Local reports stated that on September 4, the factory held a “fight for 100 days to ensure safety and delivery” oath meeting to ensure that the project was completed in mid-October this year and the production line equipment was in operation; the first production line was put into operation on December 15. The “blade battery” product rolled off the assembly line. According to previous plans, Fudi Changsha plant will start production in April next year.

As BYD’s “semi-official” disclosure of “Customer No. 1” recently visited the two Fordy factories in Chongqing and Xi’an, BYD’s independent battery production business segment at the beginning of this year has once again received industry attention.

After sorting out by the Cailian News Agency’s reporter, they found that many clues pointed the “Customer No. 1″ to the German luxury brand Mercedes-Benz, which has had a cooperative relationship with BYD for many years. At the same time, Toyota Motor of Japan, which has reached a cooperation with BYD, may also The battery business cooperation is locked in the “blade battery.”

Regarding the above news, BYD and related parties have not responded positively, but relevant information shows that, affected by the demand for its own products including BYD “Han” and potential external orders, Forddy is accelerating the expansion of its “blade battery” production capacity. Among them, Fudi Changsha plant is currently recruiting on a large scale to advance the production schedule originally scheduled for the second quarter of next year to mid-December this year.

The mysterious “Customer No. 1″

On September 3, a public account named “Lithium Battery Man” published an article titled “World-famous car company visits the Ferdi battery blade battery super factory”, saying that on September 2nd, at BYD Group Vice President and Verdi Accompanied by He Long, the chairman of the battery and Zhong Sheng, the general manager of Chongqing Fudi Lithium Battery Co., Ltd., the “Customer No. 1″ executives visited each production process of the blade battery in Fudi Battery Factory and gave a blueprint for Chongqing Fudi Lithium Battery Co., Ltd. , The principle of the acupuncture experiment of the blade battery, the technical characteristics of the Pack workshop and the assembly section have been deeply understood.

Although the subject of registration of this public number is an individual, the content published since its registration indicates that the public number is closely related to Fordy Battery and is suspected to be owned by its internal employees.

The above article emphasizes that “Customer No. 1″ is a century-old car company and ranks in the forefront of Interbrand (the world’s top 100 best brands). “The visit of the senior management of “Customer No. 1″ aims to deepen cooperation and strong alliance with Fordy Battery. To build a new chapter in the development of new energy vehicles.”

Four days after the publication of this article, the official account again issued a document to disclose the trajectory of the “Customer No. 1″-from August 31 to September 1, 2020, the senior leaders of the “Customer No. 1″ visited the XAB factory (ie, Fudi Battery Xi’an Plant), carried out a two-day audit activity. The article stated, “On September 1, the customer and our representatives conducted in-depth communication and exchanges on the content of this review, and recognized our technical level, rapid response capability and automated production level, and finally announced the PHEV model. The group beat audit passed successfully.”

From a picture of “Customer No. 1″ watching an English PPT in the same frame as the staff of Fordy, it can be seen that the introduction of Fordy Battery to “Customer No. 1″ includes the overview of the battery cell and battery array production line; PHEV and BEV time plan review; PPAP (ie, production parts approval control program) status; BEV TT (ie, tooling test) and PP (ie, trial production) delivery, etc.

At the same time, another photo attached to the article showed that “Customer No. 1″ also took the BYD “Cloud Rail Train” with BYD staff.

“There is currently no official confirmation.” BYD has not confirmed the content disclosed by the above public account.

Mercedes-Benz and Toyota surfaced

Public information shows that in the latest Interbrand Top 100 Global Brands list, there are two auto brands in the top ten, namely Toyota and Mercedes-Benz, but Toyota is only 87 years old. Therefore, the outside world generally believes that the “customer No. 1″ who has visited the two Fordy battery factories in three days and passed the PHEV module beat audit is Mercedes-Benz.

Another suspected BYD employee’s Weibo posted a picture related to Mercedes-Benz while reposting the contents of the above public account, which seemed to confirm the authenticity of the above speculation.

Although the above news has not been confirmed, a relevant person in charge of BYD told the Cailian News reporter that “the batteries produced by the Xi’an plant of Fordi Battery are ternary lithium batteries.”

In other words, if the above content is true, then it indicates that the mysterious “customer No. 1″, namely Mercedes-Benz, has reached a preliminary cooperation with BYD on the ternary lithium battery on the power battery of the PHEV model, and it is very likely that the ” “Blade battery” reached a new cooperation.

