New energy vehicles open up the "circle of friends" mode | Insights from JIANZHI Research

In the downturn of the new energy vehicle market, it is no longer feasible to face challenges alone. Now, major companies in the industry are joining forces to overcome difficulties.

Recently, CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE, a leader in the new energy field, and GANFENGLITHIUM, a leader in the lithium salt industry, announced an important long-term strategic cooperation. The core of this cooperation is to accelerate the development and industrialization of (semi-) solid-state batteries.

In addition, the two parties will also collaborate on the research and development of next-generation automotive power batteries, which not only includes the batteries themselves, but also involves the mining of lithium ore resources, deep processing of lithium salt, and production of battery materials. They even plan to expand their cooperation to battery manufacturing and the recycling of used batteries.

It is worth mentioning that when CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE chose its research and development partner, it unexpectedly chose GANFENGLITHIUM, a company with relatively low visibility in the lithium battery industry and not the highest installed capacity of power batteries. The reason behind this decision has aroused curiosity in the market.

1. New energy companies striving to expand their circle of friends

In the new energy industry this year, cooperation and expansion between companies have become a trend, especially for CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE and GANFENGLITHIUM. While deeply understanding this trend, these two major companies are also taking active actions.

In less than a month, CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE has signed cooperation agreements with several industry-leading companies, including Huawei in intelligent driving, NIO-SW in battery swapping technology, and GANFENGLITHIUM in lithium salt. These collaborations cover multiple aspects of the new energy vehicle industry chain, indicating that CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE may gain an advantage in the fierce market competition in the future.

Regarding the cooperation with GANFENGLITHIUM, Chang'an Shenlan commented to Wallstreetcn.com: The signing of the strategic and special memorandum of understanding between CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE and GANFENGLITHIUM is part of CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE's Shangri-La Plan. It is the continuous promotion of the Chang'an Jinzhongzhao battery brand planning. The two parties will fully leverage their respective advantageous resources to accelerate the industrialization of solid-state battery technology.

CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE's strategy is two-pronged: on the one hand, it strengthens its technical strength through cooperation in the lithium salt and battery fields; on the other hand, it enhances its product competitiveness through cooperation with leading companies in the intelligent driving field.

Chang'an Shenlan further commented to Wallstreetcn.com: With the deepening cooperation between CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE and GANFENGLITHIUM, the "Jinzhongzhao" battery will definitely be further improved, and the Shenlan super-long-range will also make further progress.

Facing the challenges of market changes, GANFENGLITHIUM has also begun to accelerate its diversified layout in 2023 and actively cooperate with new energy vehicle companies and power battery manufacturers.

In addition to using new batteries in the SERES-5 model of Siles and the E70 model of Dongfeng, GANFENGLITHIUM has also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with GAC Aion and invested 1 billion yuan to subscribe for shares of Ruiqi Electric, a subsidiary of Siles, to strengthen its influence in the downstream of the industry. Facing the challenges of slowing growth and declining market sentiment in the new energy vehicle industry, close cooperation and resource sharing among enterprises have become crucial. This not only helps companies expand their influence but also serves as an effective means to cope with the market downturn.

2. Why did CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE choose to collaborate deeply with GANFENGLITHIUM to achieve solid-state battery development?

As solid-state batteries have become the focus of the market, they are gradually transitioning from theory to practical applications. For example, in mid-December, NIO-SW tested a 150kWh ultra-long-range battery pack, achieving a range of 1000 kilometers, which accelerated the arrival of the solid-state battery era.

The deep collaboration between CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE and GANFENGLITHIUM in exploring upstream lithium mining resources, lithium salt deep processing, battery materials, and downstream waste battery recycling is reasonable because GANFENGLITHIUM has significant advantages in these areas. However, they did not choose to collaborate with CATL or other mainstream power battery manufacturers in (semi-) solid-state battery research and development, even though these manufacturers have previous collaboration experience with AVITA models, which is indeed intriguing.

Regarding the collaboration with GANFENGLITHIUM, CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE has expressed confidence in solid-state battery products. The company told Dolphin Research that GANFENGLITHIUM's subsidiary, Zhejiang Fengli, has a leading advantage in the next generation of (semi-) solid-state battery research and development capabilities, technological accumulation, and industrialization progress. Solid-state batteries will fundamentally address customer concerns about battery safety and driving range, aligning perfectly with CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE's battery brand's "high safety" concept.

GANFENGLITHIUM currently has a battery production capacity of over 20GWh across six major production bases, with a semi-solid-state battery capacity of 4GWh. The first-generation semi-solid-state battery products have already obtained certification from some new energy vehicle companies, and the second-generation semi-solid-state battery is also under intensive development. The planned production capacity of the important material, metallic lithium, which is compatible with the second-generation battery, has reached 2,000 tons, accounting for 40%-50% of the global market. Once solid-state batteries truly start to scale up, the production capacity of metallic lithium can be quickly increased, demonstrating full readiness for the arrival of solid-state batteries.

The collaboration between CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE and GANFENGLITHIUM marks a strategic shift: skipping the midstream power battery manufacturers and directly partnering with upstream raw material suppliers. This not only strengthens the connection between CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE and the raw material supply chain but also lays the foundation for the goal of independent research and development of power batteries.

Despite the high initial cost and slow effectiveness of self-developed power batteries, CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE still insists on this strategy. In November of this year, CHANGAN launched its own battery brand, "Jin Zhongzhao," and plans to achieve a battery production capacity of 150GWh by 2030, covering various types of cells, including liquid, semi-solid-state, and solid-state. This strategy is based on the rapid growth of CHANGAN AUTOMOBILE's new energy brand (such as Deep Blue) in the market. Taking Deep Blue as an example, its sales volume has exceeded 118,000 vehicles in the first 11 months of this year, demonstrating strong market potential. Changan's investment in self-developed batteries is not only a prediction of future market demand, but also an investment in its technological strength.

In the current sluggish environment of the new energy vehicle market, individual efforts are no longer sufficient to ensure success. Strong alliances within the industry chain have become the key to overcoming the industry downturn.