Recently, solid-state battery R & D provider Weilan new energy completed a new round of financing. According to tianyancha data, the industrial and commercial information of Weilan new energy has changed, adding a number of shareholders such as Xiaomi Changjiang industry fund, Hubble investment, an affiliated company of Huawei, Geely blue plan under Geely holdings. The registered capital increased to 61.367 million, an increase of 5.7%.
In only half a year, Weilan new energy has completed two rounds of financing in succession. The last time was in November last year, it completed round C financing of about 500 million yuan, and the investors also appeared in Xiaomi and Huawei.
Zhang Xiang, an expert of whale platform and President of New Energy Automobile Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi new energy technology vocational college, told the reporter of science and Innovation Board daily that solid-state batteries are in the early stage of commercialization, so they are concerned and actively invested by capital, especially car enterprises, including foreign Mercedes Benz, BMW and China’s Weilai, are actively investing in solid-state battery projects and factories. “At present, there are many solid-state battery projects in China, and many of them have entered the pilot stage of the production line.”
backed by the technical support of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
According to the official website, Weilan new energy, founded in 2016, is the only industrialization platform for solid-state battery technology in the Clean Energy Laboratory of the Institute of physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It focuses on the R & D and production of mixed solid-liquid electrolyte lithium-ion batteries and all solid-state lithium batteries. Its applications cover industries such as new energy vehicles and ships, large-scale energy storage, 3C consumption and so on. Headquartered in Beijing, the company has production bases in Fangshan, Beijing, Liyang, Jiangsu and Huzhou, Zhejiang.
According to the official website, there are three founders of Weilan new energy: Chen Liquan, Li Hong and Yu Huigen. All three are from the Institute of physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
According to public data, Chen Liquan is an academician of the Chinese Academy of engineering and doctoral director of the Institute of physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He graduated from the Department of physics of the University of science and technology of China in 1964. In his early years, he studied in Germany. After returning home in 1978, he has been engaged in solid ion and its application research in energy.
Li Hong is the chief scientist of Weilan new energy. He began to work in the Institute of physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1999 and is still a researcher of the Institute of physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Yu Huigen is the chairman and general manager of Weilan new energy. According to public data, he was born in 1968 and graduated from organic chemistry of Lanzhou University. At present, he is also a graduate supervisor and professor level senior engineer of the Institute of physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
According to the data of smart bud, the total number of applications for Wei Lan new energy patents is 172, including 63 valid patents. The number of patent applications of the company has soared since 2019, and nearly 80% of patent applications have been carried out in recent three years. Among them, there are 81 patents with Yu Huigen as the inventor.
At present, there are three mainstream systems of solid electrolyte materials: polymer, oxide and sulfide. The smart bud data shows that among the several valid patents with the highest market value of blue new energy, many involve sulfide. At present, the global solid-state battery projects carry out technical research and development on different electrolyte systems. Among them, European and American enterprises prefer oxide and polymer systems, while Japanese and Korean enterprises are more committed to solving sulfide systems. From the invention patent information of Weilan new energy, its technology research and development direction is sulfide system.
In addition, according to smart bud data, the applicant with the most cited blue new energy patents is honeycomb energy, with 9 citations Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) , Zhuhai Cosmx Battery Co.Ltd(688772) are also cited, with 4 items and 5 items respectively.
industrial capital bet on solid state batteries
Up to now, Weilan new energy has completed seven rounds of financing. The reporter of the science and technology innovation board daily noted that since 2021, Weilan new energy has attracted more attention from industrial capital.
According to tianyancha, in February 2021, Weilan new energy completed round B financing, and the leading investor was Fuqi capital. Public information shows that Fuqi investment belongs to Weilai Automobile Department, and the first venture capital fund is jointly initiated and managed by Weilai capital and Fuqi investment. Then in November 2021, Weilai capital participated in the c-round financing of Weilan new energy.
According to the equity penetration information of tianyancha, at present, the largest shareholder of Weilan new energy is Hefei blue mileage venture capital partnership, with a shareholding ratio of 19.15%. Public information shows that the subject is associated with Weilai capital.
