'Although the European market is fertile ground, it is also facing competition from leading Japanese and Korean battery companies, local European companies, and automakers'' self-made battery companies. Companies must improve their strength in terms of products, technology, brand, and capital.' Zhongguancun New Battery Yu Qingjiao, secretary-general of the Technology Innovation Alliance, told reporters that if 'going out' new energy automobile industry chain companies can group and cooperate in Europe to build a complete industrial chain, it would be quite good.

Currently, domestic power battery companies are performing a 'going overseas'.

'Europe''s sales of new energy vehicles have surpassed China''s. This year is already an ironclad fact.' Earlier, Ningde Times Chairman Zeng Yuqun''s words aroused the industry''s attention. In the first half of this year, under the influence of various factors such as the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the sales of new energy vehicles in the European market surpassed China and became the world''s largest new energy vehicle market in one fell swoop.

More than ten years of domestic experience accumulation Chinese power battery companies are 'going out'

Honeycomb Energy is not the first power battery company to set up factories overseas, and it will never be the last. It is reported that CATL has completed its equipment bidding in Thuringia, Germany. It is expected to start production in 2022 and will reach a production capacity of 70GWh by 2029, making it the second largest factory in the world. In addition, the vision AESC, which has already begun its layout earlier, has mature supply capabilities in Europe, Japan, and the United States. It has a Sunderland plant in the United Kingdom, which is known as the 'best existing plant in Europe', and is meeting the needs of European current While there are stable supply of customers, the conditions for expansion are also available. In fact, my country''s power battery companies are slowly changing their attitudes towards setting up factories overseas. Previously, Xu Xingwu, senior vice president of Guoxuan Hi-Tech, said that 'there is no consideration in this regard.' Later, he publicly stated, 'On the basis of our existing production base, we will expand overseas production capacity, including building new factories in Germany and India to better serve customers.'

In fact, entering 2020, the global new energy vehicle and power battery industries have entered a new turning point. Domestically, China''s 'New Energy Automobile Industry Development Plan' has been completed, foreign investment in the new energy automobile industry has been fully liberalized, and the power battery 'white list' has been completely cancelled. In foreign countries, global mainstream automobile markets such as Europe and North America have increased the new energy automobile industry.

However, Cao Guangping also mentioned that the existence of advantages is accompanied by risks. Since the domestic new energy vehicle market was mainly a policy-driven market in the early stage, to a certain extent, products followed the policy and revolved around the subsidy measurement index. Now it is a real battlefield to set up factories overseas. From technical strength, product quality, Hard power such as cost performance 'decisive'.

European market sales 'crazy' rise, a blue ocean waiting to enter overseas

In the first half of this year, sales of new energy vehicles in Europe were 414,000, and sales of new energy vehicles in my country were 385,000. Europe surpassed my country to become the world''s new energy vehicle market sales ××. In addition, Europe has also become the world''s only economy with positive growth in the sales of new energy vehicles. Despite the impact of the new crown pneumonia, sales of new energy vehicles have grown by 57% against the trend. From a horizontal comparison, the year-on-year growth rates of China, Japan, and the United States were -42%, -38%, and -25%, respectively. According to the forecast of the European Automobile Manufacturing Alliance, the sales of new energy vehicles in Europe are expected to exceed 1.1 million in 2020.

Correspondingly, the demand for power batteries will also 'increasing.' Zhou Bo, director of the Standardization Working Group and Research Department of the Power Battery Application Branch, predicts that by 2025, the global sales of new energy vehicles will exceed 15 million and may reach 30 million by 2030. The corresponding power battery supporting demand will reach 975GWh and 2100GWh.

Compared with my country''s new energy vehicle market development has entered the second stage, the development of the European new energy vehicle market has just started, and the limelight is booming. In this regard, Ma Junze, Minister Counselor of the EU Delegation to China, said that Europe and North America are increasing the development of new energy vehicles, especially the electric vehicle industry, on the one hand to meet the changes in the automobile industry, on the other hand to respond to the environmental crisis. And carbon emission regulations and other policies.

The reporter learned that Europe is one of the regional markets severely affected by the epidemic in the first half of this year. For this purpose, the EU has launched a 'recovery fund' of up to 750 billion euros. The 'Recovery Fund' provides new opportunities for the EU''s economic transformation and helps to further promote the development of the EU''s green economy. The electric vehicle-related industries have naturally become key support targets. According to statistics, 26 of the 27 EU member states have formulated relevant policies to encourage the development of electric vehicles. For example, the French government has raised the upper limit of subsidies for electric vehicles to 7000 euros from the previous 6000 euros. The German government guides green consumption in the automotive sector by reducing electricity prices and increasing investment in related infrastructure, and provides electric vehicle consumers and automakers with a total of up to 9,000 euros per vehicle purchase subsidy. European countries such as Italy and Spain have also introduced industry support policies including reduction or exemption of purchase tax and increase of user subsidies to further stimulate the development of their own electric vehicle market.

