On the morning of December 7, in the Thai Guoxuan battery factory in the Siam Oriental Industrial Park in Rayong Province, Thailand, when two Thai workers tightened the last two screws, a power battery pack marked with the word NVGOTION officially rolled off the assembly line. This has long been commonplace in the eyes of Chinese, but it is a milestone for Thailand, which is the first locally produced battery pack in Thailand. And this is a case epitome of the many overseas initiatives of Guoxuan Hi-Tech in recent years, a sample of China's power battery companies going overseas.
In 202 B.C., starting from Xi'an, China, all the way to the west, across the Eurasian continent, as far as North Africa, this long and ancient road network, the length of the straight line at both ends is equivalent to a quarter of the equator, stretching for thousands of miles, lasting for more than 2,000 years, this is the famous ancient Silk Road in history.
In 2013, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China put forward the cooperation initiative of "rebuilding the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road". By this year, the Belt and Road Initiative has received the participation and support of more than 150 countries around the world.
From the old three more than 2,000 years agoSilk, tea and porcelain, to today's 21st century Belt and Road new threeNew energy vehicles, photovoltaics, lithium batteries;As always, China is sending new things to the world that represent beauty and peace.
Founded in 2006, Guoxuan Hi-Tech has been deeply engaged in the field of new energy lithium batteries for 18 years, starting from Hefei in central Anhui Province, and has now grown into a leader in the field of power batteries in China, a model and pioneer for Chinese enterprises to go overseas. The world's first standard battery cell factory, the first battery pack in Thailand, the first battery pack in Germany, occupies the largest share of the new energy market in India, and the overseas business growth rate is nearly 300%...Combing its overseas layout, it can be found that most of Gotion Hi-Tech's overseas layout is concentrated in the Belt and Road Radiation Economic Belt, and the Southeast Asian market, which was laid out earlier, has taken the lead in achieving profits. Gotion Hi-Tech's exploration of the "New Silk Road" is expected to become the company's largest business and revenue growth pole in the future, and it also provides an excellent model for other Chinese companies to go global.
The sea scenery is infinite, why not go ahead with the waves
According to the "2023 Global Electric Vehicle Outlook" report released by the International Energy Agency this year, global new energy vehicle sales are expected to increase by 35% this year from the previous year to 14 million unitsThe latest sales data shows that from January to September 2023, global sales of new energy vehicles reached 9.4 million, a year-on-year increase of 39%. The fourth quarter of each year is the peak season for automobile sales, and according to this calculation, the sales of new energy vehicles in 2023 are very likely to exceed the 14 million mark. This number is higher than 1082 in 2022Sales of 40,000 units are much higher.
In this growing amount of data, there are three points worth pondering. First, in the 9.4 million units from January to September, China's new energy vehicle sales accounted for more than 60 of the global share, China's new energy vehicle market is becoming more and more mature, and other Europe, Africa, America and Asia-Pacific regions outside of China New energy vehicle market, is still a market in need of in-depth development.
Second, compared with the global car sales data, the sales data of new energy vehicles still have great growth expectations. According to agency data, the sales data of automobiles in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia-Pacific markets in 2022 will basically be around 18 million units, plus more than 20 million units in the Chinese market, with a total global market space of nearly 80 million units in 2022, and the four market shares are relatively balanced. Assuming that these vehicles will usher in the electrification transformation in the near future, the global new energy vehicle market will continue to grow at a high rate for a long time in the future. For Chinese power battery companies with dual advantages in technology and products, there is no reason not to go overseas.
Comparing the data of new energy vehicles, let's look at the data of the energy storage market. Li Jin, chairman of Guoxuan Hi-Tech, predicted at the recent 6th Bloomberg New Economy Forum: "We believe that by 2030 or so, the demand for batteries in the energy storage field will reach 15TWh, which is a very important market demand. "In 2030, the total global demand for batteries will reach 6TWh, and electrochemical energy storage will account for 60%, which is 36TWh or so, 1The energy storage market demand of 5TWh accounts for about 40%, and the energy storage market demand cannot be ignored. In addition to China, the two largest economies in the United States and Europe are the world's main markets for new energy storage. Bloomberg New Energy Finance believes that the Asia-Pacific region will dominate the global energy storage market, and is expected to account for 47% of all new energy storage system capacity by 2030. The Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region will account for 24% and the Americas will account for 18%. In other words, by 2030, the share of energy storage in overseas markets other than China is expected to account for about 50%.
