No one knows the importance of batteries better than Cao Yang.
Although the true arrival of electrification will have to wait until more than ten years later.
However, some technological accumulation cannot wait until the arrival of electrification.
Otherwise, we will definitely be in a hurry and unable to keep up with the development of the times.
Even if Dai Hanbiao didn't mention battery development today, he was prepared to talk about it.
Chips and batteries were not a very urgent matter in 2006.
But it is definitely a core component related to how far Nanshan Group can go in the future.
"About battery development, it is indeed very necessary."
“Not only is it necessary to develop FHEV batteries used on Xingchen 3, but it is also necessary to simultaneously review the development of batteries used in BEV models and PHEV models.”
"And not only the development of ternary lithium batteries must be considered, but the development of lithium iron phosphate batteries must also be carried out simultaneously."
"Of course, battery development involves various projects such as battery cells, modules, and BMS, which requires a lot of resources."
"According to the current experimental equipment and personnel that Nanshan Auto Parts has, it will definitely not be able to meet the requirements."
"So I plan to spin off the battery business separately and set up Nanshan Battery to be responsible for all businesses related to the battery business."
Cao Yang's statement surprised the senior executives present, but also took it for granted.
Until now, only two major parts, Nanshan engine and Nanshan gearbox, have been specially separated from Nanshan Auto Parts.
There is also half of the chip-related semiconductor division, which can be regarded as being spun off.
The battery is no less important than the engine for electric vehicles.
Although it is not yet known when the company will launch electric vehicles, it seems reasonable to separate the battery business separately.
"Mr. Cao, it would be best if Nanshan Battery could be established to specialize in research and production of new batteries."
"However, now various companies are involved in a variety of battery technologies, and we have briefly collected and sorted them out before."
"Take the relatively mature FHEV battery technology as an example. Toyota cars use nickel-metal hydride batteries, and Honda cars use ternary lithium batteries."
"Theoretically, ternary lithium batteries are definitely more advanced than nickel-metal hydride batteries."
"But the technology of nickel-metal hydride batteries is more mature and theoretically the cost is lower."
"Should we also consider following Toyota's lead in FHEV batteries?"
Although the battery business will be separated from Nanshan Auto Parts, Dai Hanbiao still explained the previous investigation very responsibly.
In this era, there are still many questions about the development direction of automotive battery technology.
Although many car companies are actually already researching and even launching electric vehicles, everyone is still confused.
In 1832, Scottish scientist Robert Anderson invented the first electric car prototype.
In 1859, French scientist Gaston Plantard invented the first electric car.
In 1891, American inventor William Morris invented the first commercial electric car.
In 1900, the market share of electric vehicles in the United States reached 38%. However, with the development of internal combustion engines, the market share of electric vehicles gradually declined.
It can be said that electric vehicles are not a new thing. They were even quite popular at one time.
In recent decades, electric vehicles have not been without any movement.
The Tama pure electric car released by Nissan in 1947 was equipped with a replaceable lead-acid battery, with a top speed of 35.2 kilometers per hour and a cruising range of 96.3 kilometers. It was mainly used by taxi companies.
In 1996, Nissan developed the world's first lithium-ion battery-powered Prairie Joy.
Also in 1996, General Motors launched the first modern electric vehicle, the EV1.
Various other car companies have also launched or are researching some electric vehicles.
No one has any doubt that electric vehicles represent the future.
But whether this future will come in ten years, twenty years, or thirty years, no one knows.
No, no one knows except Cao Yang.
Therefore, Cao Yang was not surprised at all by Dai Hanbiao's explanation.
Following the pace of successful people and launching better products after following research is more in line with the laws of business development.
However, this approach is definitely not necessary for Cao Yang.
Why take detours when there are shortcuts?
Although nickel-metal hydride batteries are used as FHEV batteries, Toyota will not completely abandon them even by 2023.
But that doesn't mean this is a good choice.
For pure electric vehicles, there are only two mainstream routes in the future.
Ternary lithium battery and lithium iron phosphate battery.
Other technical routes are all based on soy sauce.
Therefore, if Nanshan Battery invests a lot of manpower and material resources in battery research, it must focus on batteries with these two chemical compositions.
"Now the batteries used in all walks of life are beginning to develop in the direction of lithium batteries."
"With the expansion of industrialization, some problems encountered in the production and use of lithium batteries will definitely be slowly solved."
"If we at Nanshan Battery want to keep up with the pace of battery research, we must research the most advanced and promising technologies in the industry."
"Of course, I also know that there are not many people in the company who understand battery development, and we need to recruit a group from outside."
"However, compared with other auto parts, in the field of batteries, some of our domestic universities have made some achievements."
"We can directly invite teachers from some universities to join our company, or engage in cooperative research and development with some professors."
"At the same time, some lithium battery talents at home and abroad can also be brought back."
"As far as I know, Nokia and Motorola purchase most of their lithium batteries from BYD and ATL in Guancheng."
"We currently have a cooperative relationship with BYD, which is not suitable for large-scale poaching."
"But as for ATL, everyone can still work hard."
"In addition, some companies in Japan also conducted research on lithium batteries relatively early."
"There must be a lot of Chinese people there who are engaged in related research. We can find ways to recruit them."
Nanshan Group's current salary package has been rising continuously, especially for core talents. In fact, it is no worse than abroad.
So if he goes to recruit people abroad at this time, Cao Yang must be much more confident.
There are so many battery companies in China in later generations, which fully demonstrates that training battery-related talents is not as difficult as everyone imagines.
"Compared with the recruitment of chip talents, the recruitment of lithium battery talents should be much easier."
Liu Youmei also stood up and expressed her stance promptly.
When she was working at Warwick Company, she happened to be exposed to talents in this field.
