In recent years, with the continuous deepening of the concept of green development, the competition surrounding the new energy industry has also intensified. As the heart of new energy vehicles, the importance of power batteries is self-evident. Just recently, the stock price of the power battery company Ningde Times has risen continuously, with a total market value of more than 1.3 trillion yuan in one fell swoop. Behind the enthusiastic performance of the capital market, what has been highlighted is the "battery shortage" problem in the new energy automobile industry.

　　Not long ago, the media reported that Xiaopeng Motors CEO He Xiaopeng personally stayed in the Ningde era for a week in order to get the battery smoothly from the Ningde era. The chairman of CATL, Zeng Yuqun, said at a recent shareholders meeting that he could hardly bear the recent urging of customers. Behind this, a "battery shortage" is quietly coming.

　　In short supply, major power battery manufacturers are operating at full capacity

　　In order to meet the needs of car companies, the major power battery companies have also made full use of their horsepower. Ganfeng Lithium is a lithium battery manufacturer in Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province, which supplies a variety of new energy vehicles such as Tesla Model 3 (parameter 丨 picture) and BYD Han.

　　Faced with battery shortages, car companies dare not neglect, and have hugged the "thighs" of power battery manufacturers in advance. Great Wall Motors signed a ten-year strategic cooperation framework agreement on power batteries with CATL in early June this year.

　　Tesla CEO Musk has repeatedly expressed his concerns about the shortage of battery supply, and he bluntly said that Tesla will buy as much as the supplier gives.

　　On the evening of June 28, CATL announced that the company has signed an agreement with Tesla to supply lithium-ion power battery products to Tesla in the next four years.

　　SNE Research, a global emerging energy market research organization, predicts that by 2023, the global demand for power batteries for electric vehicles will reach 406 gigawatt-hours (GWH), while the supply of power batteries is expected to be 335 gigawatt-hours (GWH), with a gap of about 18 %. By 2025, this gap will widen to about 40%.

　　Power battery enterprise "running" expands production for half a year, invests 350 billion yuan

　　Since the beginning of this year, the pace of growth of new energy vehicles at home and abroad has been unexpectedly fast. However, power batteries have not kept up. In order to alleviate the "battery shortage", power battery companies dare not slack off and have started the "running" expansion mode.

　　Lithium products are one of the important raw materials for power batteries. In order to meet market demand, lithium mining companies are increasing their production capacity.

　　In addition to upstream companies, power battery companies themselves are also actively investing in building factories and trying to extend upstream.

　　In addition, Yiwei Lithium Energy joined hands with Huayou Cobalt to carry out smelting projects in Indonesia; Honeycomb Energy invested in the construction of a 14.6 gigawatt-hour (GWH) power battery production base in Lishui, Nanjing. Data shows that in the first half of this year, many domestic power battery companies have announced the expansion and optimization of production capacity. There are 57 related investment projects with a total investment plan of over 350 billion yuan.

　　Many companies have laid out solid-state battery competition quietly started

　　Recently, the founder of CATL, Zeng Yuqun, revealed at the shareholders meeting that a solid-state battery named "sodium ion" will be released in July this year. As early as January this year, Weilai Automobile has taken the lead in releasing a self-developed solid-state battery pack, which is expected to be commercialized in the fourth quarter of 2022.

　　Not to be outdone, international giants have accelerated their deployment of solid-state batteries. LG Chem stated that it will commercialize all solid-state batteries between 2025 and 2027; Panasonic plans to launch an electric vehicle using solid-state batteries in 2025. Volkswagen Group announced that it will start using solid-state batteries in 2025. Not to be outdone, the BMW Group also announced that it plans to launch a prototype car equipped with solid-state batteries by 2025.