On December 20, gotion announced that recently, the company's wholly-owned overseas subsidiary, American Guoxuan, signed a "Strategic Supply and Localization Agreement" with a large listed automobile company in the United States. The two parties reached an agreement on the supply and procurement of lithium iron phosphate batteries. strategic cooperation.
According to the supply agreement, the US gotion needs to ensure that the number of batteries required by the customer is met from 2023 to 2028, and the total purchase is expected to be no less than 200GWh. The products will be used for the customer's electric vehicles and other applications in the US and global markets .
According to the announcement, based on the needs of this customer, on the one hand, the company will export LFP batteries through battery production bases in mainland China. . The scope of the joint venture may include investments in upstream materials and downstream battery recycling industries in addition to the battery production base.
The customer will also support the construction costs, equipment procurement costs and other expenses required by Guoxuan to build a factory in the United States through staged prepayments.
Guoxuan Hi-Tech stated that the signing of this agreement will have a significant positive impact on the company's operating performance in the coming years, but the implementation of the agreement will be affected by changes in customer needs, project construction progress, industry policies, market and economic environment and other factors.
Mystery customer is Tesla?
Due to the confidentiality agreement, Guoxuan Hi-Tech did not disclose the basic information of the customer, but according to the information disclosed in the announcement, this company is a large listed company in the United States, with a high market value, huge sales volume, and a pump iron-lithium battery route. Keywords can lock several car companies.
Among the top 20 companies by global market value, there are only five American companies: Tesla, Rivian, GM, Lucid Motors, and Ford; in terms of production and sales, Tesla plans to produce 20 million vehicles in 2030, and GM plans to sell globally in 2025. 1 million vehicles, Ford's production will reach 600,000 vehicles in 2023, Rivian will only start production and delivery in September this year, Lucid Motors expects production and sales to reach 20,000 vehicles by 2022, and annual production and sales of 49,000 vehicles by 2023. The annual production and sales of 500,000 vehicles, and the order of 200GWh, only Tesla has such a huge demand for batteries; on the other hand, only Tesla has vigorously imported lithium iron phosphate batteries, and Ford and GM have not disclosed it yet. Through the iron-lithium route, although Ford has reached a cooperation with BYD, the battery type is ternary.
On the whole, the probability of Tesla is relatively high, but it is not ruled out that it is other car companies.
As of the close on December 17, Tesla’s market value has reached $936.5 billion, ranking first among global car companies.
Tesla currently has factories in California, Shanghai, Austin, Texas, and Berlin around the world. Tesla plans to have an annual production capacity of 20 million vehicles in all factories by 2030. Musk also announced recently that the total investment in the Austin, Texas factory will exceed $10 billion. Based on the output of 20 million vehicles, Tesla's future battery demand will exceed 1,000GWh.
Tesla also has a rich product line, including the Model S, X, 3 and Y that have been mass-produced, a new generation of sports car Roadster, electric pickup truck Cybertruck, electric semi-trailer truck Semi, especially Cybertruck and Semi, which are yet to be mass-produced and delivered. Bookings are very hot, and the orders in hand have far exceeded one million. In the field of energy storage, Tesla has also vigorously deployed. In the third quarter of this year, the company deployed a 1295MWh energy storage system, and the compound annual growth rate of energy storage deployment in the past four years has reached 96%.
Tesla is also definitely the number one fan of lithium iron phosphate batteries. On October 20 this year, Tesla said that the standard battery life versions of Model 3 and Model Y will be switched to lithium iron phosphate batteries worldwide. Musk also disclosed that it is phosphoric acid. Lithium-iron batteries are "liked".
At present, the only official supplier of Tesla in China is CATL. Since it entered the domestic Tesla supply chain last year, the cooperation between the two parties has deepened many times. Supply agreement through December 2025. It is reported that Tesla has booked a 45GWh lithium iron phosphate battery with CATL, mainly for Model 3 and Model Y models.
