Panasonic unveiled its new battery, the 4680 prototype battery, for the first time at a media round table on Oct. 25, according to foreign media reports. This advanced battery has five times the storage capacity of existing batteries, each with a rated capacity of 9000 Ma, which can increase the battery life of electric vehicles by 16%.
According to what Tesla said when he released the 4680 battery on September 23, 2020, under the condition of increasing the unit capacity by 50%, the 4680 battery will achieve a cost reduction of about 56% through measures including cell technology, packaging technology, battery raw material mining, chassis frame improvement and so on.
Tadanobu, chief executive of Panasonic Energy, said his company expects to complete mass production by March next year, when it will start delivering new 4680 batteries to Tesla.
Tadanobu also said Panasonic has no current plans to produce lower-cost lithium iron phosphate batteries.
On the supply of electric car batteries to Apple in the United States, Panasonic said: "do not deny all possibilities."
Panasonic's Battery Road
Panasonic is the former world's first lithium giant, it can be said to be the ancestor of lithium batteries, whether consumer lithium or power batteries, Panasonic is a well-deserved veteran.
As early as 1994, Panasonic successfully developed rechargeable lithium batteries. For nearly 10 years, Panasonic has been firmly in the leading position of consumer lithium batteries. Japanese companies, including Panasonic and Sanyo, have almost monopolized the global lithium battery market.
In 2008, Panasonic began to work with Tesla to lay out the field of power batteries. With the rapid growth of Tesla's sales, Panasonic won the crown of the first power battery shipment.
In the cooperation with Tesla, Panasonic deeply ploughed cylindrical batteries and was the first in the industry to achieve mass production of cylindrical batteries with NCA 18650 + silicon-carbon negative electrodes, from 18650 to 21700 and then to 4680. Panasonic took the performance of cylindrical batteries to the extreme and led the industry in terms of energy density and cell consistency for a long time.
Panasonic's global market share was once as high as more than 30%.
This pattern continued until 2017, with the outbreak of China's new energy market and the rapid rise of China's power battery industry chain, Panasonic's power battery shipments were overtaken by Ningde era, ranking second; by 2020, Panasonic was overtaken by LG Chemical and fell to third place.
In the first half of 2021, Panasonic still ranked third in power battery usage, but its market share was only 15 per cent, compared with 29.9 per cent in Ningde era and 24.5 per cent in second place, LG New Energy.
Panasonic lags far behind the top two. Compared with its peak, Panasonic's market share has been halved.
The Future of Panasonic Battery
On the technical route, Panasonic is still reluctant to develop lithium iron phosphate batteries; in the form of packaging, Panasonic intends to produce square batteries, but the output is small.
In terms of production capacity, Panasonic currently has three major production bases, which are located in the United States, Japan and China. In the United States is the joint venture plant between Panasonic and Tesla, with an estimated current capacity of 39GWh. there are no further expansion plans for the plant in Japan, which has a capacity of 10GWh. the plant in Dalian, China, currently has a capacity of 5GWhand plans to expand to 20GWh by 2023.
There is no more public information about Panasonic's joint venture with Toyota.
In other words, from the public information, Panasonic battery capacity planning for a total of 2023 69GWh.
From the corporate background, Panasonic belongs to the Sumitomo system of Japan's third largest consortium. What is most noteworthy is that Panasonic battery business accounts for only about 9% of the group's overall revenue and contributes only about 1% of its profits. therefore, the consortium behind Panasonic battery is not active in its capacity expansion.
Customers, Panasonic has been a single supply of Tesla, the intention to develop customers is conservative, although with the needs of Tesla to achieve the first in the world, but a single customer structure is also a hidden danger.
Since 2020, Tesla has introduced LG new energy and Ningde era, Panasonic's share in Tesla has been gradually eroded, when Tesla's share decreased, but there are no other customers to supplement the lost market share.
Of course, Panasonic is also actively seeking change. Partnering with Toyota to build a plant and produce square batteries is an example, while expanding more customers is intended to increase market share.
Panasonic will supply batteries to Canoo, a new pure electric vehicle company in the United States, from 2022, according to the news on October 27th. It is understood that the two sides reached a supply agreement on October 26, Panasonic will continue to provide Canoo with cylindrical batteries used by Tesla for several years. The exact amount of supply has not been announced. Canoo will carry the battery to the Lifestyle Vehicle, an electric MPV model scheduled to go on sale in Europe and the United States in 2022.
In addition, it is understood that a small number of models of Ford, Volkswagen, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz and other manufacturers have also used Panasonic batteries.
Panasonic's partnership with Apple is certainly a possibility.
Another theory is that Tesla hopes to increase the production of 4680 batteries by a hundredfold by 2030. If so, then Panasonic's 4680 battery still has potential to be tapped in Tesla.
Summary
Panasonic has released 4680 prototype batteries and will complete mass production by March 2022, which may have a certain impact on the existing power battery pattern.
However, at the application level, in addition to Tesla has done a complete set of 4680 batteries, there are no more car companies to follow, square batteries are still the mainstream of the market.
In addition, Panasonic is not alone in producing 4680 batteries, such as South Korea's LG New Energy and China's Bic Battery, which are also strong in producing large cylindrical batteries.
Panasonic's road to power batteries is getting harder and harder.
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