Wen Jiangnan.
With the tightening of IPO and refinancing policies, the A** market has ushered in a phased adjustment, and more and more companies have chosen to terminate their listings.
On December 22, according to the official display of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, Honeycomb Energy, one of the leading domestic power battery companies, voluntarily withdrew its A-share IPO application. Previously, it planned to land on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, planning to raise 15 billion yuan.
SVOLT said that the withdrawal of the IPO application at this time was based on a comprehensive consideration of various factors. "The Company has chosen to put the best interests of itself and its shareholders first, and has decided to withdraw its A-share application and consider initiating other financing options. ”
As of December 12, 247 A-share companies have voluntarily terminated their IPOs, covering photovoltaics, lithium batteries, biomedicine, clothing, food, housing and transportation, chips and semiconductors. There is a view that these companies choose to withdraw their IPO applications voluntarily at this stage, and most of them are dormant in order to obtain better issuance results in the future.
After the withdrawal of the IPO, SVOLT Energy's upward breakthrough has not slowed down.
In terms of product strategy, the company continues to adhere to the strategy of "taking the narrow door", by aiming at the power market segment, launching a comprehensive evolution strategy of the whole short knife, upgrading the fast charging of all products, and focusing on the strategy of large single products such as the short knife series, so as to achieve a further jump in the ranking of installed capacity.
In terms of technology, SVOLT adheres to long-termism, focusing on the pursuit of ultimate safety, fast charging and large-capacity cells to improve battery life and solve range anxiety. In terms of manufacturing efficiency, it is overcoming lamination 3On the basis of 0 technology, SVOLT is developing ultra-high-speed lamination 40 technology, which is expected to further greatly improve the stacking efficiency.
Counter-cyclical "homeopathic" growth
Since the beginning of this year, the power battery industry has entered a stage of cyclical adjustment, on the one hand, the market growth rate has declined greatly, and on the other hand, the product has declined rapidly.
According to data from the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance (hereinafter referred to as the "Battery Alliance"), from January to November 2023, the cumulative installed volume of power batteries in China will be 3397GWh, up 314%。Last year, the cumulative installed volume of power batteries was 2946GWh, with a growth rate of up to 907%。
At the end of the world, whether it is a ternary power battery or a lithium iron battery, it is falling rapidly. According to statistics, the lowest ternary power battery in 2022 is 088-0.95 yuan wh, by the end of November this year, its ** fell to 053-0.61 yuan Wh, down nearly 40%.
However, in such a situation, in the second half of this year, Honeycomb Energy, as a dark horse in the industry, rose against the wind and successfully broke out of the encirclement.
A set of data comes from the Battery Alliance: in October this year, the installed capacity of honeycomb energy power batteries reached 139GWh, breaking 1 in a single monthThe installed capacity of 3GWh ranked 6th in the top 10 camps of domestic power battery installed capacity, and the market share exceeded 3% for the first time. Thanks to the substantial increase in installed capacity in October, SVOLT Energy's market share exceeded 3% for the first time that month, and the installed capacity ranking from January to October also rose to 7th, with a market share increase of 024%。
Another set of data comes from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China: in the 371st, 372nd and 373rd batches of the "Announcement on Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Products" announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, nearly 20 models are equipped with honeycomb energy batteries. In the 374th, 375th and 376th batches of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's product announcement, another 27 pure electric and plug-in hybrid models are equipped with honeycomb energy batteries.
One of the key reasons why SVOLT can develop against the trend is the success of various series of short knife batteries, the main products of the company's early layout. If it goes forward, it can be attributed to the explosion of the PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) market.
Since the beginning of this year, with the continuous improvement of cruising range, plug-in hybrid vehicles have become very popular. According to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, in the first half of this year, the cumulative sales of pure electric vehicles reached 27190,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 319%, while plug-in hybrid model sales reached 10250,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 911%。In addition, according to Cui Dongshu, secretary general of the Passenger Association, in the first three quarters of this year, the battery demand for plug-in hybrid passenger cars in China increased by 114% year-on-year, significantly exceeding the 25% growth rate of battery demand for pure electric passenger cars.
The short knife battery is recognized by the market as "a battery that is naturally suitable for PHEV".
According to industry sources, under the premise of limited battery space given by PHEV, the main advantage of short-knife batteries compared with traditional square batteries is that the space utilization rate and energy density of the battery pack are greatly improved. At the same time, the short-knife battery reduces the internal resistance of the battery, which is very convenient for the heat preservation and heat dissipation of the battery, so as to greatly improve the mileage of the electric vehicle and improve the safety performance and life of the battery.
As early as April 2019, SVOLT made its debut at the Shanghai International Auto Show. In October 2021, SVOLT achieved mass production of its first-generation L600 short knife batteryIn December of the same year, SVOLT put forward the "global short knife" strategy, that is, the comprehensive coverage of the short knife battery product series, from the "knife length" of the battery cell, from 300-600mm. By 2023, SVOLT publicly stated that its global short knife strategy has been fully implemented, and the fast charging has been fully upgraded, and the whole series of products covers 22C to 5C charging range.
As one of the first companies in the industry to "eat crabs", it is natural for SVOLT to be the first to taste dividends.
On December 12, at the Honeycomb Energy Battery Day, Yang Hongxin, chairman and CEO of Honeycomb Energy, told the on-site personnel that in 2023, a total of 40 models of Honeycomb Energy's short knife batteries will be put on sale, with a total shipment of 13GWh. According to public information, in October, SVOLT ranked third in the industry in the ranking of power battery loading in the field of PHEV vehicles.