In addition, European strict carbon emission standards have become an important thrust for the development of new energy vehicles. Beginning this year, Europe has ushered in the most stringent carbon emission assessment standard in history, requiring 95% of newly registered passenger cars in the EU to reduce the average carbon dioxide emission to 95g/km. In October of this year, the European Parliament raised its 2030 greenhouse gas emission reduction target to 60%. In order to achieve this goal, the governments of Germany, France, Greece, Spain and other European countries have successively increased their support for new energy vehicles. Among them, Germany is the country with the largest investment in the new energy vehicle industry in Europe. In 2019, German electric vehicle-related investment reached 40 billion euros, accounting for two-thirds of the total European electric vehicle-related investment that year. According to the '2030 Climate Action Plan' adopted by Germany in October last year, the country plans to have 10 million electric vehicles in the country by 2030.

Fierce competition, companies need to do a long-term strategic layout

In addition to my country''s power battery companies actively 'going out to sea', Japanese and Korean battery companies also 'do not show weakness.' Attracted by the European new energy vehicle market, after the Polish plant, LG Chem may establish a second battery plant in Spain. In addition, under the huge tuyere of the European electric vehicle market, and under the strong push of EU governments, European local power battery companies represented by Sweden Northvolt, Britishvolt, Norway Freyr, and France Verkor are also rising. The super battery factories they are building or planning to build have sprung up, trying to regain the market dominated by Asian manufacturers.

According to incomplete statistics, in Poland, LG Chem received a 480 million euro loan from the European Investment Bank, intending to increase European production capacity by 36GWh. In Hungary, Samsung SDI plans to invest 9.2 billion yuan to expand the power battery plant. In Sweden, the plant of Northvolt, a local European power battery company, is expected to start production in 2021. In France, PSA and SAFT''s joint venture power battery plant has also begun preparations.

However, Ma Junze mentioned that the current key difficulty of new energy vehicles lies in the battery link: power battery energy density needs to be improved, safety needs to continue to be improved, cycle life needs to be extended, etc. All these require the industry to continue to invest in research and development and realize battery technology as soon as possible. The breakthrough of the new energy vehicle will promote the development of new energy vehicles in global markets such as Europe and China.

Provide integrated solutions for overseas customers. Companies should improve their product and technology capabilities

In fact, when building factories overseas, there are many external factors that need to be considered, including political environment, government support and process review, regional economic development, energy supply and emission regulations, talent supply and costs, infrastructure and industrial upstream and downstream support, transportation and logistics, Multiple dimensions such as infrastructure requirements, customer and market proximity. Compared with China, the difficulty and challenges of setting up factories overseas are not in the same order of magnitude, especially in Europe, where policies, regulations and processes are obviously more stringent, and the carbon emission requirements for companies in the use and manufacturing of clean electricity are also extremely strict. . This may be an experience that some power battery companies have never experienced in China. In addition, after setting up factories overseas, the establishment and improvement of the supporting supply chain system, cost control, the introduction and management of talents, and the integration of local culture are all problems that need to be solved and overcome one by one.

Deng Jun, a partner of Eurasia Consulting Co., Ltd., once said: “The cost of domestic companies investing in Europe is about three times that of domestic companies.” He believes that domestic power battery companies investing in Europe is still a new topic. Optimized design in many aspects such as process flow, equipment system integration, plant planning, storage of dangerous goods, safe passages, etc. At the same time, we must also cater to the requirements of vehicle companies and customers, and achieve environmental compliance in terms of material recycling and decomposition.

In fact, for power battery companies, setting up factories in China has a natural advantage. Regardless of upstream resources such as lithium and cobalt, or core materials such as anode and cathode materials, electrolytes, and diaphragms, China has a complete supporting industrial chain that no country has. After these power battery companies 'go to sea', who will supply products such as positive and negative materials, electrolytes, and diaphragms? How do companies cooperate? It is a big problem for domestic enterprises to cooperate in Europe and build a complete industrial chain. Zhou Bo even called for domestic materials and battery companies to deploy more upstream metal resources such as nickel, cobalt, and lithium as soon as possible to ensure a stable supply of raw materials in the future.

'Although the European market is fertile ground, it is also facing competition from leading Japanese and Korean battery companies, local European companies, and automakers'' self-made battery companies. Companies must improve their strength in terms of products, technology, brand, and capital.' Yu Qingjiao Tell the reporter that if 'going out' new energy automobile industry chain companies can group and cooperate in Europe to build a complete industry chain, it is also a considerable advantage. He emphasized: 'We should be clear about the supporting and reserve of the battery industry chain, integrate the advantages of local resources, and integrate culture and team. When companies and brands go out, culture, team and supply chain are dragging their feet. Internationalization is a long way to go. Keeping up with the fashions and simply staking the land, it is more important to establish the ability and collaborative innovation for the healthy development of the ecological chain.'