On August 30, Qingtao Energy announced that in order to give full play to the complementary advantages of Qingtao Energy and SAIC Group in terms of technological capability and industrial chain, and enhance their competitiveness in the second half of the new energy automobile market, the two sides intend to jointly establish SAIC Qingtao New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. (Subject to the name approved by the Market Supervision and Administration). The registered capital of
the joint venture is RMB 1 billion, of which Qingtao Energy has subscribed RMB 510 million, accounting for 51%, and SAIC has subscribed RMB 490 million, accounting for 49%.
In fact, SAIC has invested in Qingtao Energy three times, most recently in May this year.
On May 31, Qingtao Energy and SAIC Group held the signing ceremony of strategic cooperation and G + round capital increase and share expansion in Shanghai to further deepen the long-term and win-win strategic partnership between the two sides.
According to the agreement, SAIC will invest no more than 2.7 billion yuan in Qingtao Energy, accelerate the industrial application of Qingtao Energy's existing solid-state battery products on SAIC's own brand models, and establish a joint venture company to jointly develop a new generation of solid-state battery products.
With the establishment of the joint venture company, the industrial application of Qingtao energy solid-state battery products in SAIC will be accelerated.
The first two investments were the E + and F + rounds of financing of Qingtao Energy in 2020 and 2022 respectively, with a cumulative investment of about 283.5 million yuan in Qingtao Energy.
Up to now, SAIC has invested about 2.9835 billion yuan in Qingtao Energy, indirectly holding about 15.29% of the equity, and is the largest industrial investor in Qingtao Energy. The real landing cooperation
between Qingtao Energy and SAIC began in the year of the second round of investment. On July 6, 2022, SAIC Qingtao Solid-state Battery Joint Laboratory was established. On the same day, SAIC announced that the solid-state power battery with a long range of more than 1000 kilometers developed in cooperation with Qingtao Energy will be first applied to SAIC's own brand new models in 2023.
It took more than a year for both sides to hand in their answers as scheduled. On August 22 this year, SAIC and Qingtao Energy jointly announced that the first generation of solid-state batteries jointly developed by SAIC and Qingtao Energy had completed the loading test. On the premise of achieving "zero thermal runaway at the system level", the energy density of the single battery reached 368 Wh/kg, the maximum range of the test vehicle reached 1083 kilometers, and the charge duration increased by 400 kilometers in 10 minutes. It will be mass-produced on the new car of Zhiji brand in 2024.
It is understood that the battery is a semi-solid battery, and the cost is equivalent to the current cost of 0.86 yuan/Wh for ternary lithium batteries.
However, the "ambition" of Qingtao Energy is more than that. According to its plan, the cost of the next generation of solid-state battery products will be 10% -30% lower than that of lithium iron phosphate or ternary batteries with the same specifications; the cost of the third generation products coming out in 2027 will be reduced by another 40%.
The joint venture company is an important "grasp" for the next generation of solid-state batteries. Moreover, according to SAIC, the next generation of solid-state batteries will be launched in 2025, mainly through cathode materials, core technology innovation and other means to reduce costs, and will achieve the "100000 vehicle class" sales scale of solid-state batteries in Zhiji, Feifan, Rongwei, MG and other vehicle products.
Qingtao Energy, with a valuation of over 20 billion yuan
, was founded in 2016 by Nan Cewen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a professor of Tsinghua University, focusing on the R & D and production of solid-state lithium batteries, ceramic diaphragms and lithium-ion production equipment. It has achieved self-control in the core materials, core technology and customized equipment of solid-state batteries, and is one of the earliest solid-state battery enterprises in China to achieve mass production and delivery.
At present, Qingtao Energy has completed the layout of solid-state batteries, new materials, automation equipment and battery recycling, with 13 subsidiaries, and has built a complete industrial ecological chain of "new energy materials-solid-state lithium batteries-automation equipment-comprehensive utilization of lithium battery resources-incubation of scientific research achievements-industrial investment". In terms of
technology, the first generation of semi-solid batteries of Qingtao Energy chose the technical path of oxide + polymer, and the second generation of solid-state batteries chose the path of oxide + halide + polymer. In terms of
production capacity, Qingtao Energy has put into operation 1.7 GWh of solid-state battery production capacity, and the planned production capacity under construction by 2025 is 35 GWh.
The latest production base is the power solid-state battery energy storage industry base in Pidu District, Chengdu, which was signed in February this year. The base has a total investment of 10 billion yuan and a planned capacity of 15 GWh. The project is planned to be constructed in two phases. The first phase is located in Jingrong Town, Pidu District. The design capacity of the first production line is 1GWh, which will soon enter the production stage. In terms of
capital introduction, Qingtao Energy has now completed nine rounds of financing, with the number of rounds of financing reaching F, and there are many well-known investment institutions such as SAIC, Beiqi and Guangzhou Automobile.
With the finalization of SAIC's financing in May, the overall valuation of Qingtao Energy reached 24.34626 billion yuan. In terms of
performance, according to the research information of Saidi Lingxi, the sales volume of Qingtao Energy in 2022 is about 6.6 billion, and the battery business accounts for 4.4 billion. From the overall trend, production capacity began to release gradually in 2022, and customer orders gradually increased. In terms of
customers, Qingtao Energy has established long-term cooperative relations with many mainstream automobile companies. At present, the main cooperative organizations are SAIC and Beiqi Futian. In cooperation
with Beiqi Futian, the first mass-produced commercial vehicle solid-state battery system jointly developed by the two sides was commissioned in Qingtao Energy PACK Intelligent Manufacturing Center and officially launched. The system uses Qingtao intrinsically safe lithium iron phosphate solid-state battery monomer, which can meet the quality assurance requirements of commercial vehicles for 8 years and 400000 kilometers, and has passed various rigorous safety tests.
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