The limitation of raw materials is the first external concern of CATL.

The second external concern is that most car companies are now actively deniing themselves.

Although CATL has successfully controlled most of the new energy vehicle companies with its ultra-high product yield and large-scale production.

But after a long time, everyone will inevitably be resentful.

More than 40% of the cost of a car is batteries, and they often can't buy goods, resulting in the delivery of new cars by car companies.

For example, Xiaopeng hooked up with China Aviation Lithium Battery, and GAC invested in China Innovation Airlines.

The Great Wall has made a honeycomb energy, and supplies Geely, Lantu, and Ideal,

Not to mention BYD, which has always had its own battery supply chain.

As a result, there is a capacity plan of 4,800GWh, which leads to a gradual fierce competition.

In addition to external troubles, CATL itself also has great internal troubles.

The first is that the corporate culture cannot keep up with the development of the enterprise, and the overtime culture is very serious.

The R&D department is better, the production department is a cow and a horse, and the employee escape rate is very high.

And the most important thing is that the development of batteries has too many technical routes and forks.

CATL bet on the liquid ternary lithium battery before, and caught up with the east wind of new energy development, so it has today's glory.

But as the technology of liquid lithium batteries gradually reached a bottleneck, they came to a new crossroads.

But at this time, because the ship is difficult to turn around, once they choose the wrong technical route, they are likely to be slow down in the future, and even fall off the altar because of this.

And at this crossroads, they chose solid-state lithium batteries.

However, solid-state lithium batteries have been staying in the laboratory and have not been mass-produced, which has put Zeng Yuqing, chairman of CATL, under great pressure.

However, on this day, he suddenly received a letter from Tesla, saying that the Tesla they made in China would plan to reuse the new generation of lithium batteries manufactured by LG in Jinling!

This news is simply worse for the current CATL era.

At the beginning, the rise of CATL, in addition to its own excellent technological innovation and R&D capabilities, coupled with catching up with national policy support and market opportunities, there is also a big reason, that is, it just hugged Tesla's thighs.

Looking at the development history of CATL, you will find that the time when it really took off was actually in 19 years, when the construction of the domestic Tesla Magic Capital Gigafactory began.

According to domestic requirements, its main components need to be purchased from companies in China, so CATL successfully entered Tesla's supply chain list.

Through the deep binding with Tesla, CATL has finally entered the fast lane of development.

But in fact, this still eats the dividends of the policy.

Tesla's overseas cars still use batteries from Songxia and LG from beginning to end.

It can be seen that the purchase of CATL's batteries is actually only due to the pressure of Tesla's localization policy, rather than wanting to cooperate with CATL from the bottom of its heart.

As a result, the cooperation between the two sides is somewhat fragile.

In particular, LG and Panasonic, in order to cater to Tesla's localization strategy, have also built new battery factories in China, and after they have the qualifications and production capacity to supply Tesla, the two sides have been eyebrowning for a long time.

It can only be said that if it is not my race, its heart will be different, although these enterprises in the old M camp, although they usually fight fiercely, but once there are Chinese enterprises that threaten them, they can usually quickly put down the contradictions and unite against Chinese enterprises.

Therefore, CATL received this letter, which did not surprise Zeng Yuqing too much.

In addition, it is not the first time that a similar letter has been received......

In the anxious gaze of his subordinates, Zeng Yuqing carefully read every word on the notice letter, and then exhaled and said:

"They just said, 'Plan to use it back,' and didn't say anything dead...... I think their main purpose this time is to blackmail us into lowering the price. ”

After listening to Zeng Yuqing's analysis, everyone couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but soon they frowned again and said: "But the price we gave them is already much cheaper than LG, and this wave of price reduction requirements is completely unreasonable......

Zeng Yuqing nodded, this was actually what he was most puzzled about.

"Buy me a ticket to the magic capital, and I'll talk to Anil in person."

——

At half past three in the afternoon of the same day, Zeng Yuqing met Anil, the head of Tesla's Huaguo, at Tesla's Magic Capital Gigafactory.

After a brief greeting, Zeng Yuqing shifted the topic to the letter he received in the morning.

"What are the reasons for your decision?"

Anil explained with a soft smile: "Mr. Zeng, in fact, we have always cherished the cooperation with CATL, and we also recognize your product technology and quality very much. ”

"But it's been a long time since you've come up with more advanced and market-oriented products, which severely limits our brand development and product update speed......"

"More advanced, more market-oriented?" Zeng Yuqing immediately grasped the key to Anil's words, "Mr. Anil, our products have always been in the leading position in the market, and the price is more affordable, I don't know what your considerations are for us to define us like this?" ”

"That's in the past." Anil shook his head,

"LG and Panasonic jointly developed the latest mass-produced lithium battery, which has successfully passed the performance and safety and reliability test of automotive specifications in Shouer, and this lithium battery with an energy density of up to 250Wh/kg will start mass production at the Jinling plant in three months."

"We are ready to take this opportunity to increase the cruising range of our entire product line to more than 1,000 kilometers!"

250Wh/kg！？

Hearing this data, Zeng Yuqing couldn't help but take a breath, and he hurriedly asked, "What about the price?" The mass production cost of a new battery with this energy density should not be low, right? Aren't you worried that consumers won't pay for it after a big increase in car prices? ”

"No, their price is still 780 yuan / Wh, only need to add about 4-50,000, users can buy Tesla with a full 50% increase in battery life, even if we don't improve the battery life, if the space saved by the battery pack is left for users to store, I believe it is also what our users like to see."

Zeng Yuqing: "......"

It wasn't until now that Zeng Yuqing realized that Tesla's wave turned out to be real.

They're not here to keep the price down!

An extra 4-50,000 may not be much of a price increase for Tesla users.

Zeng Yuqing pondered for a moment and said: "If we also achieve the energy density of the battery pack to 250Wh/kg, and the price is still 700 yuan/Wh, then we are still your best choice, right?" ”

"Of course." Anil immediately laughed, "As long as it's the same quality product, a fool will choose a cheap one, right?" ”

Zeng Yuqing couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but he was not sure about the authenticity of Anil's news.

What if he deliberately acted in this drama with LG in order to squeeze his own toothpaste?

Therefore, Zeng Yuqing did not promise anything immediately, but said jokingly: "Then our R&D team is estimated to have to work overtime all night." ”

"Then wait for your good news." Anil also said with a smile.

In fact, he knows very well that CATL has at least 80% probability of mass production technology of liquid lithium batteries with 250Wh/kg energy density.

It's just that before encountering real opponents and major crises, they have been hiding.

But it doesn't matter anymore.

Because LG, this time it's for real.

A prelude to more fierce competition in the lithium battery industry is about to kick off.

And what they like to see most about these new energy car companies is probably that the battery factory is rolled up......

(End of chapter)