Since the beginning of this year, despite the sound of overcapacity of power batteries in China, the momentum of expansion of power batteries in the first half of the year has not diminished.
According to incomplete statistics of Galaxy, in the first half of this year, power battery enterprises invested a total of 56 projects at home and abroad, with a total investment of more than 190.
2 billion yuan, and the planned power battery production capacity exceeded 626GWh.
Despite the continuous construction of new power battery projects in the first half of 2024, compared with the tens of billions of investment projects last year, the amount of investment this year tends to be rational.
According to incomplete statistics of Galaxy, there were only six 10 billion projects in the first half of this year, involving companies such as BYD, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Lihua Power, Giant New Energy and Funeng Technology.
Among them, BYD’s 10 billion-level projects were newly disclosed in the first half of the year.
On January 4, BYD (Xuzhou) sodium ion battery project started, the project plans to have an annual production capacity of 30GWh, mainly producing sodium ion battery cells and PACK and other related products.
Then, on June 1, the project was put on record and approved by the Management Committee of Xuzhou Economic and technological Development Zone.
Also speeding up on the road to expansion is Funeng Technology, whose mechanical and electrical engineering project at its annual 30GWh power lithium battery production base in Guangzhou began construction on March 4, and began trial production on June 29.
It is reported that the overall construction of the base includes electromechanical installation projects of single units, such as cell workshop, chemical workshop, PACK workshop, power station, etc.
After the project is completed and put into production, it will achieve the annual production capacity of 30GWh power batteries, which is expected to drive a number of upstream and downstream supporting industries such as cathode materials, silicon-carbon negative electrodes and lithium battery equipment to be settled in Guangzhou.
On the other hand, Yiwei LiNeng has expanded its overseas investment territory of 10 billion yuan.
According to the Times, Yiwei LiNeng is in talks to build a British investment plant, with an estimated investment of at least 1.
2 billion pounds, or about 10.
8 billion yuan.
According to reports, Yiwei Lithium hopes to build a 20 GWh power battery factory for electric vehicles outside Coventry, which may eventually reach 60 GWh, which will become the largest super factory in the UK.
The agreement is expected to be signed in the coming weeks.
It should be pointed out that under the dual pressure of market competition and potential overcapacity, in addition to a decline in the amount of investment in power battery expansion projects, two new power battery projects have even been aborted.
On March 19th, Kexiang announced that it had terminated the 2 billion yuan 6GWH sodium ion new energy battery project signed a year ago after friendly consultation with the Xinfeng county government.
According to the announcement, after the company signed the investment intention contract with the Xinfeng County people’s Government, the two sides did not reach a formal investment agreement, and the company did not have any corresponding capital expenditure.
On the evening of May 30, Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group Co., Ltd. and Anhui Ankai Automobile Co., Ltd. both issued announcements to terminate the previous joint venture with BYD’s Fudi Battery and other enterprises.
According to the announcement, after the signing of the joint venture framework agreement, the company conducted due diligence and evaluation of the parties involved in the proposed joint venture and the patented technology funded, and communicated with the parties concerned on the joint venture, but failed to reach an agreement on the joint venture.
After careful consideration and consensus with the cooperating parties, it was decided to terminate the joint venture framework agreement.
It is reported that Ankai bus, Jianghuai Automobile, Fudi Battery and Zhejiang Storage Energy reached a framework agreement in September 2022, and the Quartet plans to jointly invest in a joint venture company to build a new energy power battery production plant and carry out power battery projects.
Although the market investment tends to be rational, new technologies such as solid-state batteries and sodium batteries are still hot places for investment.
With its core advantages-higher energy density, excellent thermal stability and enhanced safety properties, solid-state batteries accurately dock the urgent needs of the electric vehicle market for long life and high safety.
According to Galaxy Automotive, in the first half of this year, the number of (semi) solid state battery and sodium battery contracts and construction projects reached 18, of which 11 projects were signed up, with a total investment of more than 38.
5 billion yuan, and production capacity is expected to exceed 125GWh.
The main players to start and sign contracts in this field include Valin Group, Giant Power New Energy, Zhonggu era, Heyuan Lithium Chuang and Hunan Jiusen Angao, etc.
Among them, Giant Power New Energy 10 billion yuan project and Hunan Jiusen Angao annual 30GWh project is particularly eye-catching.
February 29th, Shanxi Xiaoyi Economic Development Zone Management Committee, Shanxi Pengfei Group Co., Ltd., and Fujian Judian New Energy Co., Ltd. held a contract signing ceremony for the annual production of 10GWh solid-state lithium battery and PACK manufacturing project.
According to the agreement, the parties will invest about 10 billion yuan to build an annual 10GWh solid-state lithium battery and PACK manufacturing project in Xiaoyi Economic Development Zone, covering cell workshops, electrolyte depots, power centers, etc.
, focusing on solid-state lithium battery technology research and development and battery assembly and manufacturing, which can be widely used in power, energy storage and other fields.
Photo: Linwu County Rong Media Center, May 20, Jiusen New Energy cooperated with Sichuan Angao to successfully hold the pilot test launch ceremony of solid-state battery.
The project plans to achieve R & D, production and listing of solid-state batteries in three phases.
Relying on Chenzhou Lithium Battery Industry Research Institute, the first phase set up a solid-state battery research center to transform and upgrade the existing production line of Kusen Anko, and began to achieve mass production on June 18.
the second phase has a total investment of 2 billion yuan to build a power solid-state battery production line with 15GWh capacity, and has reached a preliminary strategic cooperation agreement with Huawei.
after the completion of the first two steps, the third phase plans to invest another 3 billion to expand production to 30GWh, with an annual output value of 20 billion.
Relying on the advantages of low cost, rich resources and specific performance, sodium battery is regarded as an important option to break the bottleneck of lithium resources and reduce the cost of batteries.
In the first half of the year, there were seven sodium battery-related expansion projects with a total investment of more than 17 billion yuan, with a planned capacity of up to 46GWh, including BYD, Huasai New Energy, Kexiang Co.
, Kunyu Power and Sodium Energy Times.
At present, semi-solid batteries and sodium batteries in China are accelerating to enter the stage of commercial application.
According to the data released by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, semi-solid batteries and sodium ion batteries were loaded in China in the first half of 2024, with semi-solid batteries 2154.
7MWh and sodium ion batteries 1.5MWh. , photo source: China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, it is worth noting that fromIn terms of investment entities, in the first half of this year, there were few leading companies in newly invested projects for (semi-) solid state batteries and sodium batteries, and most of them were mainly start-ups and second-and third-tier companies.
, the above phenomenon may occur for the following two reasons.
First of all, under the fierce competition in the terminal market and the pressure of clearing production capacity, the price of power batteries has continued to fall.
Data shows that in June 2024, the average price of lithium iron phosphate energy storage cells was 0.
41 yuan/ Wh, down 4.
2% month-on-month.
This decline has put the cost bottom line of start-ups and second-and third-tier companies facing severe challenges.
, Secondly, the confrontation between the “two top powers” in the power battery field remains difficult to shake in the short term.
Faced with this, start-ups and second-and third-tier companies with technical strength use new technologies and new market opportunities as breakthroughs to ensure that they can achieve “lane change and overtaking” in the fierce market competition.
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