Seven car companies set up Power Battery Research Institute

According to the disclosure of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, seven automobile manufacturers including FAW, Dongfeng, SAIC, Chang'an, BAIC, GAC, and Huachen, as well as the Beijing Nonferrous Metal Research Institute and Tianjin Lishen Battery Co., Ltd. jointly initiated the establishment of Guojia. Automotive Power Battery Research Institute." This has become an attempt by the auto industry to jointly promote the breaking of ice in the core technology of new energy vehicles.

Guojia Automobile Power Battery Research Institute under the guidance of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Science and other ministries, in the specific promotion of the China Automotive Industry Association. The agency will establish a company system with a registered capital of 540 million yuan. According to Dong Yang, Secretary-General of China National Automobile Association, the agency will recruit talents from around the world, transfer income through research results, and improve operational efficiency and results transformation efficiency through market-oriented operations. The vision is to establish a world-class power battery technology research institution.

It is understood that Guojia Automotive Power Battery Research Institute will mainly focus on lithium-ion power battery research, while conducting research on fuel cells, nickel-metal hydride batteries and other categories of power batteries. In addition to major car companies, Tianjin Lishen, one of the initiators, is the representative brand of Lithium Electric in China and has the top market share in the world.

Automotive power batteries are the key to the development of new energy vehicles. Launching a R&D institution will help to change the decentralized R&D resources of major car companies. However, it is not yet clear how major car companies will participate in the cooperation and integration of resources under the academy framework. Prior to this, the China Automobile Association had initiated the establishment of the “Electric Vehicle Industry Alliance” T10 (TOP10) with the participation of ten large car companies. Compared to the loose T10 alliance, the Power Battery Research Institute has established the main body of market operations. However, like the T10, the promoters of this organization are also state-owned car companies. Private car companies have not participated in them, including BYD, which has advantages in new energy vehicles and power batteries.

Miao Wei, minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out that the institute must be well positioned. On the one hand, basic material research should be solved, and the improvement of traditional materials performance should not be too high; on the other hand, key common technology research should be addressed, and breakthroughs in common technologies can drive the development of the entire industry.

“Under the background of new energy and energy, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has cold thinking that new energy represents the direction of future automobile development. It should strengthen technological breakthroughs and step up industrialization, but the maturity of new energy vehicle technology reserves is not enough.” Miao Wei believes that In the foreseen future, such as 2020, new energy vehicles will not account for more than 50% of sales in the market as some people expect. It cannot be because of the development of new energy vehicles that it gave up its efforts in energy conservation and emission reduction of traditional vehicles. While attaching great importance to the development of new energy vehicles, we must also attach great importance to energy conservation and emission reduction of traditional vehicles. Two things must be considered in an integrated manner. Regardless of whether the development of new energy vehicles or the enhancement of energy conservation and emission reduction of traditional vehicles requires batteries, they should be given sufficient attention.