lg chem may be on the verge of dominating ev battery industry - 18650 lithium ion cells
South Korea's LG Chem is likely to be a major global supplier of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.
Japan's Nikkei news reported that LG is about to knock on an agreement to supply batteries to Tesla Motors.
Since 2008 with the launch of the Tesla sports car, the modern electric car industry was born, Tesla has purchased from Panasonic, Japan, almost all of the 18650 batteries installed on Model S and sports cars.
However, as Tesla continues to lose money every quarter and consumes cash at an alarming rate, there is an urgent need for Silicon Valley upstarts to cut costs.
Tesla just launched Model X crossover a month ago, but it's only now fully launched.
The scale development of Model III, its first mainstream Model.
The third model Tesla claims will provide 200.
If Tesla can make a profit, the mileage and the price of $35,000 will need to be much lower than the manufacturing cost.
Tesla's current approach to package up to 8,000 batteries into battery packs allows complex and expensive assembly even if the cost of a single battery is relatively low.
About a year later, GM will launch its own 200-
Travel 1 mile EV at roughly the same price as Model III.
GM is working closely with LG Chem on the development of Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles, both companies drawing on lessons learned from the two generations of Volt, plus Spark EV and Cadillac ELR and CT6 plugsin hybrid.
Due to the development of LG, GM has made significant progress in reducing the cost of battery packs.
Compared to the first one
Devolts, batteries used in the new model, sparks and CT6 are thicker and provide more energy capacity, now 96-wh each.
This allows GM to increase the capacity of the Volt package from the original 16 units. 4-kWh to 18. 4-
At the same time reduce the number of batteries from 288 to 192 KW.
Eliminate one
The third unit enables the GM to similarly reduce the number of parts for most components in the package and reduce the total assembly cost.
Executive Vice President General Motors
President Mark Reuss recently admitted that LG is expected to reduce battery costs to $145 per kilowatt hour in 2016 and to $100 by 2020.
Combined with a reduction in assembly costs, the cost of packing bolts per kWh or lower can be $300.
This is well below the industry average of $424 per kilowatt hour predicted by Navigant Research in its advanced automotive energy storage report.
So far, Nissan has made it clear that the sales of electric vehicles are nearly 200,000 leaves ahead, and battery development has been used so far.
A house with joints
Business partner NEC
Still, CEO Carlos Ghosn recently admitted, "At the moment, we think the best battery manufacturer is LG.
With Nissan's second cooperation
Japanese brand Leaf will reportedly have to challenge Bolt and Model III and consider dumping its own battery technology to LG.
If Tesla decides to adopt LG's big-
For Model III, formatting bag cells can be a big step towards making a profit.
Under the roof of the Tesla Gigabit plant in Reno, Nevada, there is more space than originally needed.
While Panasonic has promised to produce batteries there, it is not hard to imagine that LG Chem can also install replicas of battery manufacturing equipment already running at a plant in Michigan, Netherlands.
If Tesla and Nissan join GM, Renault, Ford and Hyundai/Kia using LG Chemical batteries, it can quickly go to the top of the packaging as a producer of lithium-ion technology for automotive applications.
Although this will definitely hurt Panasonic's approach.
Long term growth prospects for Model III, it may still be a supplier of Model S and X and a popular Fusion and C-for Ford-Max plug-in hybrids.
Panasonic remains the world's largest nickel suppliermetal-
Through joint ventures with Toyota, Primearth EV Energy Co. , hydrogen batteries for hybrid vehicles
This adventure may still be an ongoing concern for some time to come, as Toyota has decided to stick with NiMH technology for its hybrid, rather than following the rest of the industry with lithium ion
We live in an interesting time.