Author? |? Li Xiang? Editor? Lanrence
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On February 1 1, it was reported that Volkswagen and Daimler called for sustainable exploitation of lithium mines in Chile and entrusted institutions to lobby the Chilean government to take measures to conduct a "feasibility study". It is reported that the feasibility study includes consultations with local governments, communities and developers, hoping to formulate a feasibility plan to ensure the sustainable mining of lithium mines.
Before the arrival of electric vehicles, multinational car companies were increasingly worried about the supply chain. As an indispensable key element in power battery, lithium has become a hot raw material in automobile industry. The data shows that in 20 19, the global sales of new energy vehicles increased by 6%, reaching 22 1 10,000 vehicles, and the total installed capacity of lithium batteries reached 1 12GWh, a year-on-year increase of 20%. With the acceleration of the transformation of the automobile industry to electrification, relevant institutions predict that the global demand for lithium will more than double by 2023.
Previously, some auto companies have laid out lithium resources. In the eyes of the industry, auto companies can no longer only care about the whole vehicle and interests as before. If they don't want to be restricted in the development of electrification, they must start with the source of lithium. The sooner they start, the more they can take the initiative in this "war".
1
Chile has large lithium reserves and low output.
According to Roskil, a mining organization, 76% of lithium resources in the world are distributed in salt lakes, and 24% are minerals. Salt Lake resources are mainly concentrated in Chile, the United States, Bolivia, Argentina, the Russian Federation and China. The proven important salt lakes containing lithium include Atacama in Chile, uyuni in Bolivia, Hom Braiteau in Argentina, Dead Sea in the Middle East, Zabuye in China, salt lakes in Tibet and Qinghai.
Chile has the largest lithium reserves in the world. According to previously published data, Chile's lithium reserves account for more than 52% of the world. It is worth noting that the lithium production in Chile has hardly changed in recent years. 20 17 Australia surpassed Chile to become the world's largest lithium producer.
After combing, it was found that the only two producers in Chile, SQM and American Yabao Company, were unable to increase production. According to the data, the current annual production capacity of SQM is 70,000 tons of lithium carbonate and 65,438 tons of lithium hydroxide. However, SQM hopes that by the second half of 20021year, the output of lithium carbonate will increase to 6.5438+0.2 million tons, the output of lithium hydroxide will increase to nearly 30,000 tons, and the output will increase to 6.5438+0.6 million tons by the end of 2023.
Although Chile also said in law that "anyone (any local or foreign individual or company) is allowed to obtain or apply for mining rights", due to the environmental impact of lithium mining, local people and activists oppose the landing of new lithium mining projects, and the output of the original mining enterprises is difficult to improve, and the commercialization of lithium resource mining is low. Aware of these problems, from 2065438 to July 2009, the Chilean House of Representatives planned to develop lithium industry as a national policy, relying on convenient maritime transportation to develop lithium.
2
Volkswagen and Daimler promote "feasibility study"
According to the lobbying records, a team composed of GIZ, a German development agency, and Chile Foundation, a public-private partnership organization, met with the head of SMA, Chile's highest environmental regulatory agency, in June+10 this year, and formally submitted the "feasibility study" plan. This includes consulting local governments, communities and developers, hoping to make a feasible plan to ensure the sustainable exploitation of lithium mines.
Analysts believe: "At this time, Volkswagen and Daimler submitted the feasibility study of sustainable lithium mining to Chile through GIZ in the name of the' German government', indicating that this is no longer an inter-enterprise behavior." According to the official website of GIZ, the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) is an international cooperative enterprise dedicated to global sustainable development, representing the German government as a tool for bilateral cooperation.
In addition, with the intensification of the global automotive electrification wave, Volkswagen Group and Daimler Group have begun to lay out their own electrification. According to Volkswagen's previous plan, electric vehicles will account for a quarter of total sales in 2025, and Daimler also plans to account for more than half of new car sales by 2030. On the electric vehicle platform, Volkswagen and Daimler developed MQB and EQ platforms respectively. At the same time, the battery factories of the two companies are actively expanding their production capacity.
When the supply capacity of electric suppliers was cut off, automobile manufacturers realized that battery suppliers alone could not fully meet the future development of electric vehicles. However, in the early stage of development, in order to ensure the sufficient supply of batteries, we can only choose multiple battery suppliers. Nowadays, with the gradual improvement of the layout, automobile manufacturing enterprises can realize deeper exploration in the industrial chain.
three
Automobile enterprises start a battle for resources
Recently, it was reported that due to the shortage of LG chemical power batteries, Jaguar announced that it would close the I-PACE production line in Graz, Austria for one week from February 17. Since I-PACE's sales in Europe account for 65,438+06% of Jaguar's sales in Europe, the suspension of production for one week is bound to have a negative impact on Jaguar. Although Jaguar signed a cooperation agreement with Samsung SDI as early as 20 18 to expand its suppliers, LG Chem is still the main battery supplier of Jaguar.
You know, Volkswagen chose LG Chem, Samsung SDI, SK? Innovation and other companies are European battery suppliers. As early as 2065438+May 2009, Samsung and Volkswagen could not provide the set number of batteries. This time, in addition to Jaguar, Audi and Mercedes-Benz also changed the production plans of e-teon and EQC due to the battery supply problem of LG Chem. EQC's production target was lowered from 60,000 to 30,000, while Audi e-tron delayed the production time.
The shortage of power battery production has become a key problem that restricts the development of electric vehicles by car companies. In order to deal with this problem, Volkswagen, Toyota, GM, Tesla and other car companies have begun to develop and produce power batteries. In the eyes of the industry, the huge market scale of electric vehicles makes it impossible for car companies to focus on the production and manufacturing of vehicle products as before. If car companies want to develop new energy without restraint, they must start from the source of raw materials. BMW also indicated that it will directly purchase cobalt and lithium from 2020. It can be predicted that this world-scale battle for lithium resources will intensify. After all, lithium resources belong to non-renewable resources, and whoever starts first can take the initiative in this "war" and control their own production rhythm.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.