Mercedes-Benz, Toyota or locked Fudi BYD "blade battery" capacity will reach 33GWh

SMM: with BYD's "semi-official" disclosure of "customer No. 1" recently visited two Fudi factories in Chongqing and Xi'an, BYD's battery production business sector, which was independent at the beginning of this year, has once again attracted the attention of the industry.

After combing, the reporter found that a number of clues point to the "customer No. 1" to the German luxury brand Mercedes-Benz, which has a long cooperative relationship with BYD; at the same time, Toyota, which has reached a cooperation with BYD, may also lock the cooperation of the battery business in the "blade battery".

Neither BYD nor the parties involved responded positively to the news, but the information suggests that Fudi is accelerating the expansion of its "blade battery" capacity due to demand for its own products, including BYD Han, as well as potential external orders. Among them, Fudi Changsha plant is conducting a large-scale recruitment to advance the production date originally scheduled for the second quarter of next year to mid-December this year.

Mysterious "customer No.1"

On September 3, an article entitled "World famous car companies visit Fudi Battery Blade Battery Super Factory" was published on September 3, saying that on September 2, accompanied by he long, vice president of BYD Group and chairman of Fudi Battery, and Zhong Sheng, General Manager of Chongqing Fudi Lithium Battery Co., Ltd., the senior management of "customer No. 1" visited the production processes of blade batteries in Fudi battery factory. It also makes an in-depth understanding of the planning blueprint of Chongqing Fudi Lithium Battery Co., Ltd., the principle of blade battery acupuncture experiment, and the technical characteristics of Pack workshop and assembly section.

Although the registration subject of this official account is an individual, the content posted since its registration shows that the official account is closely related to the Fudi battery and is suspected to be owned by its internal employees.

The above article emphasizes that "customer 1" is a century-old automobile company, ranking in the forefront of Interbrand (the top 100 brands in the world). The purpose of this senior visit of customer No. 1 is to deepen cooperation and unite with Fudi Battery to build a new chapter in the development of new energy vehicles.

Four days after the release of this article, the official account once again revealed the action track of "customer 1"-from August 31 to September 1, 2020, senior leaders of "customer 1" visited the XAB factory (that is, Fudi Battery Xi'an factory) for a two-day audit. The article said, "on September 1st, the customer had an in-depth communication and exchange with our representative on the content of this audit, and approved our technical level, rapid response ability and automated production level, and finally announced that the PHEV module beat audit passed smoothly."

From a photo of "customer 1" watching an English PPT with Fudi staff in the same frame, we can see that the introduction of Fudi battery to "customer 1" includes an overview of the cell and battery array production line; PHEV and BEV time plan review; PPAP (, that is, production parts approval control program) status; BEV TT (, tooling testing) and PP (trial production) delivery, and so on.

At the same time, another photo attached to the article shows "customer 1" riding on the BYD "Cloud Rail Train" with BYD staff.

"there is no official confirmation at present." BYD did not confirm the content disclosed by the official account.

Mercedes-Benz and Toyota surfaced

According to public information, in the latest Interbrand Global Brand Top 100 list, there are two car brands in the top 10, namely Toyota and Mercedes-Benz, but Toyota was founded only 87 years ago. Therefore, it is generally believed that the "No. 1 customer" who continuously visited two Fudi battery factories within three days and passed the PHEV module beat review is Mercedes-Benz.

The Weibo of another suspected BYD employee posted a picture related to Mercedes-Benz while reposting the contents of the official account, which also seems to confirm the authenticity of the above speculation.

Although the above news has not been confirmed, a relevant person in charge of BYD told the Financial Associated Press, "the batteries produced by the Fudi battery factory in Xi'an are ternary lithium batteries."

In other words, if the above is true, it shows that the mysterious "customer No. 1", Mercedes-Benz, has reached an initial cooperation with BYD on the power battery of the PHEV model and BYD on ternary lithium battery, and is likely to reach a new cooperation on "blade battery".

