Recently, Zhao Weijun, executive director of vision power, pointed out at the electric vehicle hundred people’s meeting forum that globalization, zero carbon and in-depth coordinated development of the industrial chain are the three key factors to guide the development of the next generation power battery industry. “The battery industry and the upstream industry are a high energy consuming industry as a whole, and the carbon cost is very high. The battery industry must deeply integrate with the upstream enterprises, jointly provide more material supply, and reduce the energy cost and carbon cost in the supply process.”
At present, accelerating the development of new energy vehicles to achieve carbon reduction is the general trend. However, new energy vehicles are not without carbon emission pressure. The reporter learned that at this stage, carbon dioxide will still be generated in the production and even recycling of electric vehicles, among which power batteries are a large carbon footprint.
Sun Fengchun, academician of the Chinese Academy of engineering, once calculated that the carbon emission from the production of a fuel passenger car is 9.2 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, while the carbon emission from the production of a three-way power battery passenger car is 14.6 tons, and the carbon emission from a lithium iron phosphate battery passenger car is 14.7 tons. In this context, the industry generally believes that zero carbonization of power batteries will become an important basis for traffic decarbonization in the future.
In addition, at present, the EU is the first destination for China Shipbuilding Industry Group Power Co.Ltd(600482) batteries to “go to sea”. In recent years, the EU’s carbon emission requirements have become more and more strict. Battery enterprises must understand the new rules in advance, otherwise they will face the risk of losing the EU market.
In December 2020, the European Commission proposed new battery regulations, requiring that only electric vehicle batteries with established carbon footprint statements can be put on the market from July 1, 2024. At the same time, the European Commission also proposed to set new requirements and targets for the carbon content of recycled materials and the collection, treatment and recycling of batteries. In the view of insiders, the increasingly strict import battery product specifications of the EU are likely to impact China Shipbuilding Industry Group Power Co.Ltd(600482) battery products. The China Shipbuilding Industry Group Power Co.Ltd(600482) battery industry needs to make adjustments as soon as possible to maintain its dominant position in the global market.
“We should start the research on China’s battery carbon footprint standards and methodology as soon as possible, establish a product carbon emission management system, participate in the formulation of global carbon neutralization rules, and promote the establishment of a mutual recognition mechanism for battery carbon footprint management with the EU, which is very important to ensure the global competitiveness of China’s battery industry.” Zeng Yuqun, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) chairman, publicly appealed.
Not only international organizations such as the European Union, but also multinational vehicle enterprises such as BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz, Renault and Volvo have gradually begun to put forward life-cycle carbon emission requirements to power battery suppliers. Based on the above changes, the establishment of a carbon footprint system is an unavoidable task for battery enterprises who want to enter the European market.
At present, some power battery manufacturers in China have taken precautions to reduce the carbon footprint in the production process in order to maintain their competitiveness Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) , vision power, honeycomb energy, Gotion High-Tech Co.Ltd(002074) and other major power battery enterprises in China have taken action. For example, Zeng Yuqun publicly stated in December last year that the application of power batteries and energy storage batteries provides key support for carbon peak and carbon neutralization, but the battery industry should also take its own carbon reduction as an important goal. At present, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) has established a sustainable development committee, which will take the carbon emission of materials as an important consideration when purchasing. Honeycomb energy has announced to build an AI intelligent ecological alliance to improve efficiency and quality and carbon tracing through artificial intelligence, advanced analysis, edge / Cloud Computing and other technologies.
“In terms of dealing with foreign trade barriers to carbon emissions, first, we should take the high requirements of carbon emissions as the input condition from the source of battery research and development, and do not use or use less battery materials that do not meet local standards; second, innovate new technologies for low-carbon battery production process; third, establish a battery recycling system nearby and try to combine it with the vehicle sales system.” Cao Guangping, an independent researcher of new energy and intelligent networked vehicles, said.
According to the analysis of GGII, the carbon footprint tracing of China Shipbuilding Industry Group Power Co.Ltd(600482) battery industry depends on the systematic planning and standard establishment of top-level design on the one hand, and gives full play to the experience of leading enterprises to jointly promote the management of carbon footprint through the horizontal and vertical cooperation between the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.
In addition to reducing carbon emissions at the upstream raw material production end, recycling and echelon utilization of waste batteries are also effective measures to realize carbon emission management of lithium battery industry chain.
Sun Fengchun believes that by improving manufacturing technology and recycling lithium-ion batteries, carbon dioxide emissions in the production process can be greatly reduced. “In the use stage, the emission of electric vehicles is 2% – 43% less than that of fuel vehicles. On this basis, if the power consumption of electric vehicles is reduced and the proportion of new energy power use is increased, the emission reduction will be further improved. In the scrap recovery stage, the recovery of electric vehicles can reduce the emission of 5.1 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, so that the emission in the production stage can be reduced to 9.8 tons, reducing about 34%.”
