How do you look at the deep bundling between Korean batteries and American car companies?

　　There are many opinions in the industry that although the development of electric vehicles in the United States is based on its own development strategy, it is often planned by the system of Japanese and Korean products.

　　Facts have proved this is indeed the case: After GM, LG Energy and Ford chose SK to deepen the bundling, Stellattis also signed an MOU with LG Energy on the establishment of a power battery joint venture in North America. The new plant will produce 40 GWh and is ready to start production in the first quarter of 2024.

　　In the previous choice of Stellattis, it can be seen that Europe is guaranteeing its own joint venture factory ACC as a long-term basic disk. The so-called strategic suppliers CATL, BYD, Samsung SDI and LG Energy are superficial.

　　1) LG Energy's layout in the United States

　　The picture below shows the cooperation between LG Energy and several auto company joint ventures. The overall scale is as follows:

　　●LG Energy GM: Two JV battery factories, each 35GWh adds up to 70GWh, which basically represents all the needs of GM for batteries in the North American market in the short term. It is estimated that an 80kWh passenger car and a 150kWh pickup truck will initially be 400,000 + 200,000.

　　●LG Energy Stellantis: 40GWh, covering all the needs of Stellatis in 2025. At present, Stellatis is mainly based on PHEV in North America, which was originally supplied by LG Energy.

　　●LG Energy Hyundai: 10GWh, this is more like a modern diversification strategy.

　　Remarks: By June 2021, LG Energy's hand-held orders are 180 trillion won, and new cooperation orders are expected to exceed 200 trillion won.

　　2) SK's layout in North America

　　The investment of SK Innovation and Ford is very large. The first plant is planned to have a production capacity of 43GWh, and the second plant has a production capacity of 86GWh. The core background is that Ford Motor will accelerate electrification and decided to double the supply of EV batteries for its electric pickup trucks and other cars by SK Innovation. However, SK's two original plants in the United States are 9.8GWh and 11.7GWh. Overall, SK's cumulative orders exceed 1 TWh.

　　SK's two independent factories mainly serve Volkswagen and Ford.

　　Overall, apart from Tesla, American car companies and South Korean battery companies have basically achieved all the binding in the US market. This is a very certain thing from the perspective of strategic competition.

　　An anomaly in the market is Tesla. With the gradual improvement of the 4680 battery in the Berlin factory, and the increased investment in 4680 by Panasonic, LG and SDI, Tesla still has enough diversified options at the US level. In the market, only Tesla chooses batteries from China to supply the American market.

　　3) Differences between Europe and America

　　European car companies are also cultivating their own battery supply system. Stellaantis is mainly working with ACC. This cooperation actually implies Daimler. Such a match is really European.

　　From Volkswagen, BMW and Volvo's Northvolt strategy, it can be seen that European car companies have basically started to unite to increase investment in lithium batteries in the local area, and strive to have a European base in the future wave of electric vehicles.

　　From a trend point of view, power batteries may evolve into a fragmented market based on regions. As for the development of the energy storage industry, it may be more in line with China's battery companies-the difficulty of opening markets in the United States and Europe is actually not high, and high growth is still tied to the country's energy infrastructure.