Weilai applied to build an R&D center, and wanted to develop its own power battery.
Weilai applied to build an R&D center, and wanted to develop its own power battery. As early as September 221, Weilai released a self-developed power battery package. The battery pack adopts the mixed arrangement of lithium ternary and lithium iron phosphate batteries, and Weilai Shenjian R&D Center wants to develop its own power battery. Weilai Shenjian R&D Center wants to develop its own power battery 1 < P > On May 25th, the environmental public platform of Shanghai enterprises and institutions showed that Weilai Automobile was going to build a new R&D base in Jiading District, Shanghai, for the research and development of automobile power batteries. According to the announcement, the base includes 31 research and development laboratories for lithium battery cells and battery packs, as well as a lithium battery trial production line and a battery pack line.
(Source: environmental public platform of enterprises and institutions)
Combined with the EIA report submitted by Weilai Automobile, the total construction area of the R&D base reached 22,9.2 square meters, and the construction period was from August to October, 222, with a total investment of 218.5 million yuan. The base is expected to be engaged in research and development for about 25 days, with a staff size of more than 4 people.
The R&D laboratory mainly researches and explores the charging and discharging performance, temperature performance and safety performance of lithium-ion batteries and battery packs in different environments such as temperature, tension and humidity. The trial production line and battery pack line are responsible for the trial production of lithium-ion batteries and battery packs.
obviously, weilai invested in the construction of this research and development base in order to develop its own automotive power battery. Previously, Weilai had released the first 15kWh semi-solid battery with an energy density as high as 36Wh/kg, much higher than the mainstream ternary lithium battery's 2Wh/kg. This semi-solid battery is applied to the latest Weilai ET7, with a cruising range of more than 1, kilometers. It should be the pure electric vehicle with the highest cruising range at present.
(Source: Weilai official)
The power battery can be regarded as the heart of an electric car, which affects the power performance, endurance and charging of the car. The stronger the comprehensive performance index of the battery, the better the chance to build more advanced models. Nowadays, the whole automobile industry is undergoing electrification transformation, but many automobile companies use the most mainstream lithium iron phosphate batteries or ternary lithium batteries. Although the battery specifications selected by different automobile manufacturers are slightly different, it is difficult to open too much gap, and it is impossible to make their own cars stand out from the industry.
The self-developed blade battery contributed to the sales of BYD's electric vehicles, which is the core competitiveness of BYD. In addition, Tesla's own 468 battery has also been put into production. Compared with the old battery, it has higher energy density and can extend the battery life by more than 15%, which can also improve the competitiveness of Tesla cars in the market.
Therefore, it is imperative to develop self-developed power batteries in order to make our products more eye-catching and have advantages over other manufacturers. It can be boldly guessed that Weilai is definitely not the only company that is developing its own batteries, but also many car companies such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota. In the future, they will compete with each other's technical strength. I wonder if Weilai can take this opportunity to catch up with Tesla? Weilai Shenjian R&D Center wants to independently develop power battery 2 < P > On May 25th, the environmental information disclosure platform of Shanghai enterprises and institutions showed that Shanghai Weilai Automobile Co., Ltd. planned to invest 218.5 million yuan to build a new R&D project in Anting Town, Jiading District, Shanghai, including 31 R&D laboratories engaged in R&D of lithium-ion batteries and battery packs, as well as a lithium-ion battery trial production line and a battery pack line. It is expected that construction will be carried out from August to October this year.
some people in the industry believe that this means that Weilai has started to research its own batteries, so as to prepare for self-research, self-production and self-use power batteries. However, Weilai Automobile has not yet responded to the First Financial Reporter on whether it will research and produce its own batteries. However, in the engineering analysis of the construction project, Weilai Automobile clearly stated that the construction of the trial production line of this project is intended to make a preliminary exploration for the possible large-scale production in the subsequent development process, and the trial samples will be used for subsequent in-depth development.
As early as September 221, Weilai released a self-developed power battery pack. The battery pack adopts the mixed arrangement of ternary lithium and lithium iron phosphate batteries, which is called "ternary lithium iron" battery in Weilai and has its related invention patents. However, it is worth noting that the suppliers of ternary lithium batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries in this battery pack are both from Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited.
At present, Weilai Automobile has two power battery suppliers, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited and Weilan New Energy. However, Weilan New Energy focuses on semi-solid and solid batteries, and has not yet entered the mass production stage. At present, all power battery cells used in Weilai products are provided by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited.
according to statistics from SPIR, weilai automobile will be the second largest customer in Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited in 221, second only to Tesla. Xpeng Motors is Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited's third largest customer, and about 8% of its power battery supply comes from Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited. In addition, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited is the sole supplier of LI.
according to the data of China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, the market share of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited has been above 5% for two consecutive years, accounting for half of the power batteries in China. However, relying only on Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited to supply power batteries has brought risks to some new energy vehicle companies.
