China's power battery industry continues its high-speed growth trendFile Download

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2022, the installed capacity of power batteries in China reached 294.6 gigawatt hours, a year-on-year increase of 90.7%. From January to April this year, China's power battery industry continued its high-speed growth trend, with a cumulative installed capacity of 91 gigawatt hours, a year-on-year increase of 41%.

China has obvious development advantages in the global index

"In the global development index, we believe that China has obvious advantages," said Qu Guochun, director of the Equipment Industry Development Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Based on comprehensive evaluations from various dimensions, Asian countries have obvious advantages in the global index. China ranks high in industrial scale, innovation capability, industrial chain completeness, and sustainable development, with a clear overall leading advantage in the index.

In the indicator system of China's development index, Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong, Sichuan, and Hubei rank in the top five. Jiangsu is leading in the field of battery materials and battery manufacturing; Fujian is outstanding in terms of production capacity and technological innovation capability; Guangdong has advantages in the upstream material and back-end battery recycling process; Sichuan has great potential in battery production capacity and green manufacturing; Hubei has performed outstandingly in the battery recycling process.

(June 8, 2023, Sichuan Yibin International Convention and Exhibition Center, 2023 World Power Battery Conference, Battery Materials. Image from CFP)

Stimulate strong demand in the power battery market

In 2022, the sales of new energy vehicles in China reached 6.887 million units, a year-on-year increase of 93.4%, ranking first in the world for 8 consecutive years. China has become the world's largest market for new energy vehicles.

Yan Jinghui, an expert of the Expert Committee of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, stated in an interview with CCTV reporters that in recent years, the domestic new energy vehicle market has shown geometric growth. Firstly, it is due to China's consistent policy support orientation, which gives confidence to the market and drives manufacturers, capital investment, and market development.

The Secretary General of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Conference stated that the new energy vehicle market will gradually rise in 2023. With the launch of a large number of competitive new products, price promotions will continue to increase, and consumer purchasing enthusiasm will gradually be released. According to the prediction of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the sales of new energy vehicles in China are expected to reach 9 million units in 2023.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2022, the installed capacity of power batteries in China reached 294.6 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 90.7%, accounting for 56.9% of the global total sales.

"One of the three core components of new energy vehicles is the power battery, and endurance is an important indicator of the quality of new energy vehicles. At the same time, attention should also be paid to the storage and release of power batteries under various weather conditions. In the future, the development, improvement, and innovation space of power batteries are worth looking forward to," Yan Jinghui told reporters.

(Image from CFP)

What other breakthrough directions are there?

At present, the technological level of China's power battery industry has been effectively improved, forming a development path mainly consisting of ternary batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries.

The White Paper on the Development of Lithium Battery Manufacturing Equipment (hereinafter referred to as the White Paper) released by the Equipment Industry Development Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology points out that in recent years, benefiting from the rapid growth of the new energy vehicle market, the scale of China's lithium battery manufacturing equipment industry has continued to expand, from 17.5 billion yuan in 2017 to 85.9 billion yuan in 2022, accounting for about 50% of the global market share, with an annual compound growth rate of 37.5%, slightly higher than the global growth rate.

In this regard, the White Paper suggests strengthening the collaborative research and development of the industrial chain, and breaking through a number of key core technologies; Enhance the integrated innovation capability of enterprises and cultivate a group of lithium battery industry system solution suppliers; Improve the construction of the standard system and create a batch of standard testing and verification platforms; Promote the integration and innovation of new generation information technology and equipment, and accelerate the development of digital and intelligent equipment.