When the development of fuel vehicles is in full swing, the strength of car companies generally depends on whether it can grasp the production capacity of the engine. In the era of new energy vehicles, batteries not only account for a high proportion of cost, but also the most core components, and automakers will want to enter the battery link. 
Now car companies and battery manufacturers have started a deep game while cooperating in depth. In October this year, Weilai invested 2 billion yuan to establish Weilai Battery Technology (Anhui)**In the same month, GAC Group established Inpai Battery Technology*** with a total investment of 10.9 billion yuan. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, Tesla and other car companies have also entered the battery track through self-built battery factories or equity investment. The main purpose of car companies to enter the game is to grasp the initiative of the first chain, put the industry under the name of their own company, and improve the ability to ensure supply. The deepening of upstream investment by car companies can enhance their bargaining power in the industrial chain, and in the future, from the perspective of the entire industrial chain, the profitability of car companies will also be enhanced because of this investment layout. With the rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry, the market demand for power batteries has increased rapidly, but after experiencing crises such as soaring raw materials and battery shortages, self-developed batteries have become an important choice for new energy vehicle manufacturers to compete for the initiative. Changan, GAC and other state-owned enterprises have successively announced their self-developed battery cells. It is planned that by 2030, Changan will launch 8 self-developed battery cells such as liquid, semi-solid, and solid-state, forming a battery production capacity of no less than 150GWh, and naming this self-developed battery brand as Changan's "Golden Bell Jar" to solve users' problems in energy density, charge and discharge efficiency, cycle life, and low-temperature performance. 
GAC Group plans to include solid-state batteries, cobalt-free batteries, low-cobalt batteries, and sodium-ion batteries in the key technologies of GAC's self-developed batteries. Among them, solid-state batteries have made breakthroughs, and when the energy density of the battery cell reaches 400Wh kg, it can meet the safety and reliability requirements of the battery in extreme environments. GAC Group's all-solid-state battery will be the first to be equipped with the products of GAC Aion's Haobo brand. In addition to Changan, GAC, SAIC, Great Wall, Geely, Li and other independent brands, as well as BMW, Volkswagen, Honda and other foreign car companies, have made attempts to develop their own batteries. In November, the BMW Group announced that its Shenyang production site will be significantly expanded to produce EV batteries. The project is invested by BMW Brilliance with a total investment of RMB 10 billion. In October, Honda Motor and LG New Energy jointly announced that they would build a new joint venture electric vehicle battery plant in Ohio, and the two companies pledged to invest at least $3.5 billion. 
Why has the battery sector become a "battleground" for car companies?First of all, it is because the power battery accounts for a high proportion of the cost of new energy vehicles and is full of importance. Most car companies choose to develop their own batteries, with the intention of going upstream to find lost profits. Last year, lithium carbonate, an important raw material for power batteries, was once high, which made the development of the industry show two extremes, with profits concentrated upstream and pressure transmitted downstream. If car companies want to develop more competitive models, they need to be deeply involved in the early research and development of batteries, specification definition, and standard leadership, and consolidate their product competitiveness through in-depth control of core components. Batteries are not just a technology, and the entry of car companies into the game will inevitably bring changes to the industry pattern. After building their own factories, under the premise of technology and quality assurance, it is foreseeable that the proportion of procurement through independent suppliers will gradually decline, and the supply status of self-built or joint-venture battery factories may gradually improve from the three suppliers, and even become the trend of the largest suppliers. However, from the perspective of cost and return, self-built battery factories may not be able to help car companies save money. Car companies must produce at least 500,000 new energy vehicles in one region or have a battery production scale of more than 15GWh to produce their own battery cells to have a cost advantage. At present, the only car companies in the world with annual sales of new energy vehicles reaching more than 500,000 are Tesla and BYD. For other car companies, whether self-built battery factories can play a role in reducing costs is still a question mark. 
The power battery is still a high-tech, high value-added product, and the investment in capital research and development is very large. Car companies can not simply create a battery, but also ensure technology leadership, cost and scale advantages, so as to stand the test of the market. The R&D and production of power batteries not only involves cutting-edge science such as material innovation and structural innovation, but also needs to meet the high standards of battery lighthouse factories at the manufacturing end to ensure product safety. However, car companies are good at machinery, electronics, etc., and batteries involve electrochemical systems, and the depth of understanding of electrochemistry is often not as good as that of professional battery companies. Even if the technical threshold is crossed, car companies will face many problems in building their own battery factories. Nowadays, power battery cell products are relatively mature, the energy density has touched the limit of the physical properties of existing materials, the difficulty and cost of development have increased exponentially compared with before, and it also takes time to improve product quality and scale, resulting in the cost performance of self-produced batteries is often higher than that of external procurement. At the same time, it will distract car companies and affect their profitability. At present, most of the new energy vehicle business is in a state of loss, and many power battery companies are also in the loss, whether it is to make batteries or cars, they are high investment, and the return on investment period is long. 
Most car companies that lack experience in battery R&D seek to cooperate with battery manufacturers, build factories together or better choices, which can relieve a lot of pressure. If car companies go to build battery factories, purchase equipment, do research and development, and negotiate with upstream material companies, it will consume too much energy. More attention should be paid to battery safety control, and to match with the best suppliers. However, it is not excluded that a very small number of car companies such as BYD and Tesla have the ability to achieve full self-production of batteries, but most car companies will still walk on two legs in the future. When the pace of battery companies to improve energy density is suspended, the battery factories built by car companies may get certain opportunities to catch up. The opportunity for change in the battery industry is also relatively large, the future of the vehicle enterprises to make batteries or the trend of joint production of batteries by vehicle joint related enterprises is becoming increasingly obvious, battery companies will gradually form the core supporting products of the whole vehicle, it is estimated that there will be more car companies on the road of self-made batteries in the future, but making their own batteries is not just a technical job, it is necessary to cross the threshold of technology and cost, and whether the battery products can finally succeed will also accept the test of the market, and only the real strength of the enterprise can have the last laugh.