Media Focus:

June 13, 2022
      At the beginning of the year, Dongfeng's solid-state battery vehicle was launched on the market, and Junfeng participated in the development. Half a year has passed and the vehicle is running stably and normally. He is the first vehicle in China to create a solid-state battery and put it into commercial operation. Only Dongfeng Group and Junfeng Motor have such a big deal.
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Since the beginning of this year, the good news of solid-state batteries has continued one after another. On the one hand, manufacturers continue to obtain financing from various sources, and on the other hand, their technical bottlenecks continue to break through and the commercialization process continues to accelerate. There are various signs that the "window" of solid-state batteries is coming.

Among these players, in addition to Dongfeng Group, there are well-known heavyweight battery manufacturers and auto companies such as CATL, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Funeng Technology, Xinwangda, NIO, SAIC, Geely, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Toyota. , there are also many unknown new faces of batteries, as well as huge "cross-border predators" such as Huawei, Xiaomi, and Country Garden.

01

Usher in a financing boom

Solid-state batteries are setting off a financing upsurge. Recently, Chongqing Tailan New Energy Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tailan New Energy"), a solid-state battery "back wave", announced the completion of the A++ round of financing of hundreds of millions of yuan, jointly led by CICC Capital and China Merchants Venture Capital, Qingyan Capital, Well-known investment institutions such as Holocene Capital and Guoding Capital participated together.
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Although Tailan New Energy was only established in May last year, it has already cooperated and communicated with some mainstream domestic OEMs. It is reported that Tailan New Energy's first 0.2GWh semi-solid power battery production line in Chongqing will be put into operation in October this year, mainly for new energy vehicles and taking into account application scenarios such as electric bicycles and intelligent robots. At that time, the company will provide customers with products Performance verification.

"With the product verification passed, the company will start a 1GWh production line at the end of this year or early 2023, and a 10GWh production capacity (project) will also start construction in 2023." Tailan New Energy said.

In addition to Tailan New Energy, another solid-state battery manufacturer, Huineng Technology, has also received financing recently. The investor comes from Guoxin Science and Technology Innovation, with an amount of tens of millions of dollars. It is reported that Huineng Technology, established in 2006, has formed a complete set of solutions for next-generation battery applications in electric vehicles, consumer markets, and industrial fields. It is one of the few companies in the world that independently develops and manufactures everything from upstream materials to battery cells.

Huineng Technology said that its single-layer cell yield rate can reach 99.9%, which has surpassed the commercialization standard. By the end of last year, its automated pilot production line had provided nearly 8,000 solid-state battery samples for global automakers for testing and module development, and the technology had reached the stage of mass production preparation, and a GWh-level production line will be completed by the end of 2022 .

In addition to the above-mentioned companies, since the beginning of this year, many domestic and foreign solid-state battery industry chain companies such as Weilan New Energy, Solitor, High Energy Times, Factorial Energy, Enli Power, and SES have also been favored by capital. Investors include Huawei, Xiaomi, CATL, Sunwoda, Mercedes-Benz, Honda Motor, Geely Holding, SAIC, General Motors, Hyundai Motor, Kia, Junfeng Motor, etc. The lineup is quite luxurious.

02

Mass production loading speed up

In terms of commercialization, Ganfeng Lithium recently stated on the interactive platform that it is expected that the company's planned 2GWh first-generation solid-state battery production capacity will be gradually released this year.

Beginning in 2021, the first batch of 50 Dongfeng-Ganfeng high specific energy solid-state battery vehicles jointly developed by Dongfeng Motor and Ganfeng Lithium will be delivered, becoming the world's first solid-state battery vehicle demonstration operation project. As Ganfeng Lithium's first-generation solid-state battery, its energy density is about 260Wh/kg, and the company's second-generation solid-state battery has an energy density of 360Wh/kg. Junfeng Automobile Research Institute believes that only by daring to innovate can solid-state batteries be commercialized as soon as possible. At present, the research institute is stocking up the second batch of technologies, seeking to land in factories, hoping to use it in batches as soon as possible.

Solid-state batteries generally have higher energy density. On May 28, Xu Xingwu, vice president of the General Institute of Guoxuan Hi-Tech Engineering Research Institute, revealed that the semi-solid battery developed by the company with a single energy density of up to 360Wh/kg and a system energy density of 260Wh/kg will be installed this year. In addition, in addition to the 360Wh/kg product that will be mass-produced this year, the 400Wh/kg ternary semi-solid battery developed by the company currently has prototype samples in the company's laboratory.

In addition, NIO previously announced the launch of a 150kWh solid-state battery with an energy density of 360Wh/kg. The NIO ET7 sedan equipped with this battery pack will have a cruising range of more than 1,000 kilometers. The product will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2022. In January this year, Funeng Technology said when interacting with investors: "The company's first-generation semi-solid battery (energy density 330Wh/Kg) has sent samples to OEM customers and has received good feedback."

It is not only the mass production and installation of solid-state batteries of domestic enterprises that "accelerates", but also manufacturers in Europe, America, Japan and South Korea are also actively promoting. Nissan's solid-state battery prototype plant was reported to have started operations in April this year, with a higher-volume prototype plant set to open in 2024. If the business hits the mark, Nissan hopes to achieve mass production in 2028.

Prior to this, Samsung SDI started building its first all-solid-state battery test line in March this year. It is reported that the completion of the pilot line will bring Samsung SDI closer to mass production of all-solid-state batteries than its competitors. In addition, Samsung's South Korean counterparts LG New Energy and SK On are also developing all-solid-state battery technology, aiming to start mass production around 2030.

It is understood that the two major auto giants, BMW and Ford, are also accelerating the research and development of solid-state batteries. They plan to start loading vehicles from 2022 and start testing them under actual working conditions. In addition, at the beginning of this year, Mercedes-Benz announced that the first test vehicle equipped with solid-state batteries developed in cooperation with Huineng Technology is expected to be launched in the next few years. The two parties plan to carry solid-state battery technology in a series of in a passenger car.

The accelerated commercialization of solid-state batteries will also drive the demand for related materials. It is understood that at present, domestic material companies such as Dangsheng Technology, Rongbai Technology, Enjie Co., Ltd., Tianci Materials, Jiangsu Guotai, Shanshan Co., Ltd., and GEM are accelerating the R&D and production of solid-state battery-related materials.



In the future, the solid-state battery market has huge potential, and many institutions are optimistic. Bank of China Securities predicts that the global demand for solid-state batteries is expected to reach 44.2GWh and 494.9GWh in 2025 and 2030, respectively. Guohai Securities predicts that the global solid-state battery shipments will grow rapidly in the future, and the market space is expected to reach more than 150 billion yuan by 2030.