GS Yuasa HEV lithium battery production doubled

The market demand for HEV batteries continues to increase, attracting supporting battery companies to increase capital and expand production. Foreign media reported that GS Yuasa, an established Japanese battery company, plans to at least double the production of its HEV lithium-ion batteries, and is currently building a second battery plant, which is scheduled to start production in 2022. GS Yuasa established a joint venture battery company BlueEnergy with Honda in 2009 to produce HEV lithium-ion batteries. The products are mainly square. With the development of the HEV market, BlueEnergy's batteries have evolved from the earliest cylindrical to square shell, optimized from 4.7Ah EH5 to EHW5 5Ah. Among them, the EHW4S battery has a capacity of 3.7Ah, a voltage of 3.6V, a size of 120.0x12.5x65.0mm (width x depth x height), a mass of 0.19 kg, and a maximum operating current of 300A. GS Yuasa has an annual production capacity of 20 million HEV lithium battery cells. After the new plant is put into operation, its total output is expected to reach 50 million per year. Based on an HEV with approximately 56 batteries, the current annual output of GS Yuasa is about 360,000 HEV models. After the expansion, it will be able to support 890,000 vehicles, which doubles the output. As a veteran player in the HEV lithium-ion battery market, GS Yuasa has a layout in the technical routes of lithium manganese oxide and lithium iron phosphate batteries. It supplies lithium-ion batteries to Japanese car companies such as Honda, Toyota, and Mitsubishi. 1.2 million HEV models are supplied with lithium-ion batteries. The purpose of this expansion of HEV lithium-ion battery production is also to meet the rising demand of the downstream market and further increase its market share. The charging power of a single HEV vehicle is generally 1-10KWh. If the charging power of a single vehicle is 5KWh, according to the sales volume of 38 million vehicles in 2025, and HEV models account for 50%, the demand for HEV batteries is expected to reach 95GWh in 2025. Calculating with a bicycle value of 9,800 yuan/vehicle, assuming an annual decrease of 8%, the market space is expected to be close to 100 billion yuan in 2025. At present, international car companies including Toyota, Honda, Nissan, GM, Hyundai Kia, Ford and other international car companies are accelerating the layout and market planning of HEV models. At the same time, Chinese brands including Guangzhou Automobile, BYD, Geely, Dongfeng, Great Wall and other Chinese brands have also entered the HEV model track. , And there will be strong demand for HEV lithium-ion batteries. It is worth noting that in addition to GS Yuasa, there are also many Chinese battery companies that have targeted the HEV lithium-ion battery market and have made major breakthroughs. At present, Chinese battery companies including CATL, Honeycomb Energy, Xinwangda, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Wanxiang 123, and Camel are all actively deploying the HEV lithium-ion battery market. Xinwangda and Yiwei Lithium Energy have also won the project designation of Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover and BMW, and directly compete with battery companies such as GS Yuasa, Panasonic and PEVE in the field of HEV lithium-ion batteries. It is foreseeable that, driven by favorable policies and market demand, global HEV models will usher in a new round of rise, driving new demand for lithium-ion battery applications. At that time, more Chinese lithium-ion battery companies will join the HEV lithium-ion battery market.