Europe found the power battery industrial chain was controlled by China

With the rapid development of new energy vehicles , Europe has begun to realize the importance of the power battery industry in the new energy vehicle industry, so it is determined to develop their power battery industry to get rid of the dependence on Asia, but the reality is not optimistic.

At present, the global power batteries mainly come from China, South Korea and Japan, of which China has the largest share. China's CATL has ranked first in the global power battery market for many years. At present, CATL not only cooperates with many domestic auto companies, but also cooperates with Mercedes-Benz, Cooperation with European and American auto companies such as Tesla .

In order to consolidate its market position, CATL has built a large factory in Germany in Europe. Recent news pointed out that CATL plans to build its second factory in Europe in Hungary to provide batteries for Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and other OEMs in Hungary nearby. Enhance the competitiveness of the Ningde era.

In addition to CATL, BYD, the second largest power battery company in China , is also rapidly increasing its market share in the power battery market, because BYD is the largest new energy vehicle company in China. More than 10,000 units have driven BYD's power battery shipments to surge.

In addition, among the top ten power battery companies in the world, six are from China, and the remaining four are from Japan and South Korea. There is no power battery company in Europe. Hope to change this situation.

"Reference News" reported that Opel's parent company Stelantis Group is planning to set up a super-large power battery enterprise in Europe together with Mercedes-Benz and France's Total Petroleum Company to enhance Europe's power battery industry. The competitiveness of the market, and even Germany and the EU plan to provide support for the plan, shows that Europe is making every effort to develop the power battery industry.

However, when Europe was promoting the development plan of the battery industry, it was discovered that Europe lacked a power battery industry chain, and Europe's power battery raw materials needed to be imported from Australia, Chile and China, which resulted in the disadvantage of Europe in terms of transportation costs, especially Australia. It can supply raw materials for power battery companies in Asia nearby.

Among them, China's advantages in the power battery industry chain are even more difficult for Europe to bypass. Benefiting from China's accumulation in the development of the power battery industry in the past ten years, China is a global leader in the smelting of metal materials required for batteries. It smelts 58% of the world's lithium metal and two-thirds of the cobalt metal. In addition, most of the other industrial chain links of power batteries are also controlled by China.

China has mastered the power battery industry chain, not only the ternary lithium battery and lithium iron phosphate battery industry that is widely used in new energy vehicles, but even the solid-state battery industry that intends to overtake in corners in Europe will also have an impact, because solid-state batteries also Lithium metal is required.

Solid-state batteries are considered to be a more advanced power battery replacement technology required for new energy vehicles, but the mass production of this technology is too difficult and the cost is too high. The industry expects to wait until 2030 at the earliest, and China relies on existing batteries. With the accumulation of technology, semi-solid power battery technology has been proposed, which will speed up the application of solid-state battery technology in the new energy vehicle industry, and may help China to catch up with Europe in solid-state battery technology.

In general, although Europe has recognized the importance of the power battery industry and has begun to invest heavily in cooperation with many companies, because the industrial chain is in the hands of China and other Asian countries, it is not easy for Europe to open up the power battery industry. It is easy, but it is even more difficult to catch up with China.