Three days after it was revealed that it would double its investment in the field of electrification, the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi alliance released a number of common projects and development initiatives for the future of 2030 on January 27.
In this "roadmap for common development", the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi alliance plans to invest 23 billion euros in the field of electrification in the next five years, and plans to launch 90% of the 35 new pure electric vehicles on the five pure electric platforms by 2030. In the field of power battery, which is crucial in the transformation of electrification, the alliance plans to reduce the battery cost by 50% by 2026 and 65% by 2028. By 2030, a global battery production capacity of 220gwh will be formed.
The investment of Renault Nissan Mitsubishi alliance has nearly tripled compared with the previous plan. But even so, in the tide of global electrification, it is still a drop in the ocean. According to the preliminary statistics of the financial Associated Press, the total investment of the world's eight mainstream auto enterprises in the field of intelligent electric in the next five years will be as high as 266.5 billion US dollars (about 1.7 trillion yuan). If Toyota's $70 billion by 2030 is added, the figure will be as high as $336.5 billion.
five pure electric platforms and all solid state batteries are the core of the "roadmap"
The "road map for common development" released by Renault Nissan Mitsubishi Alliance on January 27 includes three parts involving electric and digital in addition to the "leader follower" model further emphasized. Among them, cmf-a EV, kei-ev, lcv-ev, cmf-ev and cmf-b EV will be launched in the field of complete vehicles; As a partner of the alliance, cmf-ev, a new generation of pure electric vehicle benchmark platform, is equipped with a new high-performance motor and ultra-thin battery, which aims to integrate and optimize all specific elements of 100% electric power system. By 2030, more than 15 models will be produced based on cmf-ev platform, with an annual production capacity of more than 1.5 million.
"Nissan plans to launch 23 electric drive models by fiscal 2030, including 15 pure electric models." Although the objectives of the companies in the alliance are not "broken down" in the newly released "road map", Makoto Uchida, a director, representative executive officer, President and CEO of Nissan Motor Company previously interviewed by the financial Associated Press, said that Nissan plans to achieve 100% electric drive of new models in the core market in the early 2030's.
In the field of battery and energy supplement, in addition to the cost and capacity targets mentioned above, Renault Nissan Mitsubishi alliance also plans to achieve mass production of all solid state batteries (assb) in mid-2028 and reduce the battery cost to $65 per kWh, so as to achieve the cost parity of pure electric vehicles and fuel vehicles, so as to accelerate the global transformation of electrification.
"Nissan plans to build a pilot plant in Yokohama, Japan in fy2024, and we are ready." Uchida revealed that Nissan, as the "leading innovator" of the all solid-state battery mass production plan in the alliance, has set a target cost and will promote the research and development of all solid-state batteries as planned. "By 2026, Nissan will invest 140 billion yen (about 7.9 billion yuan) to launch mass-produced electric vehicles equipped with original all solid state batteries (assb) in fiscal 2028."
According to Nissan, by 2021, Nissan has invested 1 trillion yen (about 56.42 billion yuan) in the field of electric drive and advanced technology such as powertrain, production and charging infrastructure, and will continue to invest 2 trillion yen (about 112.84 billion yuan) in the next five years to accelerate the layout of electric drive products and technological innovation. "The amount of investment is indeed relatively large, but considering Nissan's future career development, this is a necessary investment." Uchida said frankly.
US $7 billion, GM's largest single investment hit the pure electric pickup
The day before the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi alliance released the above "roadmap for common development", GM officials far across the ocean announced the largest single investment in the company's history - plans to invest $7 billion in a new battery plant in Lansing, Michigan, and transform the Orion assembly plant of Chevrolet bolt, To produce electric Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pickups. After the completion of this investment, GM will have an annual production capacity of 600000 pure electric pickup trucks in the United States.
"Today, we have taken another step to invest in the United States, vertically integrate battery production and improve the production capacity of electric vehicles in North America, so as to establish the leading position of general electric vehicles." GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement.
With the investment in the field of vehicle manufacturing, it is the battery. On January 25, South Korean battery manufacturer LG energy solutions said it would jointly invest $2.1 billion with general motors to establish another electric vehicle battery factory in the United States. According to a regulatory document submitted by LG Chemical, the parent company of LG energy solutions, the former and GM are expected to invest half each through their joint venture ultium cells in the United States, which will be the third joint venture battery plant between the two companies in the United States. The investment will be promoted in batches before 2026.
The total investment of more than $8 billion in two consecutive days is only part of GM's total investment of $35 billion in the field of electrification by 2025. On June 16 last year, General Motors announced that it would increase investment in electric vehicles and automatic driving, and planned to increase the investment from $27 billion to $35 billion between 2020 and 2025.
This is the second time in 15 months that GM announced additional investment in electric vehicles. In March 2020, Mary Barra, chairman and CEO of GM, announced on GM EV week that from 2020 to 2025, GM will invest $20 billion in electrification and automatic driving, and plans to launch 20 electric vehicles in 2023.
However, just eight months after the launch of this ambitious investment plan, Mary Barra again issued a revised investment plan in November 2020 - the investment amount increased by 35% to $27 billion, and the number of models is set to reach 30 models by 2025.
in 2025, the global investment in electrification will exceed 330 billion US dollars
It is the fellow countryman and rival Ford that "stimulated" GM to make the largest single investment decision in the company's history. On January 6, when announcing its car sales data in the U.S. market in December 2021, Ford said that it would nearly double the annual production of all electric F-150 lightning pickup trucks to 150000, but this figure is still lower than the total reservation of nearly 200000 vehicles since the reservation was opened.
In addition, because the market demand is better than expected, Ford also plans to double the annual output of Mustang mach-e pure electric SUV to more than 200000 by 2023.
Affected by this news, in the morning of January 13 local time, Ford's share price hit a 52 week high, which also helped Ford's market value exceed $100 billion for the first time, surpassing General Motors with a market value of about $90 billion.
"Ford will eventually surpass Tesla in electric vehicle sales in the United States, but first of all, we hope to surpass general motors. We will increase the output of electric vehicles to 600000 within two years." Previously, Jim Farley, chief executive of Ford, had made bold remarks.
However, in terms of the amount of investment in electrification alone, Ford has lagged behind GM. In February and may last year, Ford announced its investment plan in the field of intelligent electric vehicles twice. Among them, the plan in May increased by 36% to $30 billion compared with the plan three months ago, but it is still lower than GM's $35 billion.
More radical than GM and Ford is the Volkswagen Group. On December 9 last year, in the next five-year investment plan announced by Volkswagen Group, the total investment from 2022 to 2026 is expected to be 159 billion euros. Among them, a total of about 89 billion euros is used for electric vehicles, hybrid and digitization, an increase of 16 billion euros compared with the previous plan; Among the 89 billion euros of new technology investment, the investment in electric vehicles will increase by about 50% to 52 billion euros.
After making this investment decision three times that of Ford, Hans Dieter ptsch, chairman of the Volkswagen supervisory board, said, "the resolution adopted today shows that we are firmly promoting the transformation of the Volkswagen Group. Our investment will focus on all key aspects of future travel and the systematic implementation of the group's strategy."
"The total investment in the global electric vehicle industry is expected to reach US $330 billion by 2025." Stephen Dyer, head of the automotive industry in the Asia Pacific region of iResearch platinum, a market consulting agency, analyzed that although the investment is huge, it is difficult to make a profit in the short term. "For any vehicle factory, it needs the constraints of scale, pricing ability and fixed cost."
