Lithium battery development conditions are sufficient

Lithium battery upstream is the mineral resources needed for lithium battery materials, and the middle reaches are lithium battery manufacturers, including anode materials, anode materials, electrolytes, separators, conductive agents, and adhesives, etc., and the downstream are mainly lithium battery supporting applications. Has been widely used in consumer electronics, electric vehicles, industrial energy storage.

Lithium batteries become the mainstream of electric vehicle batteries in the next decade

Throughout the development process, power batteries have experienced the era of lead-acid batteries, nickel-cadmium batteries, nickel-hydrogen batteries, lithium batteries, and fuel cells. Lead-acid batteries currently occupy more than 80% of the market share of secondary batteries and are mainly used in the electric vehicle market and energy storage market. NiCd batteries are mainly used in power tools, but both lead-acid batteries and nickel-cadmium batteries contain heavy metals and are prone to pollution. Therefore, the extent of promotion is limited. Nickel-metal hydride batteries are mainly used in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), but their performance does not meet the current vigorous development of pure electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). Such electric vehicles require more than 200 km of mileage. It is 10 times the pure electric range provided by Ni-MH batteries. Although the fuel cell performance is very good, it is technically difficult.

Lithium batteries have become the first choice for batteries for electric vehicles in the coming decade with its superior performance and mature technology. 1) With higher energy-to-mass ratio, energy to volume ratio. Currently it can reach 100-125Wh/kg and 240-300Wh/L, which is 2 times that of nickel-cadmium battery, 1.5 times that of nickel-metal hydride battery; 2) High voltage. The single cell lithium battery voltage is 3.6V-3.9V, which is equivalent to the series voltage of 3 nickel-cadmium or nickel-metal hydride rechargeable batteries; 3) The self-discharge is small and can be stored for a long time. The self-discharge rate of a fully charged lithium battery after storage for one month is about 10%, which is much lower than 25-30% of nickel-cadmium batteries and 30-35% of nickel-hydrogen batteries. This is the most outstanding advantage of lithium batteries; 4) No memory effect. The lithium battery does not have the so-called memory effect of the nickel-cadmium battery, so the lithium battery does not need to be discharged before charging; 5) long life. Under normal operating conditions, lithium batteries can reach more than 500 cycles of charge and discharge cycles; 6) can be quickly charged. Usually can use 0.5-1 times the capacity of the current charge, so that the charging time is reduced to 1-2 hours; 7) can be used in parallel; 8) Because the battery does not contain cadmium, lead, mercury and other heavy metals, no pollution to the environment, is The most advanced contemporary green battery.

The explosive growth of electric vehicles has promoted the development of the lithium battery industry. Take Tesla Electric Vehicles as an example. In 2013, Tesla ModelS sold 22,300 vehicles worldwide. Among them, 30% of users selected entry-level 60kWh batteries and 70% equipped with 80kWh batteries. As a result, 2013 Tesla consumed lithium. The total number of batteries reached 1.65 million kWh, from which Tesla’s consumption of lithium batteries in 2013 reached 1.65 million kWh, far exceeding the demand for lithium batteries from other electric vehicles. With the rapid development of electric vehicles, if the target for the shipment of more than 35,000 ModelS products was realized in 2014 and Tesla's third-generation ModelX was launched, the demand for lithium batteries from Tesla alone has exceeded 2.59 million. Kwh, lithium battery industry will achieve explosive growth.

Lithium batteries are still in demand in non-electric vehicles

In addition to the development of lithium batteries in the field of electric vehicles, lithium batteries are also used in the consumer electronics market as well as in the energy storage field. There is a wide demand for lithium batteries. In 2013, the global demand for lithium battery production was 46.5 billion Wh, which was a 21% increase from 38.2 billion Wh in 2012. The total demand for lithium battery in the Chinese market in 2013 exceeded 11.1 billion Wh, which is a 66% increase from 2012 6.6 billion Wh. %the above.

Demand for Lithium Batteries in Consumer Electronics Market Steadily Increases

At present, consumer electronics products account for 58% of lithium battery demand. Lithium battery applications in consumer electronics include mobile phones, personal computers, tablet computers, digital cameras, mobile power supplies, and electronic cigarettes.

In recent years, with the continuous upgrading of smart phones and the decrease in the price of mobile phones, the proportion of mobile phones in the world has continuously increased, which has increased the demand for lithium batteries. In 2013, global mobile phone shipments increased by 4% compared to 2012, of which smart phone shipments were 1.004 billion, which accounted for 55% of global mobile phone shipments, an increase of 38% from 2012.

Non-Mobile Consumer Electronics: Although digital cameras and notebook computers have become saturated in recent years, shipments of tablet computers and electronic cigarettes have maintained a trend of rapid growth. In 2013, global tablet shipments were 220 million units, an increase of 57% from the 140 million units in 2012. The global e-cigarette market reached 2.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, accounting for 0.1% of global tobacco. It is reported that e-cigarettes will account for 4% of total e-cigarettes by 2050, driving the rapid development of the lithium battery industry.

Industrial energy storage is a new growth point for lithium battery demand

Applications of lithium batteries in industrial energy storage include general UPS energy storage power supplies, power tools, industrial machinery, mobile base station power supplies, and wind power generation support. Although lead-acid batteries are currently used in energy storage equipment, as lithium-ion battery technology continues to mature, lithium-ion batteries will slowly replace lead-acid batteries. In the total global demand for lithium batteries in 2012, the industrial energy storage market consumed 4,673,600 kWh, accounting for 12.25% of the total. The market demand for lithium batteries for electric tools in China was slightly greater, and the industrial energy storage market consumed a total of 731,500 kWh of lithium-ion batteries. 15.65%, higher than the world. In addition, the mobile base station power market has grown the fastest. In 2012, it consumed 58,000 kWh of lithium batteries, which was a significant increase compared to 2011.

Lithium battery industry is temporarily leading Japan and South Korea, China is catching up

The lithium battery market in Japan and South Korea is ahead of China, and China has great potential for development. Looking at the global lithium battery market, South Korea has surpassed Japan to become the largest lithium battery country. Japan’s Panasonic, Sony, Korea’s Samsung, and LG lithium batteries lead the global lithium battery market. China’s BAK, Lishen and New Companies such as energy companies are catching up. They have grown rapidly in recent years, gradually narrowing the gap with Japan and South Korea, and the potential for future development is huge.

Lithium battery companies in China have gradually emerged as stronger players. The development of lithium batteries in China was later than that of developed countries. The level of technology was not as good as that of Japan, the United States, Japan and South Korea. However, through continuous efforts in recent years, lithium batteries have emerged from their infancy and have entered the growth phase. At present, a number of lithium battery companies with advanced international standards have emerged on the market in China. These companies continue to develop and innovate, develop high-performance lithium batteries, and strengthen cooperation with leading foreign companies to further improve the company’s strength and form a virtuous circle. , to achieve a strong stronger situation.