Recently, Ningde Times has "due in court" with AVIC Lithium Battery for a "patent infringement" case.

　　It is reported that Ningde Times New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ningde Times"), a leader in the lithium battery industry, has filed an indictment on the patent infringement case of AVIC Lithium Battery Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "AVIC Lithium Battery"). The subject matter of the case covers the defendant. For all products, the case has been accepted.

　　AVIC Lithium responded to this, saying that the company insists on independent research and development, technological innovation, and a comprehensive intellectual property layout. Its products have undergone a comprehensive risk investigation by a professional team to ensure that they do not infringe on the intellectual property rights of others.

　　Patent infringement dispute

　　At present, Ningde Times v. AVIC lithium battery "patent infringement" case has not yet disclosed the latest progress.

　　Ningde Times stated that the case involved a large number of company inventions and utility model patents, and AVIC’s lithium battery was suspected of infringing batteries that had been equipped with tens of thousands of vehicles. The indictment was accepted by the Fuzhou Intermediate Court. Talking about the importance of patents, Ningde Times stated that intellectual property is a strategic resource for enterprises to improve their core competitiveness and an important support for facing fierce international competition.

　　In response, AVIC Lithium responded on July 21 that the company has not received a complaint. AVIC Lithium Battery has always adhered to independent research and development, technological innovation, and future-oriented R&D layout and investment planning. The company’s intellectual property work has long been adhering to the two lines of "technical achievement protection line" and "IP risk prevention and control line". While carrying out a comprehensive intellectual property layout, the company’s products provided to customers have undergone a comprehensive risk investigation by a professional intellectual property team. , In order to protect against infringement of the intellectual property rights of others.

　　There is a view that at the time when AVIC Lithium is planning an IPO, CATL suddenly resorted to "patent infringement". This actually reflects that the industry leader is anxious about the competition in resources, customers and market position of AVIC Lithium in recent years.

　　Ningde Times is not the first time that a patent infringement lawsuit has been filed. In January 2020, the Fujian Provincial People's Court accepted the case of Ningde Times suing Tafel New Energy for patent infringement, involving a subject amount of 120 million yuan. CATL hopes that Tafel New Energy will stop manufacturing, selling and promising to sell battery products that infringe its patent rights, and compensate for the corresponding losses. In April of the same year, CATL again sued Tafel New Energy for patent infringement, involving four patents, and the amount involved was 80 million yuan. The case has been accepted by the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court.

　　The development speed of the China Aviation Lithium battery prosecuted by Ningde Times in recent years has attracted people's attention. According to statistics from the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, AVIC Lithium Battery ranked fourth with 3.63GWh in the domestic installed capacity of power battery companies in the first half of 2021, with a market share of 6.9%. From the perspective of supply customers, this company replaced CATL and became the main battery supplier for GAC Aion and Changan Automobile. It is equipped with GAC Aion S, Changan Benben E-Star, Wuling Hongguang MINIEV and other models.

　　In addition, AVIC Lithium also used Honda’s fixed point of development and mass production of Smart models, and started mass supply of GAC Toyota supporting batteries. The supporting batteries for GAC Honda will also be delivered soon.

　　According to statistics from the Advanced Industry Research Institute, in December 2020, AVIC Lithium’s installed capacity of ternary lithium batteries in China surpassed LG New Energy and BYD, ranking second with a market share of 11%. threatening.

　　Ningde Times sued AVIC Lithium Battery, which is still at a critical moment when the latter has just announced its IPO plan. In June of this year, AVIC Lithium Battery revealed that it will apply for A-share IPO materials in the first quarter of 2022, and the estimated valuation will be around 60 billion yuan. However, affected by patent litigation, AVIC Lithium Battery's IPO process may be affected to a certain extent.

　　It is worth noting that during the two sessions this year, Ningde Times Chairman Zeng Yuqun submitted a "Proposal on Strengthening the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights for Lithium Batteries." At present, intellectual property litigation cases of lithium batteries occur from time to time, and the process of protecting corporate rights is relatively difficult. He suggested that the protection of intellectual property rights in the lithium battery industry should be strengthened from three aspects. The first is to deepen the rules of the evidence preservation system to reduce the difficulty of the proof stage and the cost of rights protection; the second is to establish special procedures for intellectual property rights to improve the efficiency of the trial and shorten the trial period; the third is to speed up the introduction of the trade secret protection system to solve the problem of corporate rights protection need.

