1: Chuxing
When it comes to the development of lithium iron phosphate materials, we must mention the industry's iconic company, namely the American A123 company.
A123 was founded in 2001 at MIT.
A123 was founded in 2001 at MIT (MIThing). The three founders are Chinese professor of materials science and engineering Jiang Yeming (Yet-MingChiang), a business research consultant at MIT, and Cornell University Materials Science B&B + Riley. When A123 was first established, the amount of funds was only 5 employees, and the amount of funds was only US$100,000 for the US Department of Energy's technology project funds. The rest is only 0.5g material sample surface taken from MIT. At the beginning of 2004, with the assistance of Taiwan Solar Energy, China, A122 can produce 1kg of powder and a set of prototype batteries per month. However, this may lead to the successful raising of US$20 million in the early stage of capital, which is a smooth journey. By the beginning of 2007, the capital of A123 company surged to $102 million, with 250 employees renting and transporting, and orders from the top 500 Forbes companies exceeded $100 million, and now produces millions of battery cells (cels) and hundreds of pure cathode material powders each year. From 2007 to 2008, the production capacity of increased from 500,000 to 2 million.
A123 The company's core competitive advantage is to make the lithium iron phosphate positive electrode material of the ion battery into uniform nano-scale coarse small particles, which greatly increases the area due to the sharp increase in the granules and the total surface, so the battery's electrical power is greatly increased. Moreover, the overall stability and cycle life were not affected. Nowadays, the general lithium-ion battery positive electrode material powder particles are 100 times larger than that of A123. If you want to make small particles, it will produce side effects of stability and safety parts that can be weakened. As a result, the innate limit is difficult to increase in discharge power.
A123's operation headquarters is located in Walertown, Massachusetts, USA. The main material research unit is in AnnArbor, , Michigan, , and the payment and system design unit directly managed by itself is located in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. At that time, we obtained exclusive manufacturing plants with a total area of 100,000 m2 from our cooperative OEM factories in Taiwan, South Korea and Mainland China. It expanded to 2.26 million square meters in 2007. The production base established in Changzhou, China has started construction in 2005 and expanded its production capacity to 1 million 26650 batteries in 2008 to 2 million.
A123 The board members and major shareholders of the company include Motorola , Qiyi, Qualcomm, P&G, YankeeTek and many times, Sepuois Capits, which successfully invested in major U.S. venture capital institutions such as Apple, Ciso and Goode. Qiyi has been favored by the A12 operating team in the recent US$40 million capital increase, and has been able to further invest. The consumer goods manufacturer P&G is the new shareholder. In addition, there are many large companies that want to invest but are rejected. Even Blark & Decker (R&D), an important customer of A123, was politely rejected.
In addition, A123 not only obtained a new generation hybrid vehicle battery development contract with US Energy for up to US$15 million, but also developed a gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle that can travel more than 150m with A123 batteries using only 1gal (3.78L) of gasoline. Vicsu, CEO of A123, emphasized to the then President Bush that after the gasoline hybrid vehicles adopt A123 lithium batteries, most owners' gasoline demand can be reduced by 70% by 50%, and the damage to the environment can be minimized. The $15 million contract was issued by the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Advanced Battery Alliance. Since USABC is jointly organized by Daimler-Benz Group, Ford Auto and General Motors, and 50% of the annual price comes from the US Department of Energy, this is an important symbol of gaining attention and trust between national units and international automobile manufacturers, and
A1233 Company also jointly develops lithium iron acid battery modules for automobiles and buses with General Motors and Qiyi. The VoltConcept concept electric vehicle on display by General Motors is jointly developed by General Motors and Chasys Company in the United States, and the hard iron acid lithium iron phosphate rechargeable battery is produced by A123 Company. The main feature of lithium iron phosphate of
A123 Company is nano-scale powder.The electrical conductivity of the material is then improved by patented technology of high-valent metal ion doping. During the filming process, the battery's high-current discharge capacity is greatly improved by the corrosion and carbon coating of the aluminum box surface. In addition, the battery uses the special material graphite as the negative electrode, which greatly improves the detection performance and service life of the iron phosphate battery. Currently, the battery cells of A123 are all cylindrical lithium batteries (Figure 23). The existing customers include AES, BAE system companies, , B8.D, Cessnq, Chrysler companies, , and General Motors.
