Since electric vehicle batteries are expensive and have many problems, why don't major car companies produce their own batteries?

At present, in addition to BYD's self-produced and self-sold power batteries, many car companies choose to purchase batteries from third parties. However, with the continuous development of the new energy vehicle market, many car companies choose to build their own battery factories.

So which car companies choose to set foot in the battery industry, what are the reasons behind it? Brother Dian will give you a good inventory today.

Tesla: New battery technology needs factory support.

In fact, as early as February 2020, Tesla officially launched the "Roadrunner" power battery self-production plan, which will bring lower costs after self-production.

Tesla acquired Hibar, a Canadian battery manufacturing equipment and engineering technology research and development company, and Maxwell, a battery and capacitor technology research and development company, in 20 19. Both companies are developing technologies that can achieve better battery quality and more efficient production costs.

After all, last month's Tesla Battery Day, Musk introduced a series of new battery technologies: the brand-new "4680" electrodeless battery brought by Tesla on Battery Day, with a diameter of 48 mm and a height of 80 mm, which is different from the all-solid-state battery pursued by domestic academic circles. It eliminates the tab that generates a lot of heat energy and solves the heat dissipation problem with high energy density. The capacity of a single battery is increased by five times and the discharge power is increased by six times. Compared with the traditional battery pack, the battery life can be increased by 16% if it is replaced by an electrodeless battery.

With regard to the production plan of the electrodeless battery, it is reported that Musk said that the 4680 battery will be mass-produced on the new assembly line of the factory, and it is planned that the annual output of the battery will reach 10GWh by the end of 2002/kloc-0. However, Musk also admitted that the design and manufacturing process of the new battery has not been completely completed, and it will take three years to fully put into production.

Of course, the electrodeless battery is not all. At this stage, Musk has made it clear that he will continue to cooperate with battery cooperation suppliers Panasonic, LG Chemical and Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. The power battery was upgraded from 18650 to 2 170. The new battery consists of a battery cover and a battery packaging sleeve, and there is a pull ring inside, which is connected to the coil packaging. After the battery is unfolded, it has a packaging structure of nearly 1 m, and the energy density of the battery cell is increased by 50%.

In addition, Tesla also divided different battery technology products according to product properties, which shows that the importance of lithium iron phosphate battery in Tesla product sequence has increased. Low-end cars and Robotaxi use iron batteries, aiming at long life. The same size and model, continue the current nickel-containing battery. Those that need high energy density, such as Semi and Cybertruck, will use batteries with higher nickel content.

The landing of these new technologies does not depend on self-built factories, and it is not an easy task to really land.

The Great Wall: How Cellular Energy Arm-wrestling with Giants

In addition to Tesla, Great Wall New Energy's progress in building its own battery factory is also worthy of recognition.

Cellular energy has inherent advantages in the research and development of automotive power batteries. As a power battery factory from an automobile manufacturer, its automotive AI factory adopts stricter environmental control, stricter burr control, higher detection rate of metal foreign bodies, higher detection rate of battery self-discharge, better process traceability system, SPC control of the whole process, comprehensive application of AI intelligent technology and higher standard process control.

Therefore, it is not difficult to see that Honeycomb Energy is based on the design and manufacturing standards of automotive-grade batteries, aiming to become an independent global power battery supplier and provide services for global automobile enterprises.

Judging from the order volume, Honeycomb has been supplying new energy vehicles to the Great Wall, especially the exclusive brand of Great Wall electric vehicles, Euler: 20 19, which sold a total of 38,865 new vehicles, achieving the first sales growth rate in A00 market segment. With the guarantee of Euler's sales, there is no need to worry about the shipment of honeycomb energy.

In addition, in cooperation with external automobile manufacturers, Honeycomb Energy has obtained a formal procurement contract from PSA Group, and the company will provide various power battery equipment for PSA models in the next few years. During the whole project life cycle, the procurement volume of the project is expected to exceed 7GWh.

As a "new battery army" coming out of car companies, the current pace of Honeycomb Energy is still quite stable.

Volkswagen: aiming to seize the opportunity of European battery industry

Earlier, Volkswagen Group announced plans to invest 450 million euros (equivalent to 3.5 billion yuan) to establish a lithium battery factory. It is estimated that construction will start at the end of 2020, and it will be put into production in 2023 at the earliest, with an initial production capacity of 16 GWh.

Volkswagen official said: "After the factory is completed, the joint venture company Northvolt will? Zwei Leasing, the Wolfsburg-based company is confirming the factory construction schedule and is expected to start at the end of 2020. "

It is reported that at present, Volkswagen mainly relies on third-party suppliers such as LG Chem, Samsung, SK Innovation and Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., and the purchase contract amount exceeds 40 billion US dollars (about 282.9 billion yuan). The capacity of 16GWh invested this time is enough to produce 320,000 electric vehicles (average battery capacity of 50kWh), which will save a lot of costs for the public once it is completed.

According to overseas media reports, the Zwickau factory in Germany, which produces ID series, resumed production on April 23rd, and the daily production capacity of ID.3 has exceeded 100 units. After the factory fully resumes production in the future, it is estimated that the annual production capacity will reach 330,000 vehicles, which means that Volkswagen will basically meet the battery supply of ID.3 through its own battery factory.

According to the planning of Audi AG, in the next 10 year, Volkswagen will introduce nearly 70 brand-new electric vehicles to the market, and the number of new energy vehicles produced based on the Group's electrification platform is expected to reach 22 million in the future. At the same time, Volkswagen predicts that the demand for batteries in Europe and Asia alone will increase to more than 300Gwh per year. In addition, compared with the power battery enterprises in China and even in Asia, the power battery field in Europe is rarely well-known, so it is obviously necessary for the public to choose this node to cut into the power battery industry.

Why build your own factory?

As the "heart" of electric vehicles, batteries account for nearly half of the cost of the whole vehicle. It can be said that the battery is directly related to the development of electric vehicles, but the self-built battery factory is only to reduce costs? Obviously, there are deeper reasons behind it.

On the one hand, the cost of self-built batteries can also quickly improve the production capacity of vehicles and master the core technology of core batteries. From the cost point of view, if there is no battery factory, the production of vehicles can not be separated from the purchase of batteries. Tesla model? For example, the pure electric system even accounts for 50%-60% of the vehicle cost, and the power battery accounts for more than 40%, which shows the proportion of the power battery cost in the vehicle cost. Self-built factories can further reduce battery costs and bring more profit margins.

On the other hand, self-built factories can also avoid the problem of neck sticking due to insufficient battery capacity, and avoid economic losses caused by battery manufacturers' limited capacity.

To sum up, it can be seen that the self-built battery factory is not only to reduce costs, but also related to the core technology of batteries. Moreover, self-built battery factory can also avoid the problems caused by insufficient battery capacity.

Edit abstract

In fact, in recent years, the new energy vehicle market has undergone great changes, and the power battery market, which is changing synchronously with the new energy vehicle market, is also changing quietly. Therefore, both the defender and the attacker should take battery technology and battery production as important weapons.

At least, it is certain that the power battery market will rewrite the new market structure, and a new battle for giants in the power battery industry has begun.

This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.