　　The first name of the market changes hands

　　While alert to the rapid rise of domestic battery manufacturers, CATL’s “top spot” in the global power battery market has been shaken.

　　Recently, South Korean research institute SNE Research released data showing that in May 2021, the installed capacity of power batteries for registered electric vehicles worldwide was 19.7GWh, a year-on-year increase of 232.5%. Among them, the installed capacity of LG New Energy's power battery increased by 270% year-on-year to 5.7GWh, and its market share rose to 28.7%, surpassing the Ningde era and ranked first. The installed capacity of CATL batteries was 4.8GWh, a year-on-year increase of nearly 260%, with a market share of 24.5%, dropping to second place.

　　Since CATL took the lead in April last year, the top company in the global power battery market by monthly installed capacity has changed hands again, and the competition between LG New Energy and CATL has continued to escalate.

　　From January to May 2021, CATL’s power battery installed capacity totaled 22.1GWh, with a market share of 27.1%. With only a slight advantage of 0.4GWh and 0.5% market share, it temporarily leads LG New Energy.

　　The rapid growth of LG New Energy's installed capacity is mainly due to the growth dividends brought about by the rapid rise of the European and American new energy vehicle markets, including China-made Tesla Model Y, Volkswagen ID.3 and ID.4, Skoda ENYAQ The increase in sales of vehicles such as Ford Mustang Mach-E and Ford Mustang Mach-E all contributed to the increase in battery installed capacity. From January to May in 2021, in the global power battery market outside of China, LG's new energy installed capacity reached 16.4GWh, with a market share of more than one-third.

　　In contrast, the main source of contribution to the installed capacity of power batteries in the CATL era is the Chinese market, which is still insufficient in terms of international market development. Data show that CATL ranks fifth with 4.4GWh installed capacity, temporarily losing to Japan and South Korea's head battery suppliers.

　　The expansion of LG New Energy has not stopped yet. In December 2020, LG Chem officially split the battery business subsidiary LG New Energy separately. The latter will make an initial public offering before the end of this year, officially listed on the Korean Stock Exchange, and is expected to achieve a sales target of 30 trillion won in 2024, and leap into the "world's first energy solution company." LG New Energy is also actively expanding investment, strengthening cooperation with upstream suppliers Tianci Materials and Australian miners, investing an additional US$500 million in the Nanjing production base, and investing 1.1 billion yuan with Hyundai Motors to build a battery base. The development momentum is rapid.

　　With the implementation of the ambitious electrification transformation plans of various auto companies, and the accelerated growth of new energy vehicle sales worldwide, the power battery industry has ushered in a period of rapid expansion in the past two years, and market competition has also increased.

　　There are many competitors

　　Since 2021, CATL can be described as "unlimited scenery" in the capital market.

　　Since May this year, the stock price of this company has risen rapidly. On May 31, it hit a record high of 429 yuan per share, and its total market value exceeded one trillion yuan. It became the first company on the GEM to reach a trillion yuan market value. As of the close of the market on July 30, CATL offered 550.4 yuan per share, with a total market value of up to 1.28 trillion yuan. Compared with the lowest point of this year's stock price (278.91 yuan), the increase has doubled.

　　With the support of concepts such as high-end manufacturing and new energy vehicles, investors have high hopes for the growth prospects of the CATL. CITIC Securities Research pointed out that the global automotive electrification trend is confirmed, high-end power batteries continue to be in short supply, and the global energy storage market is about to explode. As a global leader in large-scale batteries, CATL fully enjoys the explosive growth of the industry. The market space brought about by the energy reform is huge, and the company's growth is highly certain.

　　However, CATL’s position as a leader in the lithium battery industry has not been fully secured. In addition to having to compete with Japanese and Korean suppliers in overseas markets, it is also facing competition from competitors in the local market. Among them, all of BYD's pure electric models were replaced with blade batteries and began to supply externally; AVIC lithium batteries were supplied to GAC passenger cars and Changan Automobile, grabbing customer resources from the Ningde era, and installed capacity increased rapidly.

