File photo/Zhang Jian (NBD)

At the China EV100 Forum 2023 on April 2, Wang Yu, Chairman of Farasis Energy, stated that the current main problems facing the power battery industry are high prices and limited resources. 

"Previously, it was expected that the global power battery pack price would drop to $100/kWh this year. However, the sudden rise in lithium carbonate prices has broken this expectation," said Wang Yu.

Wang Yu stated that the price of lithium carbonate rose from 50,000 yuan/ton to 500,000 yuan/ton last year. The price increase has also brought considerable profits to the lithium resource industry. Wang revealed, "Last year, car companies and power battery companies contributed nearly 100 billion yuan of profits to the lithium resource industry." 

Wang Yu described this situation as "very bad," and behind it, car companies and power battery companies are also under considerable pressure.

Taking CATL as an example, affected by the rise in raw material prices, the gross profit margin of its power battery system in the first half of last year was 15.04%, representing a year-on-year decrease of 7.96%. In contrast, upstream companies saw a surge in profits. For example, in the first half of last year, Tianqi Lithium had a net profit of as high as 12.005 billion yuan, representing a 100x increase year on year. 

Data shows that China's lithium resource reserves account for only 6% of the world's total, and 80% of lithium raw materials rely on imports. At the China EV100 Forum 2023, Wang Qing, Deputy Director of the Market Economy Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said, "China's reserves of lithium, nickel, cobalt, and other resources are low, but the usage accounts for more than half of the world's total."

In the face of the problems encountering the industry's development, Wang Yu suggested the reasonable and orderly utilization of resources such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt.

In addition, Wang Yu believes that the industry should accelerate the construction of the sodium-ion battery industry chain and support the research and development of next-generation sodium-ion battery materials. 

As early as 2021, CATL launched a sodium-ion battery that can be charged to 80% in 15 minutes at room temperature, and also provided a lithium-sodium hybrid battery pack solution. 

Not only CATL, but other companies in the industry chain have also begun to bet on sodium-ion batteries and related industries. 

In December last year, Gotion High-tech stated on its interactive platform that the company was actively cooperating with domestic and foreign universities and institutions to develop sodium-ion battery-related technologies, and is also developing and producing sodium-ion battery samples. 

Wang Yu also revealed that Farasis Energy has included "de-lithiumization" in the company's agenda and the company would provide customers with a sodium-ion battery with an energy density of 160 Wh/kg this year.