Who would have thought that Liu Jincheng, a senior "science and engineering man" who was born in the 60s with high morale and has always taken a rigorous technical route, loves to listen to soft and warm music in his spare time, especially the song "Spring Breeze Kisses My Face".
And the preference for ** is also unusual, there is also a title. Even though EVE now has about 28,000 employees around the world, this "old technician" who has been in the lithium battery industry for 39 years still likes to be called "Liu Gong" instead of "Liu Dong".
Under his influence, EVE is full of engineer culture, with more than 10% of employees being R&D personnel, and according to Liu Jincheng, with the advancement of digitalization, the proportion of EVE R&D personnel may increase in the future.
From the early research and development of lithium thionyl chloride batteries, to the research and development of SPC battery capacitors in 2011, and then to the layout of power batteries and energy storage batteries since 2015, Liu Jincheng, who "understands technology and understands the market", has led his EVE to successfully catch up with every outlet of the industry, creating a product pattern of today's consumer batteries, power batteries, and energy storage batteries.
In the past two years, Liu Jincheng has repeatedly stated that lithium iron phosphate batteries and cylindrical batteries are the key directions for EVE's future development. The wind is up, and it is also waiting for the wind to come. Liu Jincheng, who is approaching the year of Ershun, has to do more for his battery business.
[Entering the industry: to the bang in the laboratory].
On the wall of the laboratory of Wuhan University, there used to be a loud slogan "lithium battery, I love you", which was written by Liu Jincheng.
Liu Jincheng, who was born in Jingmen, Hubei Province, benefited from the restoration of the college entrance examination system and became a veritable high-achieving student in that era, and successively obtained a bachelor's degree in engineering (chemistry), a master's degree in science (electrochemistry), and a doctorate in engineering (materials physics and chemistry) from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Wuhan University, and South China University of Technology.
After graduating from Wuhan University, Liu Jincheng transformed from an academic school to the sea, founded Wuhan Wuhan University Origin Chemical Power and presided over the development of a full range of nickel-metal hydride batteries, new mobile phone batteries and electric bicycle power batteries and other battery projects, but due to the unclear concept of the market and capital, the venture did not go smoothly and ended in failure.
Liu Jincheng, who was unwilling to lose, re-entered the business sea in 2001, started a business for the second time, and founded Huizhou Jinda Electronics, which is the predecessor of EVE Lithium Energy.
After quickly earning the first pot of gold through the "not high enough technology" mobile phone battery, Liu Jincheng anchored the blank market at that time - lithium sub-battery.
It is understood that lithium sub-battery is a kind of lithium battery, the full name is "lithium thionyl chloride battery", its negative electrode is metal lithium, and liquid thionyl chloride is both positive electrode and electrolyte. Under this structure, a dense layer of electronically insulating lithium chloride (LiCl) protective film can be formed on the surface of the anode, which makes lithium very stable in the electrolyte, and the annual self-discharge current of the battery is less than 1%, and the storage life is more than 10 years, which is widely used in water meters and electricity meters.
In Liu Jincheng's view, "the lithium thionyl chloride battery is the snow lotus in the battery garden, which is noble but difficult." In order to overcome this difficulty, Liu Jincheng led the technical team to test the performance of the battery in the laboratory every day. "The lithium sub-battery is very energy-intensive, and the battery is close to a bomb, which is very dangerous. When a short circuit occurs in the test battery**, the iron box outside the battery will burst. ”
In order to break this snow lotus, from 2003 to 2005 in three years, Liu Jincheng's team did a total of 180,000 battery experiments, and finally successfully developed a lithium sub-battery and promoted it to the market.
By 2008, EVE's lithium sub-battery research and development had accounted for 39% of the domestic market, becoming the largest lithium sub-battery manufacturer in China and the fifth in the world.
So far, Liu Jincheng made a grand wish when he graduated from Wuhan University: "30 years later, the batteries he manufactures and produces will be sold to the world!" "It's come true.
But obviously, Liu Jincheng and EVE's ambitions don't stop there.
[Deep ploughing: intensive cultivation of subdivided tracks].
In 2009, EVE was officially listed on the Shenzhen Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), becoming the first batch of technology companies in China to land on the GEM.
After the listing, Liu Jincheng devoted himself to fighting again, setting his sights on the larger battery sector - lithium-ion batteries, and taking e-cigarettes as a breakthrough in the subdivision track.
In those years, EVE quickly laid out the production line, technology platform, and electronic atomizer battery production line of small pouch lithium-ion batteries, and in 2014, with 43.9 billion yuan acquired Maxwell 50., the predecessor of SMOORE International, an e-cigarette manufacturing company1% equity.
According to the statistics of the New York Times, in 2014, the e-cigarette ** chain with Shenzhen as the core provided more than 300 million e-cigarettes for the global e-cigarette market, accounting for about 90%.
With the popularity of the e-cigarette business, EVE's performance has risen significantly. In 2020, Smoore International was listed in Hong Kong, with a market value of more than 500 billion Hong Kong dollars at its peak, and Liu Jincheng's worth instantly increased by hundreds of billions. According to EVE's 2021 annual report, the investment income from Smoore International reached 16800 million yuan, accounting for nearly 60% of the company's current net profit.
The positive feedback from the market is definitely a great encouragement for enterprises. In addition to the e-cigarette business, EVE has expanded battery epitaxy to the field of electronic products.