　　Car companies are also wary of the dominant position of the Ningde era. Since the beginning of this year, the supply of power battery capacity has been tight, which has become a bottleneck for the development of new energy automobile companies. This allows CATL to take the initiative and become one of the few suppliers that can require car companies to pay first and then supply products. This unbalanced relationship makes car companies worry about the safety of the supply chain, turning to self-developed power batteries or looking for other lithium battery manufacturers.

　　In recent years, auto companies have deployed self-research or investment in the battery field: Volkswagen has invested in Guoxuan High-Tech, Daimler has invested in Funeng Technology, Great Wall Motor has incubated Honeycomb Energy and released "Dayu" battery technology, Geely Technology Group invested 300 100 million yuan to build a power battery project, GAC Ion develops graphene-based battery and silicon anode battery technology. In this way, car companies hope to ensure the stability and voice of the supply of core components.

　　In order to stabilize the position of the industry leader in the pattern of rivals, since 2020, CATL has announced a series of new construction and expansion plans. At present, its investment and expansion of power battery manufacturing base projects mainly include European production research and development base projects, Times FAW power battery projects, Sichuan Times power battery projects, Times Guangzhou Automobile power battery projects, Times SAIC Liyang Park project, etc. Entering 2021, CATL has invested a total of nearly 40 billion yuan in four battery production line projects in Yibin, Sichuan, Zhaoqing, Guangdong, Xiapu, Fujian, and Liyang, Jiangsu.

　　The Ningde era is still attacking everywhere at the same time, investing abroad. In April 2021, the company announced plans to invest in listed companies in the domestic and overseas industrial chain by means of securities investment within the next year, with a total investment of no more than 19 billion yuan, aiming to further strengthen industrial chain cooperation and coordination, and improve resource utilization And output efficiency to enhance the company’s market competitiveness. In order to ensure the supply of upstream raw materials, CATL also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Luoyang Molybdenum Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Luoyang Molybdenum, through its indirect holding company, to jointly invest in the development of a large copper-cobalt mine in the Congo (DRC).

　　In order to ensure technological competitiveness, CATL is also constantly developing next-generation battery technologies and energy storage technologies such as sodium-ion batteries and solid-state batteries.

　　On July 29, the company released the first generation of sodium ion batteries. It is said that the first-generation sodium-ion battery has the advantages of high energy density, high rate charging, thermal stability, low temperature performance and high integration efficiency. The energy density of the battery cell is 160Wh/kg; it can be charged at room temperature for 15 minutes, and the power can reach more than 80%; in the low temperature environment of -20°C, it also has a discharge retention rate of more than 90%; the system integration efficiency can reach 80 % Or more; thermal stability exceeds the safety requirements of strong national standards. At present, CATL has started the industrialization layout of sodium-ion batteries, and a basic industrial chain will be formed in 2023.

　　Guosen Securities Research pointed out that the core advantage of sodium-ion batteries lies in cost, and they perform well in terms of raw material abundance, fast charging, and high and low temperature performance. In particular, the abundance of sodium is significantly higher than that of lithium, and the distribution of resources is even, which can avoid resource "stuck". However, under the same battery life, sodium ion increases the weight of a bicycle by about 10-20% compared to iron-lithium batteries, which conflicts with the long-life and lightweight requirements of high-end models. Therefore, it is more hopeful to enter the low-end electric vehicle market that pursues cost-effectiveness. This means that sodium batteries cannot yet bring much change to the current mainstream car battery market.

　　With the rapid increase in battery installed capacity, capacity expansion, and active expansion of technological innovation, CATL will remain the leader in the global lithium battery industry in the short term, but there are also views that worry about its long-term past risks. An automotive industry analyst told Caijing.com that, in the context of carbon neutrality, the competition for power batteries in the future is bound to intensify. The top three Korean batteries, BYD’s Verdi Battery, and AVIC Lithium will seize the market share of Ningde era at home and abroad in the future, and the leading car companies will set off the trend of self-developed and self-produced batteries, and will also have the right to speak in the Ningde era. Status causes shocks. In the long run, accelerating the commercialization of next-generation battery technology and expanding energy storage business will be an important investment direction for this company to maintain its competitive advantage.