The global power battery installed capacity rankings for January-July 2020 are out, and surprisingly, the giant Ningde Times lost for the second time this year in the battle for the top spot.
The rapid growth is not only LG Chem, Samsung SDI and SK Innovation also have a relatively large increase, the two in this year's cumulative installed capacity of 3.4GWh and 2.2GWh, respectively, year-on-year growth of as high as 52.6% and 86.5%, and to 6.4% and 4.1% of the market share ranked fourth and sixth.
In LG Chem's official announcement, the battery business sales significantly improved attributed to environmental policies in Europe and China, as well as large-scale energy storage projects in North America, but in fact it is Tesla's credit - Tesla's Shanghai factory models are no longer used Panasonic batteries, and the choice of the LG Chem batteries.
Tesla's sales, think of the horror, Tesla sold 179,052 cars in the first half of this year, while ranked second-fourth Volkswagen, BMW and BYD sales combined, only 178,779 units. The first-place figure exceeds the sum of the second, third and fourth places, and as more consumers enter the new energy vehicle purchasing field in the future, Tesla's lead will further increase.
There are only two kinds of electric cars in the world, one is called Tesla, one is called the other, along with Tesla's takeoff, LG Chem's revenue is also climbing, but it has to be said, if Hyundai Kia belongs to the representative of the Korean car, then LG Chem, Samsung SDI and SK Innovation is the Korean in the power battery, these three have now accounted for power batteries in the world's shipments of 35.6 percent. Year-on-year growth rate of more than 100%, in time, will become a more formidable presence.
South Korea's battery start time is much weaker than Japan's Sanyo, Sony and Panasonic, but they have taken a relatively aggressive strategy from the beginning - at all costs to get the recognition of the U.S. General Motors, but also experienced a lot of ups and downs.
For GM, compared to the tender LG Chem, Panasonic, Sony and other world-class electronics companies is a better choice, besides LG Chem's history is in a bit short, it only in 1997 to complete the trial production of small batteries used in mobile computers, and only in 1999 to complete the mass production of lithium-ion batteries, but like the rise of Samsung Semiconductors, LG Chem is betting on the future is sure to will generate a large demand for automotive power batteries.
So, since 2000, LG Chem has been trying to find a way to get in touch with GM, and the closest it came to success was in 2006, when it participated in the GM EV program, but the battery samples it submitted had performance-related problems and were discarded, and in the ensuing year, it's hard to know what LG Chem's tech team went through. 2007, LG Chem's battery program, which had once been scoffed at, succeeded. In 2007, LG Chem's battery solution made it onto the short list for GM's Volt EV program, and two years later, in 2009, LG Chem became the world's first exclusive supplier of batteries for GM's production Volt EV.
This year was basically the first year of LG Chem's takeoff, and the battery supplier, which was originally a niche supplier, was officially qualified to compete in the world's power battery market.
The next year, LG Chem started construction of a power battery plant in Michigan, U.S. In 2013, it expanded its polymer battery production capacity in Nanjing, China? (10 million cells/month), the battery plant was finally completed in 2015, and then LG Chem began construction of a power battery plant in Poland, and in 2017, LG Chem said it would invest more than 1 billion euros and subsequently accept 95 million euros (about $112 million) in aid from the Polish government to further expand its power battery capacity.
But that aid was questioned by EU competition regulators, but from a capacity expansion perspective, if it does take shape, the annual capacity of LG Chem's Polish plant would rise to 65 gigawatt-hours, and the Polish plant would become one of the largest lithium-cell production plants in the world.
While holding on to GM's thighs, South Korea's largest automaker, Hyundai, as well as Kia Motors, is also a "natural ally" of LG Chem, although Hyundai's pure electric vehicles do not account for a high percentage of the global market, for example, Hyundai's global sales of electric vehicles in 2018 were 53,114 units, but an unbreakable stable buyer. It goes without saying how important an unbreakable and stable buyer is in the supply chain.
More crucially, LG Chem managed to beat Panasonic to become the battery supplier for Tesla's China factory, and Tesla Model?3 can unquestionably dominate the Chinese new energy sales market in the first half of the year, so it is fair to say that LG Chem has embraced one of the thickest thighs.
On the other hand, LG Chem, with the help of the General Assembly's reputation, early layout of Europe, and successfully entered the emphasis on environmental protection of the European host factory's purchase list, most of the electric cars are selected by LG Chem to provide batteries, including the hot-selling Renault Zoe, Volkswagen e-Golf and so on. According to data, sales of new energy passenger cars in Europe exceeded 400,000 units in the first half of this year, with many of those orders falling into the hands of the South Koreans.
Another data worth noting is that as of the beginning of this year, the number of electric vehicles loaded with LG Chem batteries has reached a cumulative total of 2.7 million, while China's 2019 pure electric vehicle ownership a **** is 3.1 million.
Furthermore, the group promotion, has always been the tradition of South Korean companies, LG Chem to eat meat, small businesses to drink soup.
LG Chem attaches particular importance to ecological mutual assistance, we are currently many battery manufacturers are trying to try to rush to the world, and LG Chem thanks to the status of developed countries, not only their own has a foothold in the world, to become the world's top 20 automobile manufacturers in the 13 brands of the battery supplier to establish the next five years of the 150 trillion won (about 870 billion) of the order of the Chinese yuan, but also for the inclusion of the Battery pack shell manufacturers, battery production equipment suppliers to provide placement of financial and information support, and the establishment of a 43.2 billion won (about 250 million yuan) of fostering funds to help their own ecological chain of enterprises to grow and expand.
Industrial ecosystems, once formed, explode with competitiveness that is extremely frightening.
But for Ningde Times, there is no need to worry too much. First of all, Ningde era based on the domestic market, the market on the sale of new energy models more than 50% equipped with the power battery provided by Ningde era, which in itself has constituted the basic disk of Ningde era to participate in global competition.
A close to the Ningde era of industry sources to provide information: "With the epidemic under control, the domestic auto market in the second half of the year is also recovering, Ningde era occupies the domestic manufacturers on half of the river, so you can expect the second half of the year, Ningde era domestic orders are also in the volume."
Meanwhile, ? Ningde era currently signed a cooperation intention with Tesla, more critical is that the face of LG chemical dominance of the European market, Ningde era is also constantly seeking a breakthrough, has signed an 11-year battery supply contract with BMW, but also will provide power batteries for Volkswagen, once the construction of the German plant is completed, Ningde era will really get the key ticket to compete in the world.
With the new energy vehicle market picking up in the second half of the year and beyond, it is believed that the power battery map will change again in 2020, and it is still unknown who will top the annual championship between LG Chem and Ningde Times.
This article was written by the author of Automotive Home, and does not represent the views of Automotive Home.