With governments redoubling their investment in clean energy travel, the electric vehicle industry is gradually entering the fast lane, followed by the battery supply can not keep up with the significantly increased demand, which is another problem faced by electric vehicle manufacturers after the tight chip supply.
On July 23, Yang Hongxin, chairman of honeycomb Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (svolt), said in an interview with Bloomberg: "when the chip shortage is over, the main supply shortage faced by the automobile manufacturing industry will be batteries. In the next few years, the production capacity of batteries will be more strained due to the cycle required for capacity expansion. "
Affected by the sharp drop in battery prices and the deadline set by governments to gradually stop selling new internal combustion engine vehicles, global carmakers have accelerated their transformation to electric vehicles, and new models have flocked to help achieve the climate goal.
"The price of expensive raw materials may not ease until the second half of the year"
Citing the annual New Energy Outlook report released by Bloomberg Nef on Wednesday, the demand for lithium batteries in transportation and energy storage will surge to 5.9 TWH (5900 GWH) per year in 2030, which has put great pressure on the supply chain.
Yang Hongxin said that the availability of sufficient lithium products, copper foil and some cathode materials may become a constraint for the lithium battery industry to keep pace with demand. He added that the current expensive raw material prices may not be relieved until the second half of the year. "The price pressure will have to be shared in the supply chain".
"The battery may be the next electric vehicle component facing potential shortage," said Dennis IP, an analyst at Daiwa capital markets. "There may be a shortage of lithium materials in the next two to three years, which may increase the cost of electric vehicles."
The company is accelerating the layout of lithium battery production, which will increase 200 times in the next five years
Yang Hongxin said that as a spin off company of Great Wall Motors (601633), honeycomb Energy Technology Co., Ltd. is seeking to further get involved in lithium battery production and study potential targets, including lithium mine and Salt Lake business.
At present, the manufacturer is planning to actively expand the production scale of lithium battery. At present, it is to increase the production capacity from less than 1GWh in 2020 to 200gwh by 2025.
However, according to Bloomberg Nef data, in contrast, Ningde times (300750), the leader of the lithium battery industry, expects to increase the production capacity to 550gwh under the premise of including cooperation projects in the same period.
It is planned to go public in the next year
Since the beginning of the year, honeycomb Energy Technology Co., Ltd. has announced four new production expansion projects with a total value of about US $4.6 billion, including a plant worth 2 billion euros (US $2.4 billion) in Germany, which is also the company's first plant in Europe.
The company is also considering adding one or two more production bases in China, said Yang Hongxin, and continues to plan to be listed on the science and innovation board by the end of 2022 or early 2023.
At present, the company has reached an agreement with the jeep manufacturer stellantis NV（ Finance (we media)