Jiwei.com reported that in the first wave of fuel car electrification transition, domestic battery companies along with the market explosion successfully among the global first echelon, growing up such as Ningde Time, BYD and other leading global enterprises.

　　At the same time of the rapid development of Chinese battery enterprises, the demand for power batteries and energy storage in overseas markets is also intensifying, and there is a huge market gap. At the same time, with the withdrawal of "national subsidies", the domestic new energy market is tilted from policy-driven to market-led, and competition is becoming increasingly fierce, so "going out" has become a natural choice for battery companies.

　　Recently, Ningde Times officially announced that it will cooperate with Ford to produce batteries in the United States. As a battery brother, Ningde Times to enter the North American market, or further drive the speed of domestic battery companies to the sea.

　　After entering Europe, Ningde Times finally set foot on North America.

　　After more than three years, at the end of December last year, Ningde Time's first overseas factory in Thuringia, Germany, was put into operation as scheduled for lithium-ion battery cells. With a total investment of 1.8 billion euros and a planned production capacity of 14 GWh, this is Ningde Times' first battery factory in Europe and its first factory outside China.

        After the successful construction of the first battery factory, Ningde Times started to plan its second factory in Europe. last August, Ningde Times announced that it would build its second battery factory in Europe in Hungary with an investment of 7.34 billion euros and a planned capacity of 100 GWh. the factory is expected to start construction in the second half of this year and aims to become the largest power battery factory in Europe.

       The reason why Ningde Times is willing to make a big investment in Europe to build a plant is inseparable from its on-hand fixed-point projects and target customers at that time. As early as from 2018 to 2019, Ningde Times had intensively obtained fixed-point projects or intended orders from overseas first-class car companies, for example, Daimler, Peugeot Citroen, BMW and so on. After this new plant of Ningde Times in Germany is put into operation, it will be able to supply batteries from local to BMW, Bosch, Daimler and other European automakers, eliminating long-distance shipping from China to Europe.

       Outside of Europe, North America, where the electric vehicle market is starting to climb rapidly, is of course an important market for Ningde Times to focus on, as rumors of a North American plant have reversed several times before this. on February 14, Ningde Times finally made an official announcement, confirming that it will cooperate with Ford to produce batteries in the United States.

　　According to the agreement, Ningde Times will provide construction and operation services for Ford's battery plant in Michigan and license the battery patent technology. The plant, which is wholly owned by Ford, is expected to be put into operation in 2026 with an annual capacity of about 35 GWh, providing power cells for about 400,000 Ford electric vehicles per year.

　　It is reported that Ford and Ningde Time cooperation of this plant will be the first lithium iron phosphate battery plant in the United States. Compared to ternary lithium batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries are lower cost and more secure. Ford said that the new plant's battery will be one of the lowest cost of production batteries, will help reduce the pricing of electric vehicles.

　　Industry analysts pointed out that the introduction of the U.S. "Inflation Reduction Act", so that the domestic manufacture of batteries in the United States more cost advantage. The bill provides that EV companies that manufacture and assemble batteries in the U.S. can offset more than one-third of the total cost of the batteries with subsidies they receive.

　　For car companies, the whole vehicle cost accounted for nearly half of the battery price, if it can be reduced, will undoubtedly help to improve the gross profit level of car companies, enhance the competitiveness of enterprises.

　　2022 U.S. new energy vehicle sales show that after Tesla, Ford jumped to second place in electric vehicle sales, with a 7.6% share of the all-electric vehicle market in the United States. With Ningde Time's advanced battery technology, Ford is expected to meet the challenges of competitors such as Tesla by reducing production costs.

　　And Ford's upside in the field of electric vehicles will naturally help Ningde Times to expand the North American market. The North American market, which has previously been dominated by Japanese and Korean battery companies, has finally been taken by Ningde Time.

Seize the overseas market gap, domestic battery companies to accelerate the sea

　　Compared with the fully competitive development of the domestic market, the European and North American markets in the field of battery manufacturing is still relatively weak, there is no large-scale local lithium enterprises, seize the lack of capacity window to seize the first local plant layout, domestic battery companies are naturally not willing to lag behind in the global market "horse race".

　　In addition to Ningde Times, Hive Energy, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Yiwei Li-energy, Vision Power, China Innovation Aviation and other battery companies have started overseas manufacturing layout.

　　In 2020, Hive Energy announced the construction of its first European battery factory in Saarland, Germany, with an investment of about 2 billion euros, which is expected to be put into operation at the end of 2023 with a capacity of 24 GWh. In September 2022, Hive Energy announced the construction of its second overseas factory in Brandenburg, Germany, which is also the first battery cell factory.

　　In June 2022, it announced the establishment of a production and operation base in Germany, with a cumulative capacity target of 20 GWh after full production in 2025; in October of the same year, it announced a US$2.36 billion investment in a power cell assembly plant in Michigan, U.S.; in November, it announced a joint investment with VinES Vietnam in a lithium iron phosphate battery plant; in December, it announced a joint investment with VinES Vietnam in a lithium iron phosphate battery plant. In December, it was announced that it would establish a joint venture with Thailand's Nuovo Plus to focus on the design, manufacturing and sales of battery modules and pack products; not long ago, Guoxuan Hi-Tech joined hands with European battery manufacturer InoBat to explore the cooperation opportunity of building 40GWh capacity in Europe. According to the plan, Guoxuan Hi-Tech will achieve 100GWh overseas battery layout by 2025.

　　In March 2022, EVERLIGHT announced the signing of a letter of intent with a subsidiary of the city government of Debrecen, Hungary, to purchase 45 hectares of property for the construction of a cylindrical battery production plant.

　　In April 2022, Vision Power announced the construction of a battery factory in Kentucky, U.S., the layout of a battery factory in Spain in June, and the plan to build a factory in South Carolina, U.S. in December. At the same time, Vision Power also laid out the construction of factories in Japan, France and the UK.

　　In November 2022, Sinovation announced that it signed a memorandum of understanding with AICEP Global Parques, an investment institution in Portugal, and plans to purchase land use rights in Portugal to build a zero-carbon battery factory.

　　Battery practitioners point out that with the increasing scale in overseas markets, domestic batteries sent to overseas markets by sea is no longer the most economical way, especially Europe and North America have introduced some policies and subsidies to encourage the construction of local supply chains, and from the consideration of cost reduction, building local production plants overseas has become a necessary choice.

　　Boston Consulting analysts believe that driven by market demand, supply strategies, policy and regulatory requirements, battery production capacity is accelerating to Europe and the United States, and is expected to weaken the dominant position of the Asia-Pacific region in the global battery market by 2030.

　　In the layout of battery production capacity in Europe and the United States, in addition to the local government to support local battery companies, Chinese battery companies obviously have to face the challenge of Japanese and Korean battery companies, how to continue to maintain a leading position in the next round of new energy development, for Chinese battery companies, the battle for overseas markets is inevitable and vital.