[SMM analysis] can the lead-to-lithium dividend of electric vehicles benefit from continued demand for nickel sulfate?

SMM5, March 20: recently, the news of "one helmet, one belt" on electric cars has reached the top of the hot search. "one helmet" refers to the safety helmet, and "one belt" refers to the seat belt. The Traffic Management Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security has informed that the "one helmet, one belt" security guard operation will be carried out throughout the country from June 1. At present, many places in China have made it clear that they will strictly investigate the behavior of riding motorcycles and electric bicycles without helmets. In recent years, new policies and standards on electric vehicles have occurred frequently. before that, there are also new regulations on the licensing of electric vehicles, and the market is still most concerned about the previous implementation of the new national standard.

On May 17, 2018, the Department of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice that the mandatory national standard (GB 17761 Mai 2018) for the safety of electric bicycles (referred to as the "new national standard") was approved and promulgated, which will be formally implemented on April 15, 2019. The "New National Standard" of electric vehicles limits a number of indicators, such as the maximum speed should not exceed 25km/h, motor power should be adjusted to 400W, and so on. It also includes the quality requirements for electric bicycles: the upper limit of vehicle mass (including batteries) is 55kg.

Some industry analysts believe that the most direct means of vehicle weight loss is to replace lead-acid batteries with lithium batteries, which may hit the lead-acid battery industry and bring new demand increments to lithium batteries.

For electric bicycles, there are three kinds of batteries: lead-acid battery, Ni-MH battery and lithium-ion battery. Among them, lead-acid battery has always been the main force of electric vehicle battery because of its more mature technology and good stability, and its biggest advantage lies in the cost, which is nearly half cheaper than ternary lithium battery.

As for lithium battery, its safety has always been the main reason for criticism. Because of the nature of the lithium battery, once the battery has thermal failure, the whole battery pack will be in a dangerous state. However, lithium battery also has many advantages, such as high storage energy density, longer range, long service life, light weight and strong adaptability to high and low temperature.

With the implementation of the new national standard, it is a general trend for lithium batteries to replace lead-acid batteries, and many enterprises have joined the bureau one after another.

As a traditional electric bicycle battery giant, Chaowei Group relies on the technical advantages accumulated in the field of electric bicycle battery in recent years to strengthen the product innovation of electric bicycle lithium battery and transform its innovative achievements to the ground. The signing ceremony of the new power lithium battery project of Chaowei Group was held at the headquarters of Zhejiang Chaowei Group. The main product of this project is a new type of lithium manganate battery, which has passed the whole life cycle verification and acupuncture test, has excellent safety performance, and is a high-quality choice for light electric vehicles, with a market space of hundreds of billions of yuan in the future.

Lithium battery enterprises are not willing to lag behind. As the leading global lithium battery enterprise for light vehicles (including bicycles), from January to March 2020, Xingheng Power supply has a total of more than 700000 sets in the domestic electric light vehicle field, with a market share of 61.4%, an increase of 20% over the whole of last year. Xing Heng Power said that on the one hand, it has been ploughing the lithium battery market for light vehicles for more than 16 years, on the other hand, driven by multiple factors such as the new national standard and emerging markets, the demand boundary of the lithium battery market for electric bicycles is constantly widening.

With the gradual realization of the policy, more and more electric vehicles are on the road of "changing lead to lithium". According to SMM research, the replacement of lead-acid batteries into lithium batteries will lead to the growth of some domestic ternary materials, which will be helpful to the whole new energy industry and stimulate the growth of downstream demand for nickel sulfate.

2020 China Ni-Cr stainless Steel Industry Market and Application Development Forum

Scan the QR code, apply for participation or join the SMM metal exchange group