Funeng Technology: star customers grab orders for the prelude 2022 technical competition kicks off

According to the data of the Power Battery Application Branch, from January to November 2021, the installed capacity of power batteries in the Chinese market exceeded 134GWH, an increase of 164% over the same period last year.

According to the classification of the shape of the power battery, among them, the soft package power battery has been gradually favored by many automobile companies in recent years because of its good safety performance, light weight, large capacity, low internal resistance and so on. From January to November 2021, the installed capacity of soft-pack power batteries in China exceeded 8.36GWhh, an increase of 178.8% over the same period last year.

The performance of Funeng Technology, which is known as the "king of soft packages" by the industry, has naturally attracted much attention. From January to November 2021, Funeng Technology accounted for 1 per cent of the market share of 1.39 GWh, in the Chinese market, ranking 10th overall, while soft package power batteries topped the list with a market share of about 16.6 per cent.

At present, Funeng Technology customers have covered the world, including not only Daimler, Beijing Mercedes-Benz, FAW, Great Wall, Mitsubishi and other star customers, but also in the past 2021, a number of car companies have been followed by fixed-point notices.

In the face of existing and future long-term orders, throughout 2021, Funeng Technology will continue to make efforts in capacity expansion and stabilizing raw materials; in technological innovation, it will advance in an orderly manner in the direction of 800VTC overpressure technology and semi-solid battery.

Capacity expansion to ensure competitiveness

For companies in the battery industry, the layout of production capacity in advance may be one of the ways to ensure competitiveness. The actions of Funeng Technology to expand production in 2021 are shown in the following table:

On December 25, 2020 and May 17, 2021, Funeng Technology and Geely Technology signed the Strategic Cooperation Agreement, the Joint Venture Agreement and the Ganzhou Project Joint Venture Agreement respectively, and the two sides jointly set up a joint venture company to build a total capacity 120GWh power battery plant. Among them, the first phase of 12GWh, a joint venture between Funeng Technology and Geely, has started construction and is expected to be put into production in 2023.

In August 2021, Funeng Technology and the Sanshan Economic Development District Management Committee of Wuhu, Anhui Province signed an investment cooperation agreement to build the "annual 24GWh new energy battery project" in two phases, and the first phase of the project 12GWh started in October of the same year.

In September of the same year, Funeng Technology announced that it planned to set up a joint venture with TOGG in Turkey, SIRO, which would develop, produce and sell power batteries to customers in Europe, the Middle East and other regions. It plans to spend 30 billion lira ($1.8 billion) to build a battery plant with an annual production capacity of 20GWh.

In addition, Funeng Technology has been put into production and the production capacity under construction also includes Ganzhou Base 5GWh (basic transformation completed), Zhenjiang Base Phase I 8GWh (already put into production), Zhenjiang Base Phase II 8GWh (in the stage of installation and commissioning), Zhenjiang Base Phase III 8GWh (still in the construction period). At the same time, in terms of the layout of the international market, the German plant planned by Funeng Technology is in the stage of evaluating the localization strategy. According to the plan, by 2025, the total production capacity of Funeng Technology will reach 120GWh.

Star car companies snap up battery lock orders for up to 5 years

The orderly expansion of the above capacity comes from the support of sufficient orders downstream. In 2021, Funeng Technology has frequently won large orders of power batteries from domestic and foreign car companies.

In April 2021, Funeng Technology received a fixed-point notice from GAC-Mitsubishi and began to enter the supply chain of Japanese car companies. Power batteries for the LE model will be developed and supplied for the latter with a supply cycle of five years.

On May 17 of the same year, Geely said that it would give priority to purchasing power batteries produced by Funeng Technology or joint ventures with both parties in the future, and that the annual purchase quantity would not be less than 80% of its demand.

On June 28 of the same year, Funeng Technology received a "letter of intent" from Liuzhou Wuling. It is planned that the company will begin bulk supply to Wuling in Liuzhou in June 2022 and is expected to supply about 200000 sets of power battery systems.

On November 22, 2021, Funeng Technology announced that it had received a fixed-point notice from Chengdu Dayun Automobile Group Co., Ltd. to become a power battery supplier for the latter's S191, M171, C201 and S201 project models with a supply cycle of five years and will start supply in 2022.

On December 16 of the same year, Funeng Technology announced that the company and its wholly-owned subsidiary Funeng Zhenjiang planned to sign a "Supplementary Agreement to the Multi-year supply Agreement (applicable to some projects)" with Mercedes-Benz AG (Mercedes-Benz), which stipulated that the latter would pay an advance payment of about RMB 1.05 billion.

