NHTSA said on Tuesday that it was conducting a review to ensure that all defective batteries produced by LG New Energy have been recalled by the automaker. It is reported that a total of 138,324 vehicles were involved in the investigation.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Tuesday that it is conducting a review to ensure that all defective batteries produced by LG New Energy have been recalled by the automaker, according to multiple media reports. It is reported that a total of 138,324 vehicles were involved in the investigation.
Automakers including Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler parent company Stellantis, General Motors and Hyundai have issued recall notices since 2020 due to internal failures in high-voltage car batteries posing fire risks, the NHTSA said.
The battery network noted that in March this year, Volkswagen recalled 351 ID.4 vehicles produced in 2021 due to possible insufficient solder joints in the battery and possible unreliable connections inside the high-voltage battery.
In February, Chrysler parent company Stellantis will recall 19,808 plug-in hybrid small vans after 12 reports of vehicle fires. The vehicles affected by the recall are the 2017-2018 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid, which use batteries produced by LG New Energy, the company said.
In October 2021, General Motors announced that it had reached an agreement with battery supplier LG New Energy on the recall cost of the Chevrolet Bolt, and LG New Energy agreed to compensate General Motors up to $1.9 billion (approximately RMB 122.50). billion).
LG New Energy posted an operating loss of $320 million in the third quarter of 2021 on sales of $3.48 billion, excluding the reserve for GM's recall. However, in the fourth quarter of 2021, driven by strong demand for electric vehicle pouch batteries and cylindrical batteries, the company's revenue was 4.44 trillion won, an increase of 10.2% month-on-month and 2% year-on-year, turning losses into profits.
From the perspective of the whole year of 2021, despite the problems of battery recalls, global logistics crisis, insufficient supply of on-board semiconductors, and rising raw material prices, LG New Energy still achieved double growth in revenue and profit: revenue was 17.85 trillion won, a year-on-year increase of 17.85 trillion won. An increase of 42%; operating profit was 768.5 billion won; operating profit margin was 4.3%.
Looking forward to 2022, LG New Energy expects revenue to reach 19.2 trillion won in 2022, an increase of 8% year-on-year, exceeding the expected steady growth of the electric vehicle market. Excluding the impact of contingencies on performance, the company's annual revenue would have grown 14% year over year.
Notably, LG New Energy said in March this year that the company is gradually expanding its production network globally, including in Canada, the United States, Poland, Indonesia, China and South Korea. Together with the newly announced investment plan, the company has now secured more than 200GWh of annual production capacity in North America, which translates into the production of 2.5 million high-performance electric vehicles.
In terms of competitiveness, according to data released by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, in 2021, LG New Energy's installed capacity of power batteries in my country will reach 6.25GWh, accounting for 4%; from January to February this year, LG New Energy The installed capacity of power battery enterprises in my country reached 0.47GWh, accounting for 1.56%.
From a global perspective, according to the latest data released by SNE Research, a South Korean research institution, the global installed capacity of electric vehicle batteries reached 53.5GWh from January to February this year, a year-on-year increase of over 100%. Among them, LG New Energy ranked second with a loading volume of 7.4GWh, a year-on-year increase of 37.6%, and a market share of 13.8%.
