“We didn’t expect the rise of power battery raw materials (prices) to be so severe this year. We originally expected the price to rise, but the actual intensity is much stronger than we thought.” During the 2022 China electric vehicle hundred people’s meeting (hereinafter referred to as the hundred people’s meeting) forum held recently, he Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng automobile, admitted in an interview with the reporter of daily economic news that the sharp increase in the cost of power batteries had a great impact on enterprises.
New energy vehicle enterprises are far more than affected by the sharp fluctuation of upstream raw material prices. Since the second half of last year, the sharp rise in the prices of core raw materials of power batteries such as cobalt, lithium and nickel has made a lot of downstream enterprises in the industrial chain complain endlessly. At the forum of this hundred people’s Congress, all business leaders also discussed the impact of the rise in the price of raw materials and the way to break the situation.
In this regard, Lin nianxiu, deputy director of the national development and Reform Commission, said at the forum of the current 100 people’s Congress that the development and Reform Commission will strengthen the construction of resource guarantee systems such as lithium, cobalt and nickel, continue to pay close attention to ensuring supply and price stability, and accelerate the construction of a diversified resource guarantee system with simultaneous development and procurement and China’s international mutual assistance.
the soaring price of raw materials leads to hot discussion
When the wave of electrification is accelerating, the soaring price of raw materials upstream of power batteries has become a “stumbling block” to block its rapid development. According to the reporter, many power battery enterprises have chosen to increase prices to absorb the rising costs.
Farasis Energy (Gan Zhou) Co.Ltd(688567) senior vice president and Secretary of the board of directors Zhang Feng told reporters that Farasis Energy (Gan Zhou) Co.Ltd(688567) had completed the first round of price negotiation of power battery at the end of last year, and the price increase time node was more than 25% from January 1 this year. However, the price of raw materials has risen further recently, and Farasis Energy (Gan Zhou) Co.Ltd(688567) is also conducting the second round of consultations with customers, hoping to reach an agreement with customers on cost sharing.
The same choice was made by Eve Energy Co.Ltd(300014) , Eve Energy Co.Ltd(300014) Chairman Liu Jincheng told reporters that in March this year, the prices of Eve Energy Co.Ltd(300014) main customers have basically been adjusted. “In the first quarter, we didn’t take the action of rapid price increase, but the market has developed to this day, and the raw materials should be stable at such a price for a period of time. Therefore, we are also actively discussing the price with our main customers. At present, we have reached a consensus with our main customers.” Liu Jincheng said.
According to the reporter, in addition to the above two enterprises, a number of battery suppliers, including Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) , bick battery, etc., have completed price adjustment. Under the transmission of cost layers, new energy vehicle enterprises have expressed “great pressure”.
Li Xiang, founder and CEO of ideal automobile, said: “the cost of lithium carbonate may be 3 Tianma Microelectronics Co.Ltd(000050) 000 yuan / ton, which should not be so expensive. This is a huge profit, but take oil as an example, the price of oil is not based on the cost.”
Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC AIAN, also suggested that the competent authorities should introduce relevant policies to regulate the price of raw materials in the upstream of electric vehicles and prevent excessive monopoly of upstream resources. He also suggested that priority should be given to ensuring the supply of power batteries in terms of the balance between power batteries and energy storage batteries.
For the question of when the price and supply of raw materials can return to the normal level, many experts present at the meeting gave their own judgment. “Taking lithium carbonate as an example, it is a typical ore production. The production capacity release cycle is 3-5 years, and the lithium extraction cycle of brine is longer. From the perspective of supply and demand, the demand amplification caused by panic inventory reserves is temporary. With the improvement of lithium carbonate supply capacity, it is expected that the complete supply-demand balance may be restored in two or three years.” Ouyang Minggao, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said.
In Zhang Feng’s view, with the mitigation of the epidemic in the second half of the year, the shortage of raw materials may change from the end of this year to the beginning of next year. “However, large-scale price adjustment and rebalancing of supply and demand may have to wait until China’s technological breakthrough or the development of overseas mineral resources. Next year may be a time point.” Zhang Feng said.
In fact, relevant departments have noticed the impact of the rising price of battery raw materials on the new energy vehicle industry. Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of industry and information technology, made it clear at the forum that the current sharp rise in the price of raw materials for power batteries needs high attention, careful research and solution, will moderately accelerate the progress of China’s resource development, resolutely crack down on hoarding, speculation and other unfair competition, guide upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain to strengthen cooperation and win-win development, and promote the price of key raw materials to return to rationality.
new energy vehicle development enters a new stage
As the best carrier of intelligent networking function, the future development direction of new energy vehicles is also one of the hot topics in the industry.
At the forum of this hundred people’s Congress, Miao Wei, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the CPPCC National Committee, said that if we compare new energy vehicles to the first half and intelligent Internet connected vehicles to the second half, China’s automobile industry has achieved great results in the first half, but the decision is still in the second half. At present, the intelligent connected vehicle technology has entered a critical period of landing. “We have the confidence and ability to continue to play well in the second half and finally achieve the goal of building an automobile power.” Miao Wei said.
Chen Qingtai, chairman of China electric vehicle hundred people’s Association, also expressed similar views, He said: “In the revolution of intelligent automobile, China’s automobile industry has achieved the first mover effect by changing lanes first, but the window of opportunity will not be too long. In parallel with this automobile revolution are the new energy revolution and the first generation mobile communication, which are the transportation revolution and smart city. With the in-depth development of the automobile revolution, more and more high-tech companies have joined it. The scientific and technological content of new energy vehicles is higher and higher, and the service software is richer and richer, which is evolving Become a mobile intelligent terminal with data determining experience and software defining car. “
After entering the era of intelligence, networking and digitization, automobile will not only become a powerful carrier to absorb renewable energy, but also become a link to connect green energy, smart grid, future travel and a new generation of mobile communication. “With the rapid increase in the number of electric vehicles, it will reach 80 million ~ 100 million in 2030. It is expected that after 2030, with the popularization and development of V2G, its capacity will exceed the electrochemical battery energy storage capacity of the power grid. In the future power system, electric vehicles will share the important responsibility of stabilizing the power grid with the energy storage power station, and is expected to become the main body of distributed energy storage.” Ouyang Minggao said.
At the same time, as one of the important functions of intelligent networked vehicles, high-order automatic driving is also accelerating towards large-scale application. Guo Shougang, deputy director of the first Department of equipment industry of the Ministry of industry and information technology, said: “The pilot demonstration is an indispensable link in the development of intelligent networked vehicles. While promoting the pilot work of dual intelligence, we are also accelerating the road test demonstration of intelligent networked vehicles. So far, more than 5000 kilometers of test roads, more than 10 million kilometers of safety tests and more than 3500 kilometers of intelligent road reconstruction and upgrading have been opened nationwide.”
Miao Wei also believes that without v2x (Internet of vehicles) and relying on single vehicle intelligence alone, L2 level assisted driving may be achieved, but it is difficult to achieve L3 and L4 level automatic driving. The computing power and power consumption exceed the limit borne by the vehicle itself. Therefore, the coordinated development of vehicle and road is imperative.
“There are more than 300 million vehicles in China, all of which depend on the cloud, and the amount of data is too large to bear. Therefore, we must move part of the computing power from vehicle to road measurement, and realize vehicle road coordination by using edge computing and end-to-end communication. This will lay a solid step for the interconnection of vehicle road cloud maps in the future. Only by accelerating the pilot of vehicle road cloud map integration and accelerating the intellectualization of urban road infrastructure can we consolidate the ‘lane changing overtaking’ of China’s automobile industry.” Miao Wei said.
