although byd's first hybrid f3 dm has been officially launched for 4 years, it has not caused waves in the market and is even in the recovery period of dealers' withdrawal from the network. guoxuan hi-tech has just completed its shareholding reform...
but soon, china's new energy vehicle industry ushered in a spurt of development with policy support, and power batteries, the most critical component of new energy vehicles, took off.
yu qingjiao, secretary-general of the zhongguancun new battery technology innovation alliance, told reporters that the development of my country's power batteries in the past ten years has mainly benefited from national policies supporting the new energy vehicle industry. after 10 years of development, my country's power battery materials and equipment have also achieved a transformation from relying on imports from japan and south korea to independently providing them. a set of data provided by yu qingjiao to reporters shows that the localization level of my country's four major power battery materials and equipment has exceeded 90%.
according to yu qingjiao, my country's power batteries have experienced early policy instability and difficulty in implementation; the market is small, fragmented, and chaotic; raw material prices fluctuate dramatically; technical routes are vacillating; core technologies and equipment are controlled by others, etc., but in the end they all passed the policy support and independent innovation have slowly emerged from the gloom. "currently, my country's power battery industry has begun to lead the world."
data show that in 2017, global sales of new energy passenger vehicles were less than 1.2 million. by 2022, this number has exceeded 10 million, with a cumulative growth rate of more than 7 times. in 2017, global lithium-ion battery shipments were only 143.5gwh, of which automotive power battery shipments were 58.1gwh. by 2022, the overall global lithium-ion battery shipments have reached 957.7gwh, a cumulative increase of 5.7 times in five years. among them, automotive power battery shipments have grown particularly rapidly, with a cumulative growth of nearly 11 times in five years to 684.2gwh.
in recent years, the global power battery industry has staged a "three kingdoms killing" between china, japan and south korea. judging from the changes in vehicle installation volume data, from 2020 onwards, the market share of chinese power battery companies has continued to grow steadily, while the market shares of japanese and south korean battery companies have declined. has gradually declined, and the gap between the three is still likely to widen further.
in the first half of this year, japanese companies continued to decline; although korean companies were still growing year-on-year in absolute terms, the growth rate lagged behind chinese companies, which also led to a continued decline in their global market share. on the contrary, chinese companies' power battery market share continued to decline. keep expanding.
global power battery installation volume data released by sne research, a korean market research organization, shows that in the first half of this year, the power battery installation volume in the global market increased by 22.3% year-on-year, reaching 364.6gwh. among the top ten companies in the world in terms of power battery installed volume, there are six chinese companies, three korean companies, and one japanese company. the shortlisted chinese companies include catl, byd, sino-sino aviation, everview lithium energy, guoxuan hi-tech, and sunwoda, ranking first, second, fifth, eighth, ninth, and tenth respectively.
among them, catl’s power battery installed volume increased by 29.5% year-on-year to 137.7gwh, with a market share of 37.8%, firmly ranking first. previously, catl had topped the list of power battery installed vehicles for seven consecutive years; byd’s power battery installed vehicles the volume increased by 22% year-on-year to 57.5gwh, and the market share was the same as the same period last year at 15.8%.
while the scale is rapidly expanding, the independent innovation achievements of my country's power battery manufacturers are "flowering", such as catl kirin batteries, byd blade batteries, china innovation aviation soft square shell batteries, honeycomb energy dagger batteries, etc. with the arrival of the mass production stage of next-generation power battery technology, the energy density of power batteries is also expected to continue to accelerate.
wang yikai, global partner of at kearney and head of the automotive and industrial products business in greater china, once told china business news that korean power battery companies have taken the road to internationalization earlier than china and have stronger corporate management capabilities. a little. china's power batteries have more advantages in the industrial chain, market, and cost. overall, the protagonists of the future global market competition will still be china and south korea.
(this article comes from china business news)
