SMM: according to recent reports, German Sal Governor Tobias Hans announced at a news conference on November 17 that Chinese battery manufacturer Honeycomb Energy (SVOLT) will invest about 2 billion ou yuan (about 15.5 billion yuan) locally to build its first European factory. Honeycomb's new battery plant will be located in two small towns on the border between Germany and France.
It is reported that Honeycomb Energy plans to set up two factories: the core module factory and the module PACK (battery pack) factory. Among them, the core module factory will be completed and put into production by the end of 2023, and the module PACK plant can be put into production in 2022 at the earliest. When completed, the factory will have an annual battery production capacity of 24GWh.It is planned to produce 300000 to 500000 batteries for electric vehicles annually, and 2000 jobs will be created.
In recent years, Chinese power battery companies have accelerated their efforts to promote the European market, and in October last year, construction of the first overseas factory of Ningde Times in Thuringia, Germany, officially began. According to the plan, the Ningde Times Thuringen battery plant will be built in two phases and is scheduled to start production in 2021. The production line, which covers an area of 230000 square meters, includes cells and modules, and is expected to achieve the annual capacity of 14GWh batteries by 2022. Zeng Yuqun, chairman of Ningde Times, said that Ningde Times hopes to form a localized power battery supply capacity in Europe, get closer to European customers, provide more timely and effective product solutions and respond to user needs more quickly, in order to enhance the competitiveness of products on a global scale.
Driven by strong environmental protection policies, European investment in the lithium power industry chain has gradually increased. According to relevant data, European investment in the lithium power industry chain is less than 5 billion ou yuan in 2018; in 2019, this figure increased to 60 billion ou yuan, an 11-fold increase over the same period last year. In the same period, China's investment in the lithium power industry chain is less than 20 billion ou yuan, which is about 1x3 of the European investment. Since the beginning of this year, China has announced an investment of about 10 billion ou yuan in the lithium power industry chain, while the investment in Europe has reached 25 billion ou yuan, 2.5 times that of China.
Under the attraction of such a large-scale market, it is not difficult to understand the news that Chinese power battery enterprises have set up factories and invested in Europe. For example, Funeng Technology laid out the European market as early as 2018. In September 2018, Funeng Technology launched the European production center project and opened an office in Stuttgart, Germany. The construction process of Weihong Power's European plant is further accelerating, with the completion of its power battery PACK plant in Ludwig, Brandenburg, Germany. The plant will be used to produce power battery systems for trucks, trucks, sports cars and off-road vehicles, and plans to launch its first production line in March 2021, starting with battery modules and packs for European customers.
At present, new energy vehicles are the trend of the times. The influx of Chinese power batteries into the European supply chain will compete for the dominant position of the industrial chain. Power battery industry chain enterprises should enhance their competitiveness of "going out". China's power battery industry has been promoted to the first echelon in the world, and some enterprises are in a leading position in battery technology and market share in the world. this will lay a solid foundation for China's electric vehicle industry to open up a new pattern in the global market.
