Korean media "live broadcast" truth LG new energy panicked! Observation of steam potential

Auto-First| Chai Recently, a news reported by Korean media not only caused stock price fluctuations, but also attracted great attention from the industry.

Here's the thing. On March 13, the Korean media "Korea Economic Daily" reported that Tesla would terminate its cooperation with BYD and no longer use BYD's blade battery.

Auto-First inquired about the website of Korea Economic Daily and found this article. In this news with more than 600 words and three pictures, two key messages are pointed out: first, Tesla and BYD no longer cooperate; Second, Tesla is expected to be more dependent on LG's new energy solutions.

At the same time, the Korean media attributed the reason why the two sides no longer cooperated to three points: the blade battery has quality problems; Using BYD batteries will not be able to enjoy US subsidies; BYD manufactures and exports electric vehicles in Europe, India, Southeast Asia and other places, and there is direct competition with Tesla, which is also the reason for the termination of the contract.

To put it bluntly, this is a typical pull-up and step-down.

The next day, Musk denied the rumors on social media, saying that "the relationship between Tesla and BYD is positive." BYD also responded that "false information does not match the actual situation."

The incident itself is not complicated, but we cannot stay out of it.

Everything starts with the lower and lower market share of LG New Energy. And all this happens like boiling a frog in warm water.

The evolution trend of lithium battery holders in the world can be divided into three short periods.

In the first cycle, ten years ago, the world's leading lithium battery country was Japan, and South Korea's Samsung and LG also made a deep layout. Lithium battery enterprises in China are small and scattered. At that time, BYD rose, and Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. was still a seedling and just established;

In terms of market share, Japan (Sanyo, Sony, ATL and Maxell) accounted for 48%, South Korea (SDI, LGC and MBI) accounted for 30%, and China (BYD and Li Shen) accounted for 17%.

In the second cycle, ten years later, the list has already disappeared from Japan. TOP3 is occupied by contemporary Amperex Technology Co, Limited, LG New Energy, BYD, and running all the way, China, accounting for more than 60% of the global market share.

In the third cycle, starting from 2023, the top three are Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., BYD and LG New Energy, with the market share of Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. accounting for 33.9%, BYD 17.6% and LG New Energy 13%.

Obviously, LG's new energy has fallen behind, and Panasonic, the fourth place, accounts for 1 1.2%, followed closely.

Therefore, for LG New Energy, "Wang Ning" can't be chased away, and BYD is still "fighting". I also want to answer chicken soup: "people will only envy people at their own level, while those who are too good than themselves will not envy, but will only envy."

For LG New Energy, Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. is out of reach, BYD has become its biggest rival, and it is even more difficult for BYD to sit in the second place.

Lithium battery technology originated in Japan. After the baptism of the market, the "Three Kingdoms Kill" of the power battery finally evolved into a big confrontation between Chinese and Korean companies.

Just like Open AI released GPT4 in the middle of the night the day before, Baidu officially released ERNIE Bot, which was teased by netizens as "GPT-PPT" at 2 pm on March 16 the next day. Analysts in the science and technology circle bluntly said, "To some extent, the silence on GPT 4 is an all-round backward consciousness."

On the track of power battery, LG New Energy also lags behind.

Signs have already appeared.

BYD stopped selling fuel vehicles in April 2022. The first 1 10,000 new energy vehicles have been used for 13 years, the third 1 10,000 vehicles have been used for 6 months (May 2022-June 2022 +065438+ 10), and the fourth one is 65438+.

Therefore, with the increase of sales, the installed capacity of blade batteries also increases randomly and rapidly.

Based on the above growth logic, BYD will surpass LG New Energy in 2023. Therefore, interweaving and melee will inevitably become a necessity.

At this point, the anxiety and deep thinking of domestic battery manufacturers hidden behind the Korean media reports are vividly on the paper. However, realistically speaking, there are three layers of relationships involved here.

The first layer, the relationship between Tesla and BYD.

Tesla and BYD are enemies and friends. Musk's disdain for BYD was quickly hit in the face. This company, which Musk described as "the car has no technical content", is now providing batteries for their models.

At the same time, BYD's overseas business is expanding rapidly, and the market expansion in Europe and Southeast Asia is advancing rapidly, and it is looking for new factories or acquiring existing factories in Europe. It is understood that BYD's goal is to mass-produce the first batch of cars in Europe as early as 2025, so it should decide to build a factory this year.

Tesla's global expansion and BYD's overseas business are rapidly converging.

This means that the ultimate battle between BYD and Tesla, the world's first and second new energy vehicle companies, is about to be staged, but the business community does not rule out a win-win situation. "The boss and the second child fight, and the injured are mostly the third and fourth children."

The second layer is the relationship between BYD and LG New Energy.

As mentioned above, BYD's global business expansion not only sells cars, but also sells batteries. BYD went to Europe, which is equivalent to going to the base camp of LG New Energy. A battle is inevitable.

LG New Energy and General Motors of the United States set up a joint venture company Ultium Cells, and Honda announced plans to invest 4.4 billion US dollars to establish a joint venture battery factory in Ohio, with an estimated annual production capacity of about 40GWh. The soft batteries produced by the new factory will be specially supplied to Honda's automobile factory in North America.

LG New Energy also announced the establishment of a battery joint venture with Stellantis Group to set up a battery factory in Canada.

The third floor, Lejin New Energy and Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd..

In February this year, Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. announced that it would cooperate with Ford Motor Company to build a lithium iron phosphate battery factory in Michigan, USA. The factory will invest US$ 3.5 billion, which is wholly owned by Ford Motor Company, with technical authorization provided by Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd..

The North American market is the main battlefield dominated by Japanese and Korean battery manufacturers all the year round. Now, showstopper is the occupier. LG New Energy, once a leader in the global power battery industry, will face a severe test with the strong rise of 20 17 Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd.

Naturally, there are no eternal friends or enemies in business circles.

In Auto-First's view, the table has been overturned. Whether the Korean media is creating momentum or the source itself is wrong, this is an extremely fierce competition between Tesla and BYD, LG New Energy and BYD. Unconsciously, the battery giant LG New Energy has become South Korea's "best hope for the whole village". (Some pictures are from the Internet)

This article comes from Yiqi Media, the author of Che Yi, and the copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for any form of reprint. The content only represents the author's point of view and has nothing to do with the car reform.