Many European car companies accelerate the layout of the power battery supply chain

　　The electrification trend and carbon emission policies that began in 2021 are forcing European and American car companies to act quickly. Daimler released its own electric vehicle strategy report (200GWh and 8 battery factories) in July. In addition to looking for partners to produce batteries together, it also joined the Stellatis and Total joint venture car battery company as a third partner in September (ACC), successfully obtained 1/3 of the equity.

　　The current situation is driving the governments of Germany and France to continuously use incentive measures to promote the landing of their own battery companies. ACC was established in September 2020. The original goal was to invest 5 billion euros to build two battery super factories by 2030, with a total annual output of 48 GWh (one each in Germany and France). With the entry of Mercedes-Benz, ACC suddenly gained confidence, with a total planned investment of more than 7 billion euros, and plans to produce at least 120 GWh of batteries by 2030.

　　From the perspective of timeline, Stellaantis expects ACC to start mass production at the end of 2023. With the addition of Mercedes-Benz, it is expected that the subsequent increase in production capacity will be reserved for Mercedes-Benz.

　　This model is very similar to Volkswagen, BMW and Volvo's strategy on Northvolt. As shown in the figure below, European car companies are also aligning themselves in this round of electrification. Production at the Northvolt plant will start in 2021 and will officially deliver products to Volkswagen in 2023. Then Volvo Cars joined and formed a joint venture with Northvolt, hoping to occupy 50GWh of annual production capacity in the future (the 15GWh of Northvolt's previous factory capacity was eaten up by Volvo's demand). Together with the 2 billion euros battery supply contract signed by Northvolt and BMW, Northvolt has three of its most important customers to support the establishment of battery production.

　　Before the Biden government officially launched incentives for electric vehicles, Europeans have begun to launch a new round of power battery construction-planning to achieve at least self-sufficiency in Europe by 2030 and achieve 31% of global supply Scope.

　　The global production capacity is 2.262 TWh, and Europe accounts for 812 GWh.

　　In this plan, in fact, the main point is on the number of power batteries that car companies can eat in the foreseeable future. Every car company is ambitious, of course there is still optimism here. The general view in the industry is that Europe is trying to prevent the Chinese battery supply chain from fully occupying the European market. The only way is to find suitable minerals and ensure the supply of raw materials by itself, and then to promote the progress of European materials and processes and put the most into production. The advanced production line, of course, finally uses this as a new generation of trade barriers.

　　Therefore, many manufacturers have realized these points of view, and they have begun to plan to establish the battery supply they can control (both equity and joint ventures). After all, this is the best option for controlling raw materials.

　　Lithium-ion battery (LIB) has become the main energy storage solution in modern social life. Among them, lithium iron phosphate batteries are a perfect substitute for lead-acid batteries and are the first choice for grid-connected peak shaving, off-grid energy storage, photovoltaic energy storage, UPS, data center and other industries.