Recently, Toyota Tsusho Corporation (hereinafter referred to as Toyota Tsusho) and China CITIC Guoan Information Industry Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as CITIC Guoan) have signed a letter of intent, both parties will cooperate in the production and sale of batteries grade lithium carbonate and downstream products. Toyota Tsusho is the Toyota Group in automotive related company trading business, CITIC Guoan is a subsidiary of listed company CITIC Group, the West has now taijnar Qinghai Salt Lake, an area of 570 square kilometers, is a lithium-based liquid mining of large deposits of lithium carbonate in resources highlighted. This is another signal that the competition was a new energy vehicles to advance upstream resources.
The success of Toyota and vigorously promoted in recent years, hybrid cars are inseparable, but the future of the auto industry seems to depend on pure electric car market development. The current technology of the battery is not yet ripe, and pure electric vehicles that match is not perfect, the market is not the same as the hybrid car is a huge market. To avoid risks, major automakers in the world are looking for partners to develop new solutions.
Electric cars and hybrids are all new energy development vehicles, most car manufacturers have proposed the use of lithium batteries as a power supply battery electric vehicles. Lithium-ion batteries due to price and capacity advantages, is considered the result of the Ni-MH battery cell power after guiding the development of major manufacturers around the world are all impatient. Earlier this year the German government released 500 million euros to finance research and development of electric vehicles. As research on lithium-ion batteries and the cost of financing the development of 59 million euros. Enacted in 2007, “high-tech strategy,” the German government was the key to electric vehicle technology - lithium-ion batteries that the fight against the project. Toyota had done in cooperation with Japan’s Sanyo Electric Lithium-Ion Research Battery and development, Honda, GM and other companies with the Panasonic A123 and sellers of other batteries, China BYD Auto is also self-developed lithium-ion batteries, lithium-ion battery industry has been become the new competition in a hot vehicle of energy.
The development of electric vehicles, battery technology is the technology’s energy base, but also determines the cost. The current of pure electric vehicles, battery-vehicle prices have represented approximately 50% of the cost. According to optimistic forecasts for the industry in the industrialization of pure electric vehicles, battery vehicle prices are yet to be accounted for more than 20%, which is to plant the vehicle is very large, the distribution of profits.
Although the two sides reached a tentative co operation only, but it shows that Toyota in the development of pure electric vehicles, not only wants to spread the risks of trade cooperation with the upstream, more interested in sharing courses Higher profits from the battery market. And this way, it may be the future evolution of the automotive industry.
The development of electric vehicles, mobilizing resources, lithium, lithium-ion batteries, electric motors and a series of product integration, as a pure electric vehicle market, the further development of potential mergers and acquisitions future manufacturers Automotive batteries trend.
Cooperation with CITIC Guoan, for Toyota, the ability to obtain a stable and sustainable supply. Once the breakthrough in battery technology, resources lithium resources are more scarce. Access to reliable high quality resources lithium give Toyota a competitive edge in the edge of the future