LFP battery track competition “championship”

The lithium iron phosphate battery market has heated up sharply, and the competition among lithium iron phosphate battery companies has also intensified.

At the beginning of 2022, lithium iron phosphate batteries will be fully overtaken. At the same time, competition among lithium iron phosphate battery companies has further intensified.

In January, the output of power batteries was 29.7GWh, of which the output of li-ion batteries was 10.8GWh, a year-on-year increase of 57.9%, accounting for 36.5% of the total output; the output of lithium iron phosphate batteries was 18.8GWh, a year-on-year increase of 261.8%, accounting for 63.3% of the total output.

In fact, since July 2021, the installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries has exceeded that of li-ion batteries for seven consecutive months.

The reason is that the popular models equipped with iron-lithium batteries such as Model 3, BYD Han and Hongguang Mini EV have driven the increase in the installed capacity of iron-lithium batteries; in 2021, subsidies will be greatly reduced, and some miniature vehicles will switch to lower-cost lithium iron phosphate batteries.

In 2021, the installed capacity of li-ion power batteries is about 73.90GWh, a year-on-year increase of 87%; the installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate power batteries is about 65.37GWh, a year-on-year increase of 204%. It is expected that in 2022, the installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries will exceed that of li-ion batteries.

It is worth noting that the lithium iron phosphate battery market has heated up sharply, and the competition among lithium iron phosphate battery companies has also intensified.

1. Lithium iron phosphate has not yet formed a dominant situation.

Compared with the fault leadership of the Ningde era in the li-ion battery market, the gap between lithium iron phosphate battery companies has not widened.

Data in January showed that the domestic loading capacity of CATL was 3.96GWh, BYD 3.24GWh, Guoxuan Hi-Tech 0.87GWh, and the follow-up Yiwei Lithium Energy 0.21GWh.

At the same time, in 2022, China Innovation Aviation will turn to lithium iron phosphate batteries, and Honeycomb Energy will implement lithium iron phosphate short blade batteries, which will also have a high probability of getting a share of the market.

2. The shortage of lithium carbonate and the soaring price will further test the supply chain and cost control capabilities of battery companies.

As of February 18, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate has soared to 430,000/ton, an increase of more than 43% from the average price of 300,000/ton on New Year’s Day.

At the same time, the overall shortage of lithium iron phosphate materials has not been alleviated. Under the conduction of multiple factors, the cost of lithium iron phosphate batteries has risen, and the price gap with ternary batteries has further narrowed.

Whether the supply of raw materials can be guaranteed, the cost advantage maintained, and the stable supply to car companies will also have a decisive impact on the market share of lithium iron phosphate battery companies.