In February of this year, Daimler Group held a 2020 press conference and stated that the future will rely on carbon-neutral travel and continuous digital layout. In 2020, EQA, EQV and more than 20 plug-in hybrid vehicles will be launched.

“Compared with LFP (lithium iron phosphate), ternary lithium battery has a higher energy density, which can achieve a relatively high cruising range in PHEV pure electric mode to improve product power.” In the opinion of industry insiders, this may be This is one of the reasons why Mercedes-Benz visited Verdi’s Xi’an plant and may reach a supply agreement. “At the same time, although Mercedes-Benz and CATL announced their deepening of strategic cooperation not long ago, it is also common practice in the industry to have A and B corners in the supply chain. ”

At the same time as the “No. 1 customer” Mercedes-Benz surfaced, another news broke that Toyota, which has reached a cooperation with BYD, will also use “blade batteries” in future products.

In March this year, the Shenzhen-based BYD Toyota Electric Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd., each holding 50% of the shares, was formally established. According to the previous agreement, the two parties will jointly develop pure electric cars and SUVs. The new cars will use the Toyota brand and are planned to be launched in the Chinese market by 2025.

“Due to the impact of the epidemic, most of the company’s Japanese personnel have not been in place, but the Chinese personnel have basically been in place.” A BYD insider disclosed the latest developments of the joint venture with Toyota, but did not comment on the rumors of Toyota’s use of “blade batteries” Response.

“Neither Toyota nor we (Toyota China) have released similar news (referring to Toyota’s use of’blade batteries’).” Toyota China has not responded positively to the news.

Accelerated increase in production capacity of “blade batteries”

In addition to the mysterious “Customer No. 1″ and the rumored Toyota, a reporter from the Financial Associated Press learned from BYD that the Qinghai plant of Fudi Battery has also been audited by a customer whose internal code is “No. 19″; another domestic commercial vehicle company also Recently, I went to Verdi to visit and exchange.

According to data from the Passenger Association, in August, BYD’s wholesale sales of new energy vehicles were 14,300, exceeding Tesla’s sales in China during the same period. According to BYD official, its first BYD “Han” equipped with a “blade battery” delivered 4,000 in batches in August. In addition, BYD Han also delivered 1,205 vehicles in July. In other words, BYD “Han” delivered 5,205 vehicles in the past two months. Zhao Changjiang, general manager of BYD Auto Sales, once said that the order volume of “Han” has exceeded 30,000, and this delivery volume is far from meeting the order demand.

While internal demand cannot be met, in the face of potential subsequent external orders, the production capacity of “blade batteries” obviously needs to be improved.

Currently, BYD has battery plants in Shenzhen, Xi’an, Qinghai, Chongqing, Changsha and Guiyang. According to BYD’s overall plan, by the end of 2020, Ferdi’s battery capacity will reach 65GWh, and the total capacity including “blade batteries” will reach 75GWh and 100GWh in 2021 and 2022, respectively. According to the person in charge of BYD mentioned above, “The production locations of the’blade batteries’ are located in Chongqing, Changsha and Guiyang.”

In fact, due to higher-than-expected market feedback, BYD has accelerated the upgrade of factory production capacity. The person in charge of Chongqing Fudi Battery Factory once told reporters, “We have already started to expand the line and will expand to more than 13GWh by the end of this year.”

According to BYD’s latest recruitment information, Fudi Changsha plant is currently recruiting on a large scale. Local reports said that on September 4, the factory held a “fight for 100 days to ensure safety and delivery” oath meeting to ensure that the project was completed in mid-October this year and the production line equipment was operational; the first production line was put into operation on December 15. The “blade battery” product rolled off the assembly line. According to previous plans, Fudi Changsha plant will start production in April next year.

In addition, the reporter learned from the relevant environmental assessment documents of the Guiyang Environmental Protection Bureau that the “blade battery” production capacity of Forddy’s Guiyang plant is 10GWh, and the planned production date is July 2021.

Based on this calculation, BYD’s annual production capacity of “blade batteries” will reach 33GWh by 2021, accounting for approximately 44% of BYD’s total power battery production capacity during the same period.

“There is more than one company currently negotiating.” Regarding the external supply of Fordi batteries, Li Yunfei, deputy general manager of BYD Auto Sales, said.