Toyota is the first heavyweight external customer for BYD’s power battery business.
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Recently, Toyota China announced that it will launch the second pure electric model bZ3 after the bZ4, which has attracted great attention from the author.
First of all, what attracts the author’s attention is the appearance of the bZ3.
The bZ3 is a medium-sized sedan built on the e-TNGA platform, with a length, width and height of 472518351475mm and a wheelbase of 2880mm. It adopts the family-style design of the Toyota bZ series, with a prominent Toyota logo printed on the front of the car. The front face cancels the air intake grille of the fuel car, adopts a closed design, and is equipped with through-type headlights. At the same time, the left and right sides are Ventilation openings are also designed with a vertical layout, showing a strong sense of movement. The rear of the car adopts through-type taillights and uses a concave rear surround, which has a good sense of hierarchy.
It is reported that the Toyota bZ3 model will be produced by FAW Toyota Tianjin plant. The Tianjin plant is one of Toyota’s most advanced plants in the world and previously mainly produced Toyota’s TNGA flagship model, the Asia Dragon.
In addition to the super high appearance, another thing that caught my attention is the close cooperation between Toyota and BYD, a Chinese new energy vehicle manufacturer. The bZ3 model will be equipped with a drive motor and lithium iron phosphate provided by BYD’s Fudi Power. Blade battery products. Among them, the equipped blade battery adopts a rear-mounted single-motor design and provides two motor versions of 135kW and 180kW. Under CLTC conditions, it reaches 517 kilometers and 616 kilometers respectively, and the power consumption per 100 kilometers is 11 kWh and 12 kWh.
As we all know, BYD is a fast-rising new energy vehicle company in China in the past two years. Its Dynasty series and marine series products continue to sell well in the domestic market. But few readers know that BYD is also vigorously promoting its parts business to other brands of OEMs.
Wang Chuanfu, founder of BYD, believes that BYD’s profound accumulation in the upstream supply chain fields such as power batteries, semiconductors and motors gives it great commercial potential in the parts business. It competes with its peers in the form of an independent business unit in the powertrain and other businesses.
Wang Chuanfu said on many occasions that the subsidiary only earns BYD’s money, which is not a skill. It is only the skill that makes money from the market, which means that the product is competitive. BYD’s provision of power batteries and motor products for Toyota’s bZ3 model is the epitome of this open strategy.
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On October 17, BYD issued a financial announcement for the forecast increase in the third quarter of 2022. According to the announcement, BYD expects the net profit attributable to the parent in the third quarter to be 5.5 billion to 5.9 billion, a year-on-year increase of 333.6% to 365.11%; the net profit after deducting non-return to the parent is 5.07 billion to 5.77 billion, a year-on-year increase of 879.37% to 1014.57 %. The accumulated net profit attributable to the parent company in the first three quarters is expected to be 9.1 billion to 9.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 272% to 289%; the non-returned net profit is expected to be 8.1 billion to 8.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 813.8% to 892.77% .
Compared with history, although BYD’s above-mentioned achievements are beautiful, it is still eclipsed by the performance of its old rival Ningde era.
On the evening of October 21, CATL also released its third-quarter financial report for 2022. The financial report shows that the operating income of CATL in the third quarter was 97.369 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 232.47%, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 9.423 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 188.42%. In the first three quarters, CATL achieved revenue of 210.340 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 186.72%; net profit was 17.592 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 126.95%.
Source: Data from China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance
From the point of view of profit data, CATL is more than twice that of BYD, which is mainly due to CATL’s super high market share in the field of power batteries. According to data released by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, from January to September 2022, the installed capacity of CATL power batteries reached 92.02Gwh, accounting for 47.51%. Among them, the loading capacity of ternary power batteries is 40.44Gwh, accounting for 52.40%, and the loading capacity of lithium iron phosphate power batteries is 51.58Gwh, accounting for 44.34%. However, BYD’s power battery installed capacity is only 43.06Gwh, with an overall market share of 22.23%, which is less than 1/2 of that of the CATL era.
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At present, there are many discussions in the capital market about who has more investment value between BYD and CATL.
Some investors believe that BYD has not only the vehicle business, but also the power battery business, and its long-term value will be greater than that of CATL, but from the actual performance of the capital market, investors still chose CATL with real money. As of the most recent trading day, BYD’s market value was 744 billion yuan, while the market value of CATL was close to 1 trillion yuan.
The author agrees with this judgment logic in the capital market, because CATL has already proved its super competitiveness and profitability in power batteries, and this profitability will continue to grow with the growth of the market.
On the other hand, BYD has only achieved some achievements in the field of complete vehicles, and has not yet proved itself in the export market of power batteries. In addition, it is well known that the automobile market is a red ocean market. Although BYD has grown tremendously, many powerful competitors will soon meet the development ceiling, especially when it enters overseas markets, it is even more difficult for BYD to truly achieve the right The overall catch-up of international auto giants such as Volkswagen and Toyota. Even if BYD achieves the expected sales volume, the profit of the vehicle business is even thinner than that of the power battery business.
If BYD wants to surpass the Ningde era, there is only one possibility, that is, its power battery business can truly get rid of its dependence on its own vehicle business, gain larger external customers, and even win the Ningde era in the external customer market. Previously, although BYD had already had some external cooperative customers in the external market, the overall influence of these companies was relatively weak, which led to some doubts about the feasibility of the opening strategy of BYD’s parts business