Of course, we can't just see the huge market and ignore the constraints and barriers behind it. Taking the newly revised IRA Act in the United States as an example, subsidies are clearly inclined to local American enterprises, and the intention to restrict overseas enterprises, especially Chinese backgrounds, from entering the American market is very obvious. In 2022, China's exports of lithium batteries to the United States exceeded 10 billion US dollars, accounting for nearly 20% of the total export value. Therefore, it can be predicted that the implementation of the bill will directly affect the export business of Chinese battery companies and other industrial chain supporting enterprises in the next 2-3 years, and even lead to the loss of part of the orders in the US market by Chinese companies in the short term. However, it is an obvious fact that the demand in the US market will not be reduced by IRA policy restrictions, and objectively the United States needs external resources and forces to improve its own technological level and market demand. The European Union has also introduced a new battery bill, which puts forward clear requirements for the battery's **chain, carbon footprint, battery passport and **. For example, the key raw materials bill puts forward a localized target proportion for strategic raw materials, and at the same time stipulates the first proportion of a single third country, which also forces Chinese enterprises with strength to speed up the pace of overseas layout, and plan overseas layout in advance before the policy is tightened to increase global market share.
The global automotive industry is changing dramatically, and the electrification of vehicles will cut global oil demand by at least 5 million barrels per day by 2030. IEA Governor Birol said that electric vehicles have not only not brought about a historic change in the world's automotive industry, but also driven the rapid rise of a new global energy economy, "The trends we are witnessing have a significant impact on global oil demand." For more than a century, the internal combustion engine had no competition, but electric vehicles are changing the status quo. ”
Li Jin, chairman of Guoxuan Hi-Tech, also expressed a similar view. He believes that in the era of traditional fossil energy, a large number of world-famous automobile companies and oil tycoons have been cultivated. And now we have entered the era of the third energy transformation, in this era of advocating sustainable energy, not only our automotive lightweight technology to make great strides, our industrial transformation will gradually transition from the metal era to the non-metallic era, such as alloys, aluminum alloys, aluminum-magnesium alloys and other lightweight technologies, the future carbon fiber, silicon fiber, glass fiber and plant fiber will be applied to the entire industry on a large scale, so the industrial change space related to new energy is also very large.
Today, when China's new energy industry is catching up with Europe and the United States, another road with Chinese characteristics - the Belt and Road Initiative is also deeply affecting the world. In today's multi-polar world and economic globalization, China took the lead in advocating the idea of re-taking the Belt and Road Initiative in 2013. Some studies have pointed out that if the historical high-carbon growth model continues, by 2050, the global carbon emissions of the Belt and Road countries will account for as much as 76%. Therefore, the construction of a green "Belt and Road" provides a new way to solve the global green development problem and improve the global ecological governance system.
As a member of the new energy vehicle industry chain, Gotion Hi-Tech has a business layout in more than 10 countries around the world, with business regions spanning Asia, Europe and the Americas, and its business scope covers passenger cars, commercial vehicles, special vehicles and energy storage business, etc., and has become the "leader" of China's power battery enterprises.
(2) Globalization is the strategy, and the Belt and Road Initiative is the direction
Let's turn the clock back to 18 years ago and see what Gotion Hi-Tech did right back then, so that it has gone to the world today.
Around the turn of the millennium, the global lithium industry is still in its infancy, a tall and thin, always smiling young man, gave up the envy of Hefei civil servant status, resolutely resigned to start a business, young, can endure hardships, not afraid of failure, he has momentum, in the first few years tried taxis, real estate and other industries, and a small achievement, at least 10 real estate projects in Hefei are from his hands. When he learned that the University of Science and Technology of China was making an energy storage technology for lithium iron phosphate, he used the first pot of gold earned from the development of real estate to organize a group of knowledgeable "experts" to follow up on the research of AC batteries. In July, the country continued to support and encourage high-tech industries through the "863" plan and the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan", and in July, the domestic lithium battery technology made a breakthrough and the large-capacity lithium iron phosphate battery came out. The following year, the young man made up his mind and founded Hefei Guoxuan Co., Ltd., which was the predecessor of Guoxuan Hi-Tech, the first stock listed on the Chinese power battery market. This year was later called the first year of lithium iron phosphate industrialization in the industry. This young man is Li Jin, the current chairman of Guoxuan Hi-Tech.