Earlier, due to battery supply problems, the delivery of some models in Tucki was delayed, which led to user rights protection incidents; Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of Weilai Automobile, also said in the earnings conference call in March last year that the battery supply in the second quarter of that year was its biggest bottleneck.
Zhang Xiang, a researcher in the automotive industry, once said in an interview with the media that "Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited's production capacity is limited and it is impossible to meet the supply needs of so many car companies, so car companies have to find other suppliers." He believes that more than 5% of the market share makes Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited's right to speak too much, which is not what car companies are happy to see.
with the continuous expansion of the sales scale of new energy vehicles, the price increase and shortage of power batteries have become the "painful pain" for new energy vehicle enterprises. In addition, there are reports that car companies are dissatisfied with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited's relatively strong attitude, and many car companies have begun to lay out "alternative plans" outside Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited.
at the earnings conference call on may 23rd, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xpeng Motors, said that Xpeng Motors has been introducing more battery partners since the second half of last year, expecting more battery partners to solve the problem of insufficient production capacity caused by the lack of batteries. On February 24th this year, Weirui, an affiliated company of Weilai, invested in Xinwangda battery, with a capital contribution of 25 million yuan and holding 2% shares.
On March 27th, Gu Huinan, general manager of Guangzhou Automobile Ai 'an, told the media that the trial production line of Ai 'an battery will be put into operation by the end of this year, with the goal of mastering its own core technology and still maintaining cooperation with the upstream lithium battery company. Recently, Weilai's EIA report also shows Weilai's self-research on technologies such as battery cells and battery packs.
Yu Qingjiao, secretary-general of Zhongguancun New Battery Technology Innovation Alliance and chairman of Battery committee of 1, told the First Financial Reporter that the risk of battery supplier monopoly is too high; Secondly, with the expansion of market space, automakers don't want to just "work" for the upstream, but also try to change the monopoly situation in Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited and compete for the corresponding pricing power. Weilai applied to build an R&D center and wanted to develop its own power battery 3
Recently, Weilai drew attention to the news of developing its own power battery.
according to the environmental information disclosure platform of Shanghai enterprises and institutions, Weilai Automobile plans to build a new R&D project in Anting Town, Jiading District, Shanghai, including 31 R&D laboratories engaged in the research and development of lithium-ion batteries and battery packs, as well as a trial production line of lithium-ion batteries and a battery pack line. It is planned to invest 218.5 million yuan, and the number of relevant personnel will reach 4. It is expected that construction will be carried out from August to October this year.
The document shows that the R&D laboratory is mainly engaged in lithium-ion battery charging and discharging test, temperature test, sealing test and safety performance test. Lithium ion battery trial production line and battery pack line are mainly engaged in the trial production of lithium ion batteries and battery packs.
at the same time, the research and development laboratory aims to explore the charging and discharging performance, temperature performance and safety performance of lithium-ion batteries and battery packs under different physical experimental conditions such as temperature, tension and humidity, and explore the physical and chemical properties, ratio, modification, optimization conditions of liquid injection and battery packaging.
It is worth noting that at present, the two test centers of Weilai are located in Anting Town, Shanghai, and their business covers the whole system testing and research and development of new energy and intelligent vehicles, such as vehicle, vehicle electronic architecture integration, power management and charging and replacing facilities, after-sales service, spare parts management and distribution, etc. It can be predicted that the power battery research and development laboratory will form synergy with the two test centers to promote the research and development of new energy vehicles.
As a representative of the new car-making forces, Weilai Automobile has always emphasized self-research and invested heavily in research and development every year. The financial report shows that Weilai Automobile invested 4.592 billion yuan, an increase of 84.58%. Previously, Wei Lai had revealed that he would develop mobile phones and chips, which was hotly debated. The power battery is a vital part of new energy vehicles, which accounts for the bulk of the low cost of the whole vehicle. Once self-research is realized, it will benefit a lot.
At present, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited occupies about 3% of the domestic power battery market, and Weilai is also its big customer. However, in the upstream, the price of raw materials remains high, and power battery manufacturers have raised prices one after another, which makes the OEM miserable. Therefore, OEMs have to find more suppliers of power batteries to get rid of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited's dependence. Self-research is naturally a choice once and for all, but it is not easy to face objective factors such as technology, mass production and scale.