Power battery "Korean gang" super high nickel rush! After LG chemistry, Samsung SDI may mass produce 91% nickel battery next year.

Samsung SDI, another power battery giant, plans to start supplying 91% nickel cylindrical batteries to global electric car manufacturers after LG Chemistry, according to a new report by South Korean media ETNews.

Samsung SDI has planned to mass-produce 88 per cent nickel batteries for electric vehicles in 2021, the report said, citing industry insiders. The company will then gradually increase its nickel content to 90 per cent and continue to target the global electric vehicle battery market.

Samsung SDI recently began supplying 21700 cylindrical batteries, or 21mm x 70mm, to a large overseas power tool manufacturer, which is 50 per cent higher than the 18650 battery with a size of 18650 x 65mm, according to it. The most eye-catching is that the battery cathode uses "nickel, cobalt, aluminum" material (that is, NCA battery), in which the nickel content is 90%.

The core of the future technical route of the power battery "South Korea gang" with ultra-high nickel has emerged.

Since the second half of the year, South Korean power battery manufacturers have coincidentally begun to rush on the road of ultra-high nickel research and development and mass production.

In addition to Samsung SDI, LG Chemical has previously been revealed to formally mass-produce NCMA ultra-high nickel batteries (with 90 per cent nickel content) next year and supply Chinese-made Model Y. SKI, which is the most aggressive in nickel research, said in August that it had commercialized the world's first NCM9 battery with a nickel content of 90 per cent, reducing cobalt to 5 per cent and increasing the range of electric vehicles to 700km.

It is worth mentioning that Tesla, as the current global leader in electric vehicles and one of the important customers of many battery manufacturers, is no secret about his ambitions for ultra-high nickel batteries.

On this year's Battery Day, Musk unveiled his ultra-high nickel ultimate battery with 100% nickel content, and according to foreign media reports last week, Tesla will send a delegation to Indonesia in January next year, or will discuss nickel procurement with the local government.

The performance of the giant reveals the fact that ultra-high nickel has become a consensus in the industry.

China International Capital Corporation Zeng Tao team reported on the 22nd that new technologies such as cobalt-free, quaternary, lithium-rich manganese-based and semi-solid batteries are about to emerge, and in the future, we still need to pay attention to the research of industrial chain technology and technology, mass production, and the corresponding evolution of supply and demand pattern.

Among them, the safety problem has been gradually improved in the direction of high nickel. Rongbai Technology expects that the global demand for high nickel in 2025 and 2030 is expected to reach about 125 and 3.6 million tons respectively, accounting for 45% and 57% of the positive types, respectively, and the CAGR will be as high as 39% in the next 10 years.

Li Shuaihua, an analyst at Caitong Securities, reported on September 28th that Tesla will become the weather vane of the industry, leading the process of high nickelization of cathode materials, and nickel will be the most promising battery metal in the next decade. The increment of nickel used in batteries has become the main force, and the proportion of nickel used in batteries is expected to increase significantly from 3% to 37% in 2030.