Will the opening of Japanese and Korean battery companies impact the battery industry pattern?

Recently, Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan and Matsushita Electric Corporation announced that they will establish a battery joint venture before the end of 2020. Among them, Toyota holds the majority, holding 51% of the shares, and Panasonic holding 49%. The two parties will jointly develop and produce high-capacity electric vehicle batteries, and strive to achieve mass production by 2025. It is worth mentioning that the batteries produced by the new joint venture are not only supplied to Toyota, but also open to other automakers, such as Toyota's Daihatsu Industry, and Mazda and Subaru that have cooperation with Toyota in the development of electric vehicles. There may be more brands. Joint ventures and opening up will become a new weapon for power lithium-ion battery competition. This joint venture and cooperation between the two parties has been interpreted by industry insiders as each taking what they need and staying together. Indeed, in the face of the general trend of global new energy vehicle development and the big cake in the Chinese market, the current pure electric vehicle products are already in full bloom. Toyota, which has not yet done anything in pure electric vehicles, urgently needs to accelerate the layout of a complete supply chain. According to Toyota's plan, starting from 2020, pure electric vehicle models will be introduced in my country, and by 2025, more than 10 pure electric vehicle models will be launched globally. The joint venture with Panasonic to produce batteries will not only provide basic battery supply guarantees for the implementation of its plan, but the joint development of new batteries will also tailor Toyota's pure electric vehicles. For Panasonic, opening up the battery to more automakers and getting rid of the limitation of supplying Tesla for a long time will not only expand resources, but also help improve its battery technology level and shipment volume to cope with the next A more competitive battery industry environment. In fact, Toyota and Panasonic’s joint venture to produce batteries is not the first in the industry. SAIC, GAC, Dongfeng Motor, SAIC GM and other automakers have also established battery joint ventures with CATL in the past two years. BAIC New Energy, Geely, Jiangling, Changan , Fuqi Group, BMW Brilliance, Jaguar Land Rover, Volkswagen, etc., have also established strategic partnerships with CATL. In addition, BYD, which has always relied on battery self-sufficiency, announced in 2017 that its power lithium-ion battery business was officially opened to the outside world, and it will form a battery joint venture with Changan to exclusively supply Changan Automobile. The joint venture between automobile manufacturers and battery companies and the opening of battery companies are a combination of the rapid development of the new energy automobile industry and the survival of the fittest by the company. In other words, behind the joint venture and opening up is the company's performance of competing for resources and strengthening itself. Before the tide comes, battery companies that have more resources and understand the precise needs of automakers will become stronger and stronger, so joint ventures and openness Will become a new weapon for power lithium-ion battery companies to compete. Will the opening of Japanese and Korean battery companies impact the battery industry pattern? The key reason why the joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic has attracted widespread attention in the industry is that this is a new attempt by Panasonic in the battery field. For a long time, Panasonic batteries have mainly supplied the Tesla brand. Now, as Tesla builds factories in my country and makes its Model 3, Model Y and other models domestically produced, in order to reduce costs and maintain orderly production in the supply chain, Tesla also Looking for high-quality battery suppliers in my country to meet the battery supply of domestic models. This also had to make Panasonic look for more auto manufacturer resources for in-depth cooperation to prevent unnecessary losses due to the decrease in Tesla's demand. This new attempt may usher in new changes. Once Panasonic has tasted the sweetness of the joint venture with Toyota, it will also cooperate with other automakers and continue to open up its own batteries after joint venture production. After such incubation and recycling, the current industrial pattern of power lithium-ion batteries will also Will be reshaped. Taking China as an example, according to data released by the my country Automotive Power Lithium-ion Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, in 2018, my country’s cumulative production of power lithium-ion batteries reached 70.6GWh, sales reached 62.3GWh, and installed capacity totaled 56.9GWh, an increase of 56.3% year-on-year. Among them, the top three companies in my country's power lithium-ion battery production produced a total of 44.5GWh, accounting for 63.0%; the top ten companies produced a total of 61.7GWh, accounting for 87.5%. Although the top ten companies are all Chinese battery companies, it should not be underestimated that the potential of Japanese and Korean battery companies to compete with Chinese battery companies is immeasurable, especially in terms of price and technology. According to a battery production company cost report released by the international investment analysis agency UBS at the end of 2018, through disassembly and analysis of lithium-ion batteries produced by Tesla/Panasonic, LG Chem, Samsung SDI, and CATL, Panasonic 21700 The cost of cylindrical lithium-ion batteries is 111 US dollars/kWh, LG Chem’s cost is 148 US dollars/kWh, and the Ningde era has the highest cost, exceeding 150 US dollars/kWh. In terms of technology, Panasonic is at least 2-3 years ahead of my country's leading power lithium-ion battery companies in the industrialization of higher-energy-density, high-nickel ternary lithium-ion battery and its application in passenger cars. I have to admit that in terms of technology, Japanese and Korean batteries still have a strong advantage over domestic batteries. Therefore, the opening of Japanese and Korean batteries to car companies will not only facilitate the cooperation between the two parties to develop more tailor-made batteries, but also the battery technology is expected to be further improved, and the cost is also expected to be reduced. Once this kind of joint venture and cooperation becomes a trend, it is bound to have a certain impact on the current battery industry structure and pose a certain threat to my country's battery companies. Domestic battery companies must not only accelerate the improvement of their own Ru0026D level, but also seize the resources of more auto manufacturers to identify the precise needs of auto manufacturers to match their production of batteries that are more in line with their product positioning. In the competition between Japanese and Korean companies, the wings continue to grow.