Data from the Power Battery Application Branch show that in 2021, the installed capacity of domestic power batteries will be close to 159.6GWh. Among them, the installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate battery is 81.7GWh, exceeding that of ternary Lithium Battery 77.6GWh, and the proportion of Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery has exceeded 51%. Entering the year of 2022, the number of domestic Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries installed in the first two months of this year continues to lead last year.
Not only that, in the "Recommended Model Catalogue for Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles" (the second batch of 2022) released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on March 8, the number of models with lithium iron phosphate batteries has significantly increased from 55% in the first batch of 2022 to 75%.
From the perspective of market performance, the preference of oems for lithium iron phosphate batteries continues to grow, and the expansion of the proportion of recommended models also provides support for further increasing the installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries in 2022.
In fact, is not only a new energy automobile market, under the background of global auto electric speed, since the start of the year, Energy Storage, such as electric two-wheelers market also presents different levels of volume trend, lithium iron phosphate batteries because of its lower cost and better safety performance, improve the energy density, long service life and other advantages, The penetration rate in the electrification market is increasing and is expected to remain high.
In market demand, ningde, byd (eph di battery), the porch high-tech, weft lithium can, beehive energy, we have pleasure in wanda, gateway dynamic domestic mainstream power battery production enterprises are actively expanding to the layout of the lithium iron phosphate, in addition, the market also attracted overseas fans of the "three yuan" are the lithium iron phosphate track.
Since 2021, a number of Tesla models have started supporting lithium iron phosphate batteries, ford, Volkswagen, Daimler, Mercedes Benz, Hyundai and other overseas car companies have announced that they hope to import lithium iron phosphate batteries.
On March 11, Rivian, a US electric car start-up, also said it would use lithium iron phosphate batteries for its standard models as part of a plan to boost production and cut costs.
Due to the demand from downstream oems, overseas power battery manufacturers such as LG New Energy and SK ON, which had previously focused on the three-way track, have announced the development of lithium iron phosphate battery technology. Among them, LG New Energy has started research and development of lithium iron phosphate battery technology at the end of 2020, and the first production line of lithium iron phosphate battery is scheduled to start trial production in 2022.
Serbian battery company ElevenEs also said in a statement last October that it would build its first gigafactory for lithium iron phosphate batteries in Europe.
On March 15, a company called American Battery Factory(" ABF ") also announced plans to build a lithium iron phosphate Battery plant in the United States. With a supply chain that is as local as possible, ABF aims to "create a battery manufacturing ecosystem within the United States." Currently, 80 percent of U.S. lithium iron phosphate batteries come from China, and ABF says it wants to "make energy independence and renewable energy a reality in the United States."
Clearly, lithium iron phosphate batteries have taken the world by storm. As more and more players enter the game, the track will enter the stage of fierce competition. So, domestic power battery manufacturers can continue to maintain a leading position in the future, expand the results?
At present, domestic power battery manufacturers have at least the following three advantages:
First, due to early investment in research and development, China has a global advantage in the technology related to lithium iron phosphate batteries. At present, ningde Times, BYD (Fordi battery), Guoxuan High-tech and other domestic leading battery manufacturers are far ahead of overseas enterprises in terms of lithium iron phosphate battery technology and shipment. Defang Nano, Hunan Yuleng and other lithium iron phosphate cathode material enterprises are leading the world in technology, performance, cost and other aspects.
Second, the energy density of domestic lithium iron phosphate batteries is still improving. At present, the energy density of the mainstream lithium iron phosphate batteries produced by Guoxen High-tech has reached 190Wh/kg, and the energy density of the second-generation "Short-cut" lithium iron phosphate batteries of Honeycomb Energy has reached 185Wh/kg. The lithium iron phosphate batteries of Yiwei Lithium Energy, BYD (Fordi battery) and other enterprises also have good performance.
Third, at present, China has formed a relatively complete and mature industrial chain of lithium electricity from the upstream resource mining, smelting and material processing, to the mid-stream lithium battery manufacturing, and then to the downstream vehicle enterprises supporting. This can be proved by the sales volume of New energy vehicles in China. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in China will reach 3.521 million units in 2021, with a year-on-year growth of 160%. The sales volume has ranked first in the world for seven consecutive years. In the whole process of the development of lithium battery industry, China's materials and power battery field have emerged a number of global leading enterprises.
Benefiting from the acceleration of global automotive electrification and the mature application of overseas energy storage market, as well as the comprehensive factors such as the mature technology of domestic lithium iron phosphate, complete industrial chain and large scale, domestic power battery manufacturers are increasingly willing to go overseas.
It is also expected that the last barrier for Korean companies to build overseas bases and export lithium iron phosphate will disappear. With the expiration of overseas core patents of lithium iron phosphate batteries this year, domestic enterprises will also usher in new development opportunities, and the global lithium iron phosphate battery market may face changes in the post-patent era competition pattern.
Specifically, the core patents for lithium iron phosphate batteries include infrastructure, carbon cladding and carbon reduction, which are held by overseas companies and institutions. Among them, the infrastructure patents expired in 2017, and the other two will expire this year.
In fact, the legitimacy of early overseas patents has been debated by the industry. An industry insider said that some overseas patents themselves are against the scientific nature, loss of novelty and other problems. However, due to the limitation of these patents, domestic battery manufacturers will be affected by high patent fees and legal costs before going overseas. It is understood that, in the overseas market, lithium material enterprises, battery enterprises, or battery supporting oems, there is always a party to pay a high price of patent authorization. It can be said that enterprises have suffered from overseas patent abuse for a long time.
Next, with the "unsealing" of overseas core patents of lithium iron phosphate battery, it will help to reduce the constraint conditions for Chinese enterprises to go abroad to a certain extent, reduce the high cost of some patent authorization, and be more conducive to the overseas layout of Chinese enterprises and show their talents in the global market of lithium iron phosphate battery.