In addition, Funeng Technology also signed a letter of intent with Turkish automaker TOGG; reached strategic cooperation with Jiangling Group New Energy and Guomi Zhijun, involving orders for 150000 sets of power batteries and 100000 sets of power batteries respectively; and has been designated to provide matching batteries for many mainstream models such as Dongfeng and Renault Jiangling Quechi.

According to public statistics, so far, Funeng Technology customers, in addition to Daimler, Beijing Mercedes-Benz, Guangzhou Automobile Eian, FAW, Geely, Great Wall, Skyline, Dongfeng, Mitsubishi and many other star customers, but also actively expand Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche and other customers.

Bind some suppliers to reduce the impact of material price increase

In 2021, power battery enterprises frequently feel the pressure of rising prices of raw materials from upstream, and head enterprises have joined hands with material enterprises to lock in part of the material supply in advance.

Funeng Technology announced on July 9, 2021 that it signed a procurement framework agreement with Shanghai Shanshan. It is expected that the company will purchase 21530 tons of graphite from Shanghai Shanshan in 2022.

In terms of cathode materials, in July 2021, Funeng Technology and Rongbai Technology signed a framework agreement. It is expected that Funeng Technology will purchase 30953 tons of cathode materials from the latter for the whole of 2022.

In terms of ternary precursors, Funeng Technology and Huayou Cobalt signed a "Strategic Cooperation Agreement" on December 2, 2021. The agreement provides for the procurement and cooperation of ternary precursors, the recycling of waste and waste batteries, and the development of ternary positive electrodes and ternary precursors. Valid until 2025, the company plans to purchase 161500 tons of ternary precursors from Huayou Cobalt Industry.

Whether it is ternary precursor, cathode material and graphite, it is an indispensable and important raw material in the production of power battery. Binding suppliers is conducive to ensuring the production capacity of power batteries in the follow-up of Funeng Technology.

Technological innovation aims at the pain point of the market

1. Quick charge: 800VTC overcharge and overpressure technology

Charging time is too long, has been one of the main problems troubling new energy car companies, and 800VTC overcharge and overpressure technology is expected by the industry to "break the situation". It is understood that Funeng Technology 800VTC overcharge overvoltage technology is so far the first in the industry to achieve mass production 800V high voltage platform, at the same time, its charging rate can reach 2.2C-4C overcharge platform technology.

The existing 800VTC overcharging and overvoltage platform technology of Funeng Technology can reach 2.7C, and the whole package is equivalent to 2.2C × SOC10%. It takes only 15 minutes to charge 80%, which is at the leading level in the industry, and is expected to solve the mileage anxiety problem of car owners.

At present, the technology product has been equipped with a new energy vehicle high-end brand is about to mass production, for luxury high-end models, can reach 4 minutes of charging, 100 kilometers, there are a number of other brand projects in docking. It is reported that Funeng Technology expects the fast charging capacity of the next generation technology to reach SOC10%-80% charging in only 7 minutes.

2. 330Wh/kg semi-solid battery has been sent to Mercedes-Benz.

In the semi-solid battery technology route, Funeng Technology is also at the forefront of research and development. It is understood that Funeng solid-liquid hybrid battery (sample A) has been sent to Mercedes-Benz. The sample is the first generation of Funeng semi-solid battery with energy density 330Wh/kg, and the battery prototype will be tested later.

To achieve sustainable development in the three major markets

Facing the future, Wang Jie, chairman of Funeng Technology, pointed out at the sixth International Summit on Power Battery Application (CBIS2021) that the competition in the power battery industry has extended from technological competition to industrial chain and even national level competition. In the face of a higher dimension of sustainable competition, Wang said that Funeng Technology will deepen strategic cooperation with customers in the future to improve the level of sustainable management, which will be reflected in carbon asset management, responsible procurement and circular economy.

It is reported that Funeng Technology will mainly focus on the three major markets, namely, green travel and smart energy as the core, and actively expand emerging markets such as special applications.

Conclusion

Throughout the current technical pattern of the industry, with the release of 800V voltage platform models by many domestic and foreign car companies in 2021, power battery companies who first break through the fast charging bottleneck to meet market demand will get the lead. At the same time, with the efforts of many enterprises, the road to the commercialization of semi-solid batteries has gradually become clear. It is expected that 2022 will be a key year for trial and trial.

As one of the main forces in the power battery industry, Funeng Technology has participated in the global competition with the advantage of three-yuan soft package, and has attracted many first-class car companies at home and abroad. Entering 2022, Funeng Technology has launched a strong challenge to the above technological competition, and a new chapter will be written in the "key competition point" to improve market penetration.