In February, Daimler said at its 2020 annual press conference that the future would depend on carbon-neutral travel and continued digital layout, with the launch of the EQA, EQV and more than 20 plug-in hybrid vehicles in 2020.

"compared with LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate), ternary lithium batteries have higher energy density and can achieve relatively high mileage in PHEV pure electric mode to improve product power." In the eyes of people in the industry, this may be one of the reasons why Mercedes-Benz visited the Fudi Xi'an plant and may reach a supply agreement. "at the same time, although Mercedes-Benz and Ningde era just announced to deepen strategic cooperation, but the supply chain A, B corner mutual preparation is also a common practice in the industry."

While the "No. 1 customer" Mercedes-Benz surfaced, it was reported that Toyota, which has reached a cooperation with BYD, will also use "blade batteries" in future products.

In March this year, BYD Toyota Electric vehicle Technology Co., Ltd., with 50% shareholding and headquartered in Shenzhen, was officially established. Under the previous agreement, the two sides will jointly develop cars and SUV pure electric models, with the new car using the Toyota brand, which is scheduled to be launched in China by 2025.

"due to the impact of the epidemic, most of the Japanese personnel of the company are not yet in place, but the Chinese personnel are basically in place." BYD insiders revealed the latest progress of the joint venture with Toyota, but did not respond to rumors that Toyota used "blade batteries".

"neither Toyota nor we (Toyota China) have released similar news (referring to Toyota's choice of 'blade battery')." Toyota China also did not give a positive response to the news.

The production capacity of "blade battery" is accelerated.

In addition to the mysterious "customer No. 1" and the rumored Toyota, a reporter from the Financial Associated Press learned from BYD that the Fudi battery factory in Qinghai was reviewed by customers code-named "No. 19" a few days ago; another domestic commercial vehicle company also visited Fudi recently.

According to data, BYD sold 14300 new energy vehicles wholesale in August, surpassing Tesla's sales in China in the same period. According to BYD officials, its first BYD "Han" equipped with a "blade battery" delivered 4000 vehicles in August. In addition, BYD Han delivered 1205 vehicles in July. In other words, BYD Han delivered 5205 vehicles in the past two months. Zhao Changjiang, general manager of BYD auto sales, has said that the order volume of "Han" has exceeded 30,000 vehicles, and this delivery volume is still far from meeting the order demand.

While the internal demand can not be met, in the face of potential external orders, the production capacity of "blade battery" obviously needs to be improved.

At present, BYD has battery factories in Shenzhen, Xi'an, Qinghai, Chongqing, Changsha and Guiyang. According to BYD's overall plan, the Fudi battery capacity will reach 65GWhby the end of 2020, and the total capacity, including "blade battery", will reach 75GWh and 100GWh in 2021 and 2022, respectively. According to the above-mentioned BYD official, "the 'blade battery' is produced in Chongqing, Changsha and Guiyang."

In fact, BYD has accelerated the upgrading of factory capacity due to higher-than-expected market feedback. The person in charge of Chongqing Fudi Battery Factory once told reporters, "We have begun to expand the line and will expand to more than 13GWh by the end of this year."

According to BYD's latest recruitment information, large-scale recruitment is under way at Fudi's Changsha factory. According to local reports, on September 4, the factory held a "fight for 100 days safe delivery period" oath meeting to ensure that the project was completed in mid-October and the production line equipment was running; the first production line was put into production on December 15, and the "blade battery" product was put off the line. According to the previous plan, the Fudi Changsha plant will be put into production in April next year.

In addition, the reporter learned from the relevant environmental impact assessment documents of the Guiyang Environmental Protection Bureau that the "blade battery" capacity of the Fudi Guiyang plant is 10GWH, and the proposed production date is July 2021.

According to this calculation, the annual production capacity of BYD's "blade battery" will reach 33GWhby 2021, accounting for about 44% of BYD's total power battery production capacity in the same period.

"more than one company is currently in talks." With regard to the external supply of Fudi batteries, Li Yunfei, deputy general manager of BYD Automobile sales Company, once said.

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