The main issue we face now is to secure supply. The number of orders from customers is very large, and we only have one day off for the whole National Day holiday, and this situation will continue until the beginning of next year. Yang Hongxin, chairman and CEO of SVOLT, lamented at the second ** day.
Growth cheats: take the "narrow door" + long-termism
The success of the short knife series is an important fruit harvested on the road to the rise of SVOLT. However, if the time dimension is extended, this fruit is most likely just one of the countless fruits picked by Hive Energy on the road to the future.
For the power battery market, which has shown an "oligopoly" competition pattern, Honeycomb Energy can stand in the top ten of the industry list in just a few years, and its difficulty cannot be underestimated. So how did Honeycomb Energy break out of the encirclement?
Through the current success of SVOLT Energy's short-knife battery, we can find that SVOLT Energy's strategic layout and adherence to "narrow door" and "long-termism" are the key to today's achievements.
The so-called "narrow door" is generally said to take a differentiated competition route that is different from the public.
The correctness of SVOLT's narrow-door strategy is reflected in many successful cases.
For example, at the beginning of the construction of the plant, SVOLT chose the square lamination process route, which was generally not favored at that time. It was later proved that the square lamination process avoided the patent attack and defense of CATL from the source. At the same time, this process technology route laid the foundation for the later long and thin short knife batteries. Until now, long and thin batteries have become popular, and the known GAC Inpai and Geely Zeekrypton gold brick batteries all use the square lamination process.
For another example, in the ternary era, the high price of cobalt has become a pain in the industry, and SVOLT is the first power battery company in the industry to put forward the concept of "cobalt-free", which was also ridiculed at the time. However, on July 16, 2021, SVOLT held the first cobalt-free battery mass production offline ceremony in Jiangsu, which means that SVOLT has become the world's first power battery company to achieve mass production of cobalt-free battery technology products. At present, it has been mass-produced and installed on some models of the Great Wall series of Ora and non-Great Wall series, and tens of thousands of units have been delivered to users.
In addition, the short knife battery, which has become a "hive business card" today, is also a concentrated embodiment of the narrow door strategy.
For SVOLT, long-termism is reflected in the unremitting efforts to improve the long-term goal of battery performance and production efficiency. Nowhere is this more evident than in the company's current pride in the flystack process.
It is understood that the "flying stacking" process refers to the ultra-high-speed lamination technology 30 technology. It adopts the pole piece thermal composite and multi-piece stacking fusion technology, in 3In the 0 era, the hive achieved 0Lamination speed of 125 sec. Compare 1The rate of the 0 era has been increased by 5 times.
From 10 to 3In the process of continuous evolution, each generation of lamination technology iteration is actually a combination of the progress of diaphragm treatment technology and the innovation of equipment structure0 and 2Phase 0 has accumulated a great deal of knowledge and experience in materials and equipment construction, which is also the basis for the birth of today's flystack technology.
And for 3.In terms of the 0 era, the biggest difficulty compared with the previous two generations is that it involves subverting the original 10 and 2The entire material system and design system of stage 0. "It's not just a device, it's not that simple. The whole process is comprehensive, the whole product design is comprehensive, and the entire material system has been replaced, including the diaphragm, which is a complete set of changes. ”
However, with continuous efforts, in December 2022, SVOLT released the ultra-high-speed lamination technology 30 - "Flying Stack" technology. On July 22, 2023, SVOLT produced more than 500,000 L400 cells in the first phase of the production line of Yancheng base, and currently has a stable daily output of more than 10,000 cells per single line, with a cumulative production of 500,000 cells in two months.
On the battery day on December 12, Yang Hongxin said frankly: "flying stack" process is one of the most difficult technical problems to overcome on the road to the development of honeycomb energy. "In contrast, other processes (referring to fast charging) are relatively simple. ”
Accelerate the pace of global layout
As the installed capacity of power batteries enters the "TWH" era, it has become an inevitable trend for Chinese power companies to go overseas.
In recent years, CATL, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, and EVE have accelerated their overseas production efforts and built local factories in the United States, Europe and other places. The mainstream view is that the export of China's new energy enterprises is being guided by the export of "new energy vehicles + lithium batteries" and changing to the development trend of "localization of overseas new energy industry chains", "whether it is automobiles or lithium batteries, or raw materials and equipment for lithium batteries." ”
SVOLT also aims at overseas market layout.
As early as November 2020, at the beginning of its establishment, SVOLT was once again ahead of the entire industry in the construction of the Saarland state in Germany.
On July 5 this year, SVOLT held a ceremony in Sriracha Chonburi, Chonburi Province, Thailand, announcing the official start of construction of the module pack plant in Thailand. On December 20, SVOLT rolled off the assembly line of its first battery pack in Thailand.
It is worth mentioning that SVOLT has also received local equity financing in Thailand. On October 10 this year, SVOLT Energy's subsidiary and Banpu Next, a subsidiary of international energy giant Banpu (Wanpu), signed a strategic cooperation agreement at its headquarters in Jintan, Changzhou, under which Banpu Next will take a stake in SVOLT (Thailand). This is the first time that Hive (Thailand) has attracted a local partner since its official announcement in July.
According to Yang Hongxin, SVOLT's overseas strategy "revolves around customers, follows customers, and at the same time hopes that our ** chain will follow us, and even ** chain will go earlier than us." ”
It is reported that SVOLT has received orders from leading European OEMs, with an order size of nearly 90GWh. According to industry sources, if the ** per watt-hour is 06 yuan to estimate, the value of this order will reach 54 billion yuan, nearly 10 billion euros.