With the release of AirPods by Apple in 2016, TWS earphones entered the mainstream earphone market, and the rapid penetration of TWS earphones has also promoted the rapid development of TWS earphone batteries. EVE has keenly grasped the huge potential of the TWS market, oriented button batteries with high technology content and large development space in advance, and completed the shipment of TWS "bean batteries" in 2019.
Also in 2019, when the ETC tide led by the Ministry of Communications struck, EVE also attacked in a timely manner and won about 70% of the share of ETC batteries.
I am a professional in making batteries. Liu Jincheng made no secret of this, "Now the lithium thionyl chloride battery and nickel-cobalt battery produced by EVE have reached the highest level in the world, and we are on the same level as our Japanese counterparts." ”
According to him, EVE has undertaken two major national infrastructure projects. The first is the construction of national smart meters, and the application proportion of EVE lithium batteries in electricity meters has reached 80%. The second is the construction of the highway parking collection and payment system, 90% of the batteries used in the electronic tags installed in the car are a combination of lithium thionyl chloride batteries and battery capacitors provided by EVE.
In addition, in order to improve the large-scale and refined production and manufacturing capacity, EVE has also built a 60GWh super factory, which has increased the per capita output value by 300% through digitalization and integration, and strengthened its quality control capabilities by digital means to achieve the requirements from one part per million to one part per billion.
[Rooted: To the continuous investment in new technology products].
Around 2014, some parts of China were affected by severe haze weather, and air pollution became a hot topic. At that time, EVE made the judgment that reducing automobile exhaust emissions would become a necessary method, so it began to actively deploy the development of power batteries and energy storage batteries in 2015.
From cylindrical 18650 batteries to prismatic ternary and prismatic lithium iron phosphate batteries, EVE's power battery business has attacked across the board, and has successively built production lines for prismatic lithium iron phosphate batteries, prismatic ternary batteries, cylindrical ternary batteries and pouch ternary batteries. In 2020, with its self-developed ternary prismatic battery, EVE became BMW's second power battery supplier in China after CATL. In 2022, EVE's 18650 lithium-ion batteries for power tools and 18650 lithium-ion batteries for electric two-wheeled vehicles were selected into the "2021 Green Manufacturing List" released by the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
According to the latest data, in November 2023, EVE ranked fifth in the domestic power battery company loading volume.
In the hottest energy storage track in recent years, EVE has also made frequent moves to seize the opportunity.
From the initial preparation to the establishment of a special business department in 2017, and then to the establishment of Wuhan EVE Energy Storage, which is mainly engaged in energy storage business, to build a production base for energy storage battery products with an annual production capacity of 10GWh; landed Yongguan intelligent mobile charging pile, and participated in the energy storage demonstration project of Longmen Zero Carbon Ecological Park; Invest about 7 billion yuan to build an international new energy ecological industrial park, focusing on the research and development of new energy storage common technologies, advanced equipment and major new products; and the launch of a new generation of energy storage battery LF560K using CTT ultra-large cell technology and stack technology. EVE continues to make efforts in the energy storage sector, covering multiple subdivisions such as communication energy storage, wind energy storage, distributed energy systems, and power energy storage.
In the overseas market, EVE is also increasing its stride. Launched strategic cooperation with Thailand's EA Group to establish a joint venture company to build a 6GWh battery production base; Signed a battery product purchase agreement with POWIN, an energy storage system integrator in the United States; Signed a cooperation agreement with ABS, a customer in the United States, etc.
Liu Jincheng said that in 2022, EVE's energy storage battery revenue will increase by 8 times compared with 2021, and it is expected to increase by 3 times this year. A closer look at the growth curve over the years shows that every step in revenue has been followed by new products entering the market.
The iterative upgrading of technology and products is inseparable from the R&D strength invested by enterprises. According to Liu Jincheng, solid R&D will bring considerable benefits to revenue, it is like a seed, without the previous sowing, there will be no subsequent harvest. In the face of huge industrial opportunities, it is necessary to select the "seeds" in advance and put the "fertilizer" into the sufficient.
At present, more than 10% of EVE's employees are R&D personnel, of which more than 50% are masters and doctors. According to Liu Jincheng, with the advancement of digitalization, the proportion of EVE R&D personnel may increase in the future.
According to the latest global lithium battery ** chain database released by InfoLink, the global energy storage cell shipment scale in the first three quarters of 2023 will reach 1438 gwh。The top five companies in terms of total shipments, CATL, BYD, EVE, Ruipu Lanjun and Xiamen Haichen, all have shipments of more than 8 GWh, accounting for 72% of the total market8%, an increase of 35%, the industrial concentration has been further improved.
Liu Jincheng is relatively optimistic about the current situation of the industry with overcapacity since 2023, and he believes that it has entered a new stage of rationality and benignness. At this stage, power batteries and energy storage batteries will undergo technological upgrades and product iterations, and the decisive factor for overcapacity is not the capacity itself, but the ability and level of technology research and development and quality management of each company.
People who make lithium batteries should be quiet and have long-term plans. "Liu Jincheng, who has been in business for many years, is well versed in the development of battery technology.
From academic to practical, from technical expert to entrepreneur, Liu Jincheng's battery life is still being staged. As his favorite song:
The spring breeze kissed me on the face.
Tell me it's spring.
Spring is full of flowers.
Don't let that flower go for a long time, year after year.