Zhang Xiang told the reporter of science and Innovation Board daily that Weilai has injected capital into Weilan new energy for many times in order to play a competitive advantage in product differentiation, take solid-state batteries as a breakthrough and continue the market route of “providing users with the ultimate experience”. “In order to create a special user experience, Weilai must make an unusual way and try to avoid homogenization with the products of other car companies, so solid-state batteries are a good direction. So far, no car company has equipped mass-produced solid-state batteries. If Weilai becomes the first car company equipped with solid-state batteries, its products will probably sell well in the market, so Weilai will bet on solid-state batteries. Once it becomes the first car company Thanks, this is a very important milestone for Weilai and even the whole automobile industry. ” Zhang Xiang further said that Weilai’s current abundant cash flow also gave it space to explore and break through solid-state batteries.
At the beginning of this year, the new model et7 released by Weilai made the label of mass-produced solid-state battery technology as the selling point. However, according to the analysis of Soochow Securities Co.Ltd(601555) Research Report, the 150kwh battery or semi-solid battery carried by Weilai adopts ultra-high nickel positive electrode + pre lithium silicon carbon negative electrode + solid-liquid electrolyte (solid + liquid) + diaphragm, which belongs to the transitional technology from liquid to solid battery.
In addition to Weilai, Xiaomi and Huawei have also invested in Weilan new energy for many times.
According to the media, by the end of last year, in addition to Weilan new energy, Xiaomi had also invested in AVIC lithium battery, honeycomb energy, Ganfeng lithium battery, Zhuhai Cosmx Battery Co.Ltd(688772) etc. in the field of lithium battery. In order to speed up the production of cars, Xiaomi has successively invested in 35 automobile industry chain enterprises, covering the fields of complete vehicles, upstream and downstream of the supply chain, travel, automobile aftermarket and so on.
Although Huawei has repeatedly reiterated that it will not build cars, its two investments in Weilan new energy also show its interest in the battery field. According to Zhang Xiang’s analysis, Huawei’s investment in Weilan new energy is mainly due to three reasons.
\u3000\u3000 “On the one hand, Huawei does not have power battery business and products. On the other hand, the solid-state battery is still in the stage of laboratory research and development, and has not yet achieved mass production and commercialization. That is to say, if the solid-state battery project is successful, it will generate high income. Huawei will not invest much at this time, but the return on investment will be high after success. The third point is that the traditional battery industry has become very successful at present Familiar, the threshold is already very high, and it is almost impossible for Huawei to enter again. “
power battery market pattern changes
Zhang Xiang further said that due to the influence of multiple factors such as price, the field of power battery has changed.
\u3000\u3000 “Due to the rising prices of raw materials and the uncertainty of government subsidy policies, the market pattern of power batteries has changed. Lithium iron phosphate batteries are replacing ternary lithium batteries, mostly because the raw materials of ternary lithium batteries, including cobalt, lithium, carbonic acid and nickel, are rising, while lithium iron phosphate batteries are under less pressure from the rise of raw materials than ternary lithium batteries, so lithium iron phosphate is the latest trend of power batteries Two years of development. “
It is predicted that many changes will take place in the field of power batteries in the future. “At present, there are many technical routes in the area of batteries. In addition to lithium iron phosphate batteries, ternary lithium batteries, solid-state batteries, fuel cells, sodium ion batteries, cobalt free batteries and magazine batteries, various vehicle enterprises and battery manufacturers are innovating. There are also integrated battery packs from single battery to chassis, which are also developing synchronously. Which technical scheme will become the mainstream of the future market is still unclear Certainty. “
Cobalt free battery has long been a major upgrading direction of ternary battery route. At present, honeycomb energy has achieved mass production and supporting loading of cobalt free batteries last year.
Lithium iron phosphate battery also has the trend of upgrading to lithium manganese iron phosphate battery Soochow Securities Co.Ltd(601555) it is estimated that this technology is expected to be mass produced in the first half of 2023.
In terms of sodium ion battery, at the beginning of this month, the sodium ion battery company Zhongna energy completed the angel + round of financing, which was led by Country Garden venture capital.
