The history of lithium batteries can be traced back to 1983. At that time, a Japanese scientist successfully produced a prototype of a lithium battery. This was also the world's first rechargeable lithium battery. The scientist announced it in 2019 He also won the Nobel Prize that year. However, the lithium battery at that time did not have suitable usage scenarios, and due to technical flaws, it could not achieve the ideal optimal effect. Moreover, safety hazards were also the biggest obstacle restricting its commercial use. It was not until 1991 that Japan completely broke through the technical limitations and mass-produced lithium batteries for commercial use. In the past 20 years or so, Japan has firmly held the number one position in the global market share of lithium batteries, and had no rivals in the past ten years or so.
China’s lithium batteries only started to take off in 2005, and South Korea’s lithium batteries also started at this time. However, in just 9 years, in 2014, China’s lithium battery market share had completely exceeded Japan. Currently, China has six of the top ten lithium battery companies in the world, and the other four companies, Japan and South Korea, account for two each.
It is not an exaggeration to say that China’s lithium battery industry has a monopoly on the world, and its share of the world is still increasing, mainly due to new energy vehicles. Since the concept of "carbon neutrality" was proposed, the status of fuel vehicles has been in jeopardy, and new energy vehicles are actively promoted by countries around the world. Although Europe is the birthplace of fuel vehicles, there is no way to be "exempt" this time. The whole world is engaged in new energy sources, and Europe cannot lag behind.
Based on global new energy vehicle sales in 2018 and 2019, the growth rate in 2020 can be calculated. However, due to the epidemic, sales last year and this year did not meet expectations. However, the sales of new energy vehicles in the European market during this health incident surpassed that of China, becoming the world's largest automobile sales region. But the problem comes back to lithium batteries. China monopolizes the world lithium battery market with a market share of about 80%, which means that at least 7 or 8 out of ten cars use Chinese brand lithium batteries. In the future new energy vehicle market , if even the basic power problem cannot be completely self-sufficient, the development of new energy vehicles will be just a joke.
Because of the desire to increase revenue and the excessive worry that we will impose counter-sanctions on European countries, Europe has been building factories frantically in the past two years, hoping to fully realize self-production of lithium batteries after 2025. Although this idea is good, it is very difficult to implement in practice. Global lithium resources are very limited. Even we, a major exporter of lithium batteries, do not have much lithium resources, and Europe is not worth mentioning. Lithium resources mainly come from countries in South America and Australia, but our country has a very early layout. We have equity interests in companies mining lithium resources in Australia, Chile, Ireland, Argentina and other countries. It is reported that China already owns half of the world's lithium resources. I don't know whether this statement is true, but it also proves that my country has abundant lithium resources.
Our country can have such foresight and layout in lithium batteries, and we have to thank Chen Liquan, an academician of the Academy of Engineering. In 2001, the concept of new energy had not yet been fully recognized, and the use of lithium batteries as power had not been recognized domestically. Research on lithium batteries was not promising at all, and it was even doubtful whether the project could continue. Later, Academician Chen requested the relevant person in charge, hoping to give lithium batteries a chance and give him a chance. Later, he spent ten years to fully realize the localization of lithium batteries and carried out research on various forms of lithium batteries, which injected strong impetus into the development of China's lithium batteries.
Although lithium batteries were first developed in Japan, they have not been improved during decades of use. However, China has continued to modify lithium batteries during its short period of use. This is no longer the case. Innovation is so simple. Through experimental research, some other materials are added to the original lithium battery to make the battery performance stronger.
Moreover, the equipment and raw materials on our current production lines are basically self-produced, and the technology accumulated over the years is also constantly cultivating the next generation of talents.
Not only in the trade of lithium batteries, but also in many market areas, European countries cannot stop the benefits brought by China. Only through multi-faceted cooperation can we win the most. Therefore, European countries have also been frequently showing signs to China recently. good. Especially after Italy won an order worth more than 30 billion yuan from China, other European countries have also extended their olive branches to China. For example, in addition to Serbia, Poland, Ireland and Hungary have invited our foreign ministers to ask for in-depth cooperation some time ago. In fact, it is because China’s influence in all aspects continues to increase. A small lithium battery can monopolize their market, let alone other products. Moreover, our foreign minister also said that he will encourage Chinese people to build factories in these countries to help them stimulate their economies. From this we can see that embracing China is the future development trend. We can help them build not only lithium batteries but also other industries.
But having said that, if Europe wants to completely break away from China’s lithium battery imports and completely implement self-research, in addition to raw material problems, it will also face technical difficulties, because we hold a huge amount of lithium battery patents and want to circumvent After that, we must upgrade the lithium battery. In addition, of the 15 lithium battery factories that Europe has invested in in recent years, only one is owned by Europeans. Most of the other 14 are controlled by Chinese companies, and the rest are also controlled by Japan and South Korea. Therefore, Europe’s deployment of the lithium battery industry is not only much late, but now it can’t even drink soup.