A123 company also launched the fastest electric motorcycle in the world. It cooperated with KlLCw to use a 990-a-rated A123 battery cell battery module (equivalent to 350 horsepower) to set a world record of 156km/h-97km/h acceleration in just 1.5s, and it only takes 8.16s to complete 400m.
March 2009. A123 Department submitted an application to borrow $1.8 billion under the Advanced Technology Automotive Manufacturing Incentive Program of the United States Energy to support the construction of a new world-class lithium-ion battery production facility in Southeast Michigan. After this plan is fully operational, the A123 company's factory is expected to cover an area of 7 million ft2 (650,000 m2), and create 14,000 jobs at the same time. These plants will produce batteries and systems to meet the investment portfolio of A123's suitable automotive customers. Currently includes 7 automakers and 19 models, including hybrid electric vehicles and pure electric vehicles.
2: Bankruptcy Analysis
After several years of operation. On October 17, 2012, A123 company Yibu went bankrupt, and some analysts proposed it. The reason for the bankruptcy of A123 is that:
(1) The current market of A123 is mainly to manufacture automobile batteries, but the current economic situation determines that fewer and fewer people are willing to pay more for cars with the same performance for the concept of new energy. The A123 is a representative of luxury goods among expensive electric cars. The A123 makes the best quality automotive battery in the world, but it can also be called the lowest cost-effective automotive battery in the world. Its main buyer is Fisk, which is famous for its luxury cars. For batteries with the same performance parameters, the A123 has to be sold at 2-3 times the price of ordinary lithium batteries just because their products are more stable, cooler and smaller.
(2) The economic environment has changed A123 The company is too avant-garde. The company is committed to developing other more advanced business directions, including power grid and automotive startup battery . The market for target products is even more dimensional. electric vehicle battery is profitable and out of reach.
(3) The rapidly expanding production capacity is inconsistent with the quality, and he paid a lot of money and did not obtain sales revenue from expected orders.
(4) Threat to the peripheral environment. Although there is government protection, the competition between China, Japan and South Korea in the field of power battery directly affects the sustainability of A123's operations.
(5) Company has been losing money. Although the operating income of A123 has been growing, from US$34.35 million in 2006 to US$91.05 million in 2009, and then to nearly US$1.6 billion in 2011, the average annual growth rate reached 30%-40%, but the cost and expenses grew faster. In 2010, sales were less than US$100 million, and the net loss was as high as US$150 million.
Although A123 company has gone bankrupt, the technology and operating network it has accumulated over the years are still of great value. American Johnson Controls , Germany Siemens , Japan NEC, China Wanxiang Group and other companies have successively participated in the bidding for the acquisition of A123 company, among which China Wanxiang Group is one of the strong competitors. August 16, 2012. A123 company announced that it had signed a final acquisition agreement with Wanxiang Group . According to the agreement, Wanxiang Group plans to provide A183 with US$465 million in 380% of its holdings, becoming the largest shareholder. Jing Qizhangqingmei’s two battery factories and an engineering center. In the A123 company asset auction on December 8, 2012, Wanxiang Group, China's largest auto parts manufacturer, won, and Wanxiang Group quoted US$2.6% in the bid, surpassing the US Johnson Controls and Japan's NFC.
According to the information released on November 30, 2012 by the official website of the National Development and Reform Commission, it has approved the application of Wanxiang Group to invest in the acquisition of A123 Company in October.The investment acquisition has also obtained foreign exchange registration from China's state foreign exchange management department and approved by the Ministry of Commerce. So far, regarding the investment and acquisition of the A123 company project of Wanxiang Group has completed all approval procedures for the competent Chinese government departments.
