Data from the Power Battery Application Branch shows that the installed capacity of power batteries in China in 2021 is close to 159.6GWh. Among them, the installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate battery is 81.7GWh, more than the installed capacity of ternary lithium battery is 77.6GWh, and the proportion of lithium iron phosphate battery accounts for more than 51%. Entering 2022, in the first two months of the domestic lithium iron phosphate battery installed capacity still continued last year's advantage, continue to lead. Not only that, in the March 8, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (the second batch of 2022), the proportion of the number of lithium iron phosphate battery models has increased from 55% of the first batch in 2022 to 75%. From the perspective of market performance, oems' preference for lithium iron phosphate batteries has increased, and the expansion of the proportion of recommended models also provides support for the further increase of the installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries in 2022. In fact, not only is the new energy vehicle market, in the global background of electric industry, since the beginning of this year, energy storage, electric two-wheeled market also presents a trend of different degrees, lithium iron phosphate battery with its lower cost, better safety performance, increasing energy density, longer service life, increasing permeability in the electric market, and is expected to maintain high prosperity.
At present, the domestic power battery production enterprises have at least the following three advantages: First, due to the early investment in research and development, China's lithium iron phosphate battery related technology has global advantages. Second, the domestic energy density of lithium iron phosphate batteries is still improving. Third, China at present, China has formed a relatively complete and mature lithium battery industry chain from upstream resource mining and smelting, material processing, to midstream lithium battery manufacturing, and then to downstream automobile enterprises supporting facilities. This can be proved by the sales of new energy vehicles in China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology data shows that in 2021, China's new energy vehicles sales completed 3.521 million units, a year-on-year growth of 160%, the sales volume has ranked first in the world for seven consecutive years. In the process of the lithium industry, a number of global leading enterprises have emerged in the field of materials and power batteries in China. Benefiting from the acceleration of global vehicle electrification and the mature application of overseas energy storage market, combined with comprehensive factors such as mature domestic lithium iron phosphate technology, perfect industrial chain and large scale, domestic power battery manufacturers are increasingly willing to go to sea. It is worth mentioning that the last barrier for domestic enterprises to build lithium iron phosphate base and export is also expected to disappear. With the expiration of overseas core patents of lithium iron phosphate battery this year, domestic enterprises will also usher in new development opportunities, and the global lithium iron phosphate battery market may face the changes in the competitive pattern of the post-patent era. In detail, the core patents of lithium iron phosphate batteries include three: infrastructure, carbon coating and carbon reduction, which are all owned by overseas companies and institutions.Infrastructure patents expired in 2017, and two other patents will expire this year. In fact, whether the early overseas patents are reasonable, has been debated in the industry. An industry insider said that some overseas patents themselves are against scientific, loss of novelty and other problems. However, limited to the implementation of these patents overseas, domestic battery manufacturers will go overseas before this, which will be affected by high patent fees and legal costs. It is understood that in the overseas market, lithium battery material enterprises, battery enterprises, or battery supporting OEMS, there is always one party need to pay a high patent authorization price. It can be said that companies have been suffering from overseas patent abuse for a long time. Next, with the "unsealing" of the overseas core patents of lithium iron phosphate batteries, it will help reduce the constraints of Chinese enterprises to a certain extent, reduce the high cost of licensing some patents, be more conducive to the overseas layout of Chinese enterprises, and show their talents in the global market of lithium iron phosphate batteries.