In addition, BYD also has a "gossip" with Tesla. It is reported that BYD will supply blade batteries to Tesla in the second quarter of next year, and Tesla models equipped with blade batteries have entered the C-like testing stage.
Whether Guoxuan Hi-Tech's mysterious major customer is Tesla has yet to be officially disclosed, but whether it is Tesla or not, the huge order of 200GWh will help Guoxuan take off.
The sword points to the top three in the world
From January to November this year, Guoxuan Hi-Tech's installed capacity reached 6.6GWh, accounting for 5.1%, ranking 4th in domestic power battery installed capacity. Among them, the installed capacity in November was 1.08GWh, accounting for 5.2%.
In terms of customers, in addition to old customers such as BAIC, JAC, and Chery, Guoxuan Hi-Tech has also reached cooperation with leading independent brands such as Changan, Great Wall, and Geely, as well as new power companies such as Leapmotor, Weimar, and Hezhong. Great Wall Motor's total 10GWh orders from 2022 to 2025.
In terms of international car companies, on July 13 this year, Guoxuan Hi-Tech signed a memorandum of understanding with Volkswagen Group to develop the first generation of standard batteries for Volkswagen Group, becoming the first designated developer of standard battery research and development. India Tata and others have reached a cooperation.
On December 12, Guoxuan Hi-Tech announced that it will increase its investment to Volkswagen, and Volkswagen China officially became the largest shareholder of Guoxuan Hi-Tech. After the transaction, Volkswagen holds 26.47% of the shares, and Li Zhen and his concerted parties hold 18.17% of the shares, and are still the actual controllers of the company.
The goal set by Volkswagen Group and Guoxuan Hi-Tech is to become one of the top three battery manufacturers in the world.
In terms of production capacity, at present, Guoxuan Hi-Tech has built 10 production bases in Hefei Feidong, Hefei Economic Development Zone, Hefei New Station, Lujiang, Nanjing, Qingdao, Tangshan, Nantong, Liuzhou, Yichun and other places in China, with a production capacity of 28GWh at the end of last year. , of which the lithium iron phosphate production capacity is 23GWh, and the ternary production capacity is 5GWh.
Guoxuan Hi-Tech stated on the interactive platform that the company's production capacity will reach 50GWh by the end of this year, 100GWh by the end of 2022, and 300GWh in 2025.
On December 7, the 50GWh power battery project of Guoxuan Hi-Tech Hefei New Station officially started. It is expected to be put into operation in the first half of 2023. After the project is put into operation, it will provide a new generation of battery technology and products for world-class auto companies.
In terms of products, Cai Yi, President of Guoxuan Hi-Tech Industrial Research Institute, introduced that in 2021, Guoxuan Hi-Tech's high-energy density 300Wh/kg batteries have been loaded into vehicles, and the research and development of 230Wh/kg iron-lithium batteries and 110Ah semi-solid batteries has also been achieved. Breakthrough; in 2022, Guoxuan Hi-Tech will develop 260Wh/kg iron-lithium batteries and 400Wh/kg ternary batteries.
In terms of industrial chain layout, Guoxuan Hi-Tech has successively invested in upstream lithium ore resources, cathode materials, cathode precursors (MCC Ramu), anode materials, separators (Hefei Xingyuan), electrolytes, copper foils (Copper Crown Copper Foil), etc. The key link of the industrial chain has formed a vertical layout of the industrial chain from the material end to the product end.
In January this year, the construction of Lujiang Volkswagen Guoxuan’s ternary cathode material project with an annual output of 30,000 tons officially started construction; in February, Guoxuan announced that it would invest 11.5 billion yuan to build a lithium battery new energy industry project in the Yichun Economic and Technological Development Zone; in March, Guoxuan’s total investment of 120 The power battery industry chain project with an annual output of 100 million yuan settled in Feidong; in July, the high-end cathode material project with an annual output of 200,000 tons settled in Lujiang High-tech Zone; in September, it cooperated with Chuanheng Co., Ltd. to build a battery with an annual production capacity of no less than 500,000 tons of phosphoric acid Iron production line.