After all, whether it is a base station or some other products, batteries are needed.
Even if you don't produce your own batteries, you still need some talents who understand battery design.
"The industrialization of lithium batteries originated in Japan, specifically starting from Sony's production of 18650 cylindrical batteries in 1991."
"In the early days of industrial development, the lithium battery market was almost controlled by a few Japanese companies such as Panasonic, Sanyo Electric, and Toshiba."
"These companies have established deep barriers in terms of materials and battery technology, and they have closely cooperated with upstream and downstream companies in the industry chain, and their production is already highly automated."
“Before 2000, Japanese lithium battery companies accounted for more than 95% of the global market share.”
"The domestic lithium battery industry started with BYD. In 1998, BYD entered the mobile phone lithium battery market. With the cost advantages formed after domestic cheap labor and technological transformation, BYD's battery prices can be 40% lower on average than Japan's Sanyo."
"As a result, BYD's production capacity and market share have rapidly expanded, and it has successively supplied products to mainstream mobile phone manufacturers such as Motorola and Nokia."
"Last year, Toshiba was unable to withstand the price war from Chinese lithium battery companies and directly announced its withdrawal from the lithium battery market."
"When we go to Japan to recruit people at this time, the difficulty is definitely the lowest."
"Whether it's Toshiba's original lithium battery researchers or talents from Sony, Panasonic and Sanyo Electric, they all have the opportunity to serve us."
When Liu Youmei said this, Cao Yang couldn't help but nodded.
Now is indeed a good time to enter the lithium battery industry.
Although it seems to be a trough period in the development of international lithium batteries, the lower the trough, the better it is to recruit people.
“When we are poaching people, we must not only poach people who are researching battery technology, but also people who are researching battery equipment.”
"I hope that Nanshan Equipment can achieve 100% localization of battery equipment in the future."
Cao Yang knows the importance of equipment better than anyone else.
BYD's lithium batteries are actually not very automated now.
For consumer electronics products, the impact is not big.
But it’s definitely not big enough for use in a car.
There are so many batteries used in an electric vehicle. If the performance of each battery is inconsistent, the impact on the entire battery pack will be huge.
It can even be said to be fatal.
To maintain the consistency of battery performance, in addition to working hard on research and development, the automation of production processes is also very important.
"Mr. Cao, in order to cooperate with the development of Nanshan batteries, Nanshan Equipment will set up a research team specifically for battery production."
"In the future, there will definitely be more and more domestic companies engaged in battery production. At that time, we will not only provide equipment for our own battery factories, but also consider selling them to external parties."
Pan Jinxing also stood up and expressed his stance promptly.
“The current domestic lithium battery production model mainly combines low-cost manpower with automated equipment. Lithium battery manufacturers usually only use a single automated equipment for a few precision processes, and other links with lower precision requirements and intermediate material transportation are It’s a manual operation.”
"Compared with Japan's fully automated production lines, this kind of human-based production line has very low investment costs and strong flexible production capabilities."
"The success of this production model is that labor prices in China are very low. The average wage level of manufacturing employees in my country is only about 1/22 of that in Japan."
“Even our current small battery production line for button batteries is also a production line like this.”
It’s not that Nanshan Auto Parts has any experience in battery production.
Previously, we cooperated with BYD and had a small production line corresponding to the button batteries used in car smart keys.
However, this production line is obviously not comparable to advanced technology.
So when it comes to battery equipment, Dai Hanbiao also stepped forward to supplement the situation.
“This labor-intensive development method cannot continue forever. I heard that Sanyo Electric is preparing to build new production bases in Teito and Jincheng, and Panasonic and Sony are also preparing to invest and build factories in China in order to weaken the cost advantage of domestic manufacturers. "
"Besides, the high-performance lithium batteries that will be used in electric vehicles in the future will definitely not work unless they are fully automatic."
"Not to mention that the battery production equipment from Japan and Korea is very expensive, but from the perspective of restricting the development of competitors, the equipment they sell to domestic manufacturers will definitely not be the most advanced, but will sell outdated equipment that needs to be eliminated. come over."
"So it is inevitable for China to research related equipment on its own."
"Of course, not 100% of all our equipment must be produced within the company. Some equipment with relatively low technical content that is readily available in China can be purchased directly from outside."
"There are also some products that are relatively professional and have similar manufacturers in China. We can also cooperate with them for development."
"As long as all the equipment for our production lines can be purchased domestically, that's enough."
"We just need to study some core equipment ourselves."
Cao Yang didn't put so much pressure on Nanshan Equipment.
The battery production line is very long. Starting from the initial mixing and stirring, the entire production line involves all aspects of equipment.
It would take a lot of manpower and material resources to handle all the Nanshan equipment by ourselves, which is not necessary.
"Mr. Cao, we will conduct an internal investigation to see which equipment we research ourselves and which equipment we purchase from outside."
After hearing what Cao Yang said, Pan Jinxing stood up and expressed his stance in time.
Today's Nanshan Equipment's strength in all aspects has been extraordinary.
He wasn't particularly worried about losing the chain.
"Battery equipment and semiconductor-related R&D is an area with great potential in the future."
"Although our company has relatively little accumulation in this area, we still have time."
"The R&D and production of some equipment can be completed step by step in the early stage, and it will be basically sufficient to catch up with the international advanced level in the next five years."
"Of course, if the progress can be improved, that would be great."
Cao Yang didn't put too much pressure on everyone.
Although he can also take action himself to speed up the progress.
In fact, he will definitely give a push.
But it’s certainly not necessary to participate in the research and development of all the equipment yourself, and we don’t have the time.
Next, Cao Yang put forward some requirements for some other key parts and branches. The business of various sections of Nanshan Group immediately began to work towards the 2006 goal.
(End of chapter)
