According to Fred Zhang, international communications manager of Ningde Times, the battery plant invested by Ningde Times in Debrecen will arrange battery production based on orders from automakers to serve automotive plants operating in Europe. “The CatL plant in Debrecen allows us to meet the challenges of growing demand in the European market, improve our global production network and help accelerate electric vehicles and the European energy transition.” “Fred Zhang said.
In addition, Debrecen’s factories will be fully automated, with most of the work processes carried out by robots, with human supervision of their operation.
XVC770AE 3BHE006414R0001 “At the beginning, Chinese technicians will arrive in Hungary, and Chinese workers will operate the robot production in the initial stage of the factory construction.” “The CatL plant in Debrecen enables us to meet the challenges of growing demand in the European market, complete our global production network, and help accelerate electric vehicles and the energy transition in Europe,” said Fred Zhang. According to Zhang, lithium-ion batteries will be produced in Debrecen, especially for batteries and modules. It also turns out that Debrecen’s factory will be fully automated: most of the work processes will be done by robots, with only human supervision.
At present, international mainstream car companies represented by BMW and Mercedes-Benz have built production bases in Hungary, and Chinese car companies such as BYD and NIO have also laid out their plans successively.
Data show that since the second half of 2020, China’s new energy vehicle sales have continued to rise. In 2021, the year-on-year growth rate reached 165.1%, and the high growth rate continued in 2022. According to the statistics of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in 2022 will be 7.058 million and 6.887 million, respectively, up 96.9% and 93.4% year-on-year. Among them, the production and sales of new energy passenger vehicles were 6.716 million and 6.549 million, up 97.77% and 94.26% respectively. The production and sales of new energy commercial vehicles were 342,000 and 338,000, respectively, an increase of 81.84% and 78.89%.
New energy vehicles have entered a period of rapid growth, and the market demand is strong, driviXVC770AE 3BHE006414R0001 ng the rapid growth of the power lithium battery industry.
According to incomplete statistics, the planned production capacity of China’s lithium battery market in 2021 exceeds 1.6T, and the planned production capacity of China’s lithium battery market in 2022 exceeds 2.4T. Driven by the planned production capacity, China’s lithium battery equipment market will achieve 100 billion in 2022, and it is expected that by 2025, China’s lithium battery equipment market will exceed 150 billion.
However, behind the vigorous development of the lithium battery equipment industry, there are still pain points of low integration, inconsistent size standards, and discrete automation, and these pain points are the key to triggering robot applications.
From the point of view of the lithium battery industry itself, the iteration of lithium battery technology is accelerating, the process is complex, CTP technology 3.0, blade battery, short knife battery, 4680 large cylinder battery, and different module design structure, all put forward higher requirements for the automation of lithium battery production.
In addition, the application characteristics of the lithium battery itself have high safety requirements, and the demand for traceability of the entire production process has also made the lithium battery factory have to pursue automation to ensure product consistency and stability. Therefore, intelligent and automated equipment is very useful in the lithiuXVC770AE 3BHE006414R0001 m battery industry.
By combining robot technology with lithium battery production technology, the automation and intelligence of lithium battery production line can be greatly improved, so as to improve production efficiency and product quality, and drive lithium battery production enterprises to upgrade and transform technology.
According to the research of relevant institutions, at present, the robot penetration rate of each process segment of the power battery has reached 82%, focusing on the full process of the lithium battery core segment, module segment, PACK process segment, etc., with robots and digital technology, to achieve high flexibility and intelligent production line, and constantly improve the operating rate, yield rate and production efficiency of the lithium battery production line.