Since then, the emphasis on new technologies has been deeply embedded in the genes of Gotion Hi-Tech and spread to all over the world. In 2008, Gotion Hi-Tech Engineering Research Institute was established, and under the strategic positioning of technology-driven enterprises, technological innovation is regarded as the core competitiveness of enterprises. In 2009, the company undertook the national "863" plan, in 2013 it was approved as a provincial postdoctoral research station, and the following year it set up a research and development center in Silicon Valley in the United States. Since then, Gotion's footprints have gradually spread all over the world, with R&D centers in Tsukuba, Cleveland, Nanyang Polytechnic in Singapore, Pune in India, Shanghai in China, and Göttingen in Europe. At the end of last year, the number of R&D technicians reached 1 3 of the total number of employees, of which the number of overseas R&D personnel is increasing exponentially. By the third quarter of this year, the number of global patent applications reached 7,399, and the cumulative number of authorized patents reached 4,843, and the number of overseas patents increased by more than 180% in the past two years.
Choosing the right track and seeing the right timing is far from enough. For enterprises, how to continuously and effectively transform and apply leading technological achievements to the market is the key to survival and development. Gotion Hi-Tech is also a model in the industry in this regard, laying a solid foundation for its entry into the global market. In 2009, a number of ministries and commissions of the state jointly launched the "Ten Cities and Thousand Vehicles" project. As a pilot project for the application of new energy vehicles, this move has also become an important milestone in the development of China's new energy vehicle industry. As the first batch of pilot cities, Hefei ** will take a whole bus line - 18 bus lines as a pilot. The starting point was set at the city hall square in the center of the city at that time, with 31 stations and nearly 20 kilometers. The buses of this line are manufactured by Ankai Bus, which has only been established for 3 years, and has become the exclusive battery supplier of Ankai Bus. In 2010, the world's first all-electric bus line was put into operation.
Xu Xingwu, vice president of Guoxuan Hi-Tech Engineering Research Institute, recalled this history in a previous interview with Sanlian Life Weekly, saying, "Sun Jinlong, then secretary of the Hefei Municipal Party Committee, attached great importance to this matter and told us that if we want to do it, we must do it with a big vote, and we should not be afraid of taking risks and failing." He allows us to fail, saying that failure is carried by **, but we have to make an impact. The No. 18 bus was originally planned to use 24 buses, but Sun Jinlong asked a few more buses for a meeting, and got together to 30 buses. From this point of view, on the case book of Hefei's "most bullish venture capital", Guoxuan Hi-Tech is an earlier chapter. It was Hefei that gave Gotion Hi-Tech the soil for the early market application of technology. Later, in 2011, Gotion Hi-Tech launched 585 pure electric cars with JAC, and in 2012, it cooperated with JAC to launch 3,000 IEV third-generation pure electric cars, which opened a precedent for the industrialization of pure electric vehicles in China and laid the foundation for the cooperation between the two companies in future export projects.
In recent years, the iteration speed of industrial technology has accelerated, but Gotion's new lithium iron phosphate technology industrialization capability is still far ahead, from the initial cell energy density of 110Wh kg to the current mass production of 230Wh kg. At the 12th Science and Technology Conference held in Hefei in May this year, the Qichen battery released by Guoxuan Hi-Tech innovatively added manganese elements on the basis of lithium iron phosphate, breaking the ceiling of lithium iron phosphate energy density at home and abroad, and leading the new direction of global lithium battery technology application.
According to the statistics of "Automotive Business Review", from 2017 to 2021, the number of power battery companies has shrunk from 102 to 58, experiencing a brutal reshuffle. Gotion Hi-Tech also divides its development into four stages: 2006-2010 is the company's business start-up period;2011-2015 is a period of rapid development;From 2016 to 2020, the company made a strategic breakthrough, and 2021 began to be the company's globalization strategy. Today, Gotion Hi-Tech has eight R&D centers, 20 production bases and eight supporting material bases.
In the company's New Year speech in 2022, Chairman Li Zhen said: "The achievements are, first, to point out the direction, private enterprises, and multiply confidence in the industry;."The second is the hard work of colleagues, pragmatic innovation, overcoming difficulties, improving quality and efficiency and seeking development;Third, international partners, trust and support, help each other, and work together to grow and create a better future. ”
In 2020, Volkswagen made a strategic investment in Gotion Hi-Tech, with a current stake of 2477%, is the largest shareholder. Li Zhen has elaborated on many occasions the three important significance of Volkswagen's shareholding to Gotion Hi-Tech's internationalization strategic layout in recent years: Volkswagen has brought Gotion a comprehensive upgrade of capital, management and market. Today, Gotion Hi-Tech has not only obtained the world's first R&D designation of Volkswagen's standard battery cells, and the technical cooperation with Volkswagen's battery factory in Germany, but also successively obtained the first supply designation for Volkswagen standard batteries in the Chinese market and the first supply designation in overseas markets in the next two years. In October this year, Volkswagen's Supervisory Board Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch, CEO Oliver Blume and other Volkswagen management praised the factory as "one of the top" among the world's battery factories after inspecting the standard battery cell factory of Gotion Hi-Tech New Station.
Judging from the report card of Gotion Hi-Tech in recent years, the proportion of internationalization of strategic partners continues to increase. The company has continued to supply to Vinfast, Ebusco, TATA in Vietnam and a large listed car company in the United StatesSuccessfully entered the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance business systemIn the field of energy storage, we have joined hands with INVENERGY, Jinko, Nextera Energy, SUMEC, and Japan's EDISON to explore overseas energy storage marketsand FICOSA, IDNEO and POD Point to further explore and develop energy storage application scenarios in energy storage charging vehicles and household energy storage productsIt has also established R&D and innovation cooperation with Siemens, BASF and ABB international top technology innovation enterprises in the field of digital production and battery materials.
According to Guoxuan Hi-Tech's 2023 semi-annual financial report, the company's total revenue in the first half of the year was 1523.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7642%。Among them, the overseas business revenue was 306.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29674%, accounting for 8. % of the company's total revenue in the first half of 202294% to the current 2009%。
(3) Firm long-termism The "New Silk Road" has spawned new growth
2,000 years ago, tea silk porcelain was a practical and aesthetic gift from China to the world, and it swept the worldThe magic of history lies in the fact that today, after 2000, relying on the unique technology and product advantages in the field of new energy industry, we once again deliver to the world the beautiful things that represent speed and passion, that is, the "new three" of going to sea: new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, and lithium batteries.
It is an amazing coincidence of history and a unique opportunity of the times, and Gotion Hi-Tech is fortunate to be a member of the "New Three" to go to sea. As mentioned above, the growth rate of the company's overseas business has accelerated year by year, forming a development trend that the international business has been parallel to the Chinese business, and has become the two major growth engines.
In the view of Li Jin, the helmsman, this is due to the fact that the company has always adhered to the "long-termism" for many years, which is reflected in the advance planning of capital investment, technological innovation, industrial chain cooperation, international layout and sustainable development.
According to public data, in 2022, Gotion Hi-Tech's R&D investment will reach 241.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10709, accounting for more than 10 percent of revenue for 4 consecutive years, leading the industry.
Eight R&D centers around the world, more than 7,000 R&D technicians, and more than 7,000 battery patents are strong supports for Gotion's high-tech progress. The company's lithium iron phosphate technology is the world's leading, and the technology research and development of lithium iron manganese phosphate and standard battery cells are at the forefront of the industry. In particular, the three-generation battery cell strategy proposed this year reflects its continuous innovation and progress in technology. According to Dr. Wang Qisui, President of Gotion Hi-Tech China Business, revealed at the annual meeting of Gotion Hi-Tech in November that the first-generation battery cell products of Gotion Hi-Tech mainly use iron-lithium materials, with capacities ranging from 21Ah to 30Ah and an energy density of 160Wh kgThe second-generation battery cells are still mainly made of iron-lithium materials, but the capacity has been increased and standardized sizes have been realized, and the main models include 52ah, 105ah and 15ah cylindrical cells, with an energy density of 180-190wh kgThe third-generation battery cell products have further improved their energy density and safety. This generation of products not only covers lithium iron and ternary batteries, but also expands new chemical systems such as lithium manganese iron phosphate, and its product categories have been further expanded, forming nine product series, which are an important part of the company's core competitiveness in the next 3-5 years.
With a complete industrial chain, it will undoubtedly have a first-mover advantage in the competition. Guoxuan Hi-Tech vertically integrates resources and opens up the industrial chain from mineral mining, material production, battery manufacturing, product application, and then to first-class utilization. In China, the company has laid out the four main materials of batteries in Hefei Lujiang and Feidong, lithium ore resources in Yichun in China and Argentina in South America, nickel and cobalt ore resources in Indonesia, phosphate rock resources in North Africa, and battery production bases scattered in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe.
As the vanguard of the global "carbon neutrality" goal, the new energy battery industry adheres to sustainable development. Gotion Hi-Tech has disclosed its ESG report for three consecutive years, fully demonstrating the company's good performance and experience in maximizing the use of green electricity and reducing carbon emissions in the production process. Li Jin, Chairman of Gotion Hi-Tech, said at the 6th Bloomberg New Economy Forum that the two projects launched by Gotion Hi-Tech in Göttingen and Slovakia in Europe are planned to build zero-carbon factories, and a large number of new energy sources such as solar energy and wind energy will be used in the process of project construction and product production. Secondly, the company has planned an industrial chain from materials to battery cells, to products, and batteries in Europe, and the whole industrial chain will use green energy production to achieve zero-carbon manufacturing, virtuous cycle, and carbon emission tracking throughout the life cycle of batteries.
Extensive cooperation in the field of energy is a strong consensus between China and the Belt and Road countries. At present, the global new energy market is mainly China, Europe and Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Americas. Gotion Hi-Tech is a pioneer, and as early as 2015, it established a research institute in Silicon Valley, USA. In May 2020, Volkswagen's strategic investment was introduced, and "supporting Volkswagen and following to the sea" has become a due meaning, and the international layout is accelerating day by day. Up to now, Gotion Hi-Tech has established eight R&D centers, 20 battery manufacturing bases and eight material bases around the world, and the industrial layout has been basically formed. The company plans to reach a global battery production capacity of about 300 GWh by 2025, including 200 GWh in China and 100 GWh overseas.
Among them, in Europe, Gotion Hi-Tech has entered the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Slovakia and other countries, in the Asia-Pacific region, the United States, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, India, etc., South America has Argentina, Africa has Morocco. Among these countries, there are 11 countries that have joined the "Belt and Road", which is undoubtedly a vast new market and a new growth point for Gotion Hi-Tech. It is worth mentioning that in the past two years, Gotion Hi-Tech has made frequent moves in the Southeast Asian market, supplying Tata Motors and Bajaj light vehicles to India, joining hands with Vinfast to build Vietnam's first lithium iron phosphate battery factory, carrying Wuling Air to leverage the Indonesian electric vehicle market, and helping the "Made in Thailand" Nezha automobile products to go offline, making Southeast Asia the company's largest market to go overseas, and also taking the lead in achieving overseas profits.
All enterprises, including those in China, the United States, and Europe, need to share their achievements, products, and technologies around the world, which is the basis of the globalization economyGlobalization already has a good technological foundation, such as information exchange systems, communication systems, transportation systems, etc., and it is impossible to block themNo one can stop the flow of global resources to more efficient places, this is an inevitable law. Chairman Guoxuan Hi-Tech believes that with a good economic, technological and social foundation, the pace of globalization is unstoppable. Guoxuan Hi-Tech firmly believes that the "New Silk Road" is the continuation of the historical trend, but also the right choice for the future, with the road as the axis, the land as the paper, and the cooperation as the pen, the layout of the "Belt and Road" is the layout of the future. In this process, as long as we firmly adhere to the "long-termist" line, we will certainly have a broader space and achieve greater development.
Of course, going out is only the first step, and then it will go through the stages of local recognition of the product and the company's eventual profitability. The first step has been taken by Gotion Hi-Tech, and we look forward to time to give us a better answer.