North America is the third largest auto market in the world after Asia and Europe. The electrification of cars in this market is also accelerating.
On the policy side, in 2021, the Biden administration proposed to invest $174 billion in the development of electric vehicles. Of that, $15 billion is for infrastructure, $45 billion for various vehicle subsidies and $14 billion for incentives for some electric models. The following August, the Biden administration signed an executive order calling for 50 percent of U.S. cars to be electric by 2030.
At the market end, tesla, GM, Ford, Volkswagen, Daimler, Stellantis, Toyota, Honda, Rivian and other traditional and new energy vehicle companies have all proposed ambitious electrification strategies. It is estimated that according to the strategic goal of electrification, the sales volume of new electric vehicles in the US market alone is expected to reach 5.5 million by 2025, and the demand for power batteries may exceed 300GWh.
There is no doubt that the world's major car companies will be closely watching the North American market, the market for power batteries in the next few years will also "increase".
However, the market has yet to produce a homegrown power battery player that can compete with the dominant Asian players. Against the backdrop of accelerating electrification of north American cars, power battery companies from China, Japan and South Korea have concentrated on the North American market this year.
In particular, Korean and Korean battery companies including LG New Energy, Panasonic Battery, SK ON, and Samsung SDI are focusing on North America for future investment in 2022.
Recently, Chinese companies such as Ningde Times, Vision Power and Guoxuan High-tech have listed the construction of power battery plants in North America on their schedule.
According to foreign media reports, Ningde Times has planned to invest $5 billion to build a power battery plant in North America, with a target capacity of 80GWh, supporting Customers in the North American market such as Tesla. At the same time, the plant will also meet the demand of lithium batteries in the North American energy storage market.
Last month, ningde era in accepting the mechanism research, said the company with the customer to discuss the various possible supply and cooperation scheme, as well as the possibility of local production, "in addition, the company in the United States energy storage customers want local supply, the company will consider factors such as battery capacity, customer demand, production costs determined again."
At present, Panasonic Battery, LG New Energy, SK ON and Samsung SDI from Japan and South Korea are continuously increasing their plant investment in North America, and have adopted the mode of "bundling" with local car companies in the United States. For Chinese enterprises, if they enter too late, they will undoubtedly lose part of their advantages.
In addition to Ningde Times, Guoxuan High-tech has also reached cooperation with customers and intends to build factories in North America. In December last year, Guoxuan Won an order from a listed CAR company in the United States to supply the company with at least 200GWh of power batteries over the next six years. According to Guoxuan, the two companies plan to produce and supply lithium iron phosphate batteries locally in the United States and jointly explore the possibility of forming a joint venture in the future.
Unlike the other two, which are still under consideration in North America, Vision Power has already decided to build a second power battery plant in the United States. Vision Power has entered into a partnership with Mercedes-Benz to supply power batteries for the EQS and EQE, Mercedes' next generation luxury pure electric SUV models. Vision Dynamics said it will build a new digital zero-carbon power battery plant in the United States that it plans to mass-produce in 2025. This will be vision Power's second battery plant in the United States.
Based on the forecast of the future demand for power and energy storage batteries, the planned capacity of batteries in the local market of China has exceeded 3000GWh at present, and the local and foreign battery enterprises in Europe have mushroomed and grown rapidly, and the planned capacity of batteries has also exceeded 1000GWh. Relatively speaking, the North American market is still in the early stage of layout. Only a few battery companies from Japan and South Korea have made active plans. In the next few years, it is expected that more battery companies from other regions and even local battery companies will gradually land.
With the acceleration of electrification in the North American market by domestic and foreign car companies, the development of power and energy storage battery in the North American market will also enter a fast lane. At the same time, considering the characteristics of the North American automobile market, it is expected that battery enterprises will present the following characteristics when they set up factories in North America.
First, it will be a trend for battery enterprises to cooperate with North American automobile enterprises.
From the point of the landing battery factories in North America, panasonic and tesla joint venture, new energy and general motors, LG Stellantis joint venture, SK on joint venture with ford, the future vision of the power the second plant in North America are also expected to mainly supporting mercedes-benz, ningde era north American plants is tesla prophase main customer is expected, If Guoxuan sets up a factory in North America, its first plant is expected to mainly serve its contracted car companies.
The North American automobile market is relatively mature, and the market share of major automobile companies is relatively obvious, which poses great challenges for foreign battery enterprises in establishing factories and cooperating with customers. Throughout the current beach Asian battery manufacturers, are mainly the first to finalize cooperative customers, and then jointly build factories.
2. There are many factors to consider for the location of the factory, including the United States, Canada and Mexico.
LG New Energy, Panasonic Battery, SK ON and Samsung SDI have chosen to build plants in the U.S. The United States is the main market for North American cars, but considering the impact of worker training, efficiency, labor unions and other factors on quality and cost, battery companies that have not yet established a presence in the North American market will also consider countries that are more competitive in terms of labor, plant and efficiency.
For example, Ningde Times previously revealed that it would give priority to building a factory in Mexico. "It is ideal to build a factory in Mexico or Canada; How to bring Extreme manufacturing from China to overseas is still a bit difficult." Of course, the United States is also being considered for the new plant.
This year, LG New Energy and Stellantis' North American joint venture plant was located in Ontario, Canada. The joint venture plant will produce power batteries for Stellantis Group's vehicle assembly plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Iii. Lithium iron phosphate production line will be launched in large quantities, and lithium iron phosphate batteries in the North American market are also expected to compete with high nickel ternary cells in the future.
According to Battery China, LG New Energy, Panasonic Battery, SK ON, vision Power and other new power battery production lines in the North American market are mainly high nickel ternary batteries, which is the continuation and iteration of the ternary battery line that has been continued by overseas battery companies.
However, with the participation of Chinese companies and the economic considerations of international car companies, the production capacity of lithium iron phosphate will be gradually increased in the new battery projects in North America.
Tesla had previously considered introducing lithium iron phosphate batteries in North America. Sources said ningde times North America's new plant mainly produces ternary batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries, including Tesla.
Guoxuan High-tech obtained orders from a listed car company in the United States, it is reported that they are also lithium iron phosphate battery orders, and its localized supply of power products in the future is also speculated to be mainly lithium iron phosphate batteries.
Automotive companies, including Tesla, Ford, Volkswagen, Rivian, Hyundai and other major players in the North American market, are increasing the use of lithium iron phosphate batteries.
It is worth mentioning that in recent years, us energy storage projects have also started to introduce lithium iron phosphate products from Chinese battery enterprises in large quantities. The overall development of energy storage power stations in North America is relatively mature, and the demand for lithium iron phosphate batteries is growing rapidly, which lays a good foundation for the future application of lithium iron phosphate batteries.
Post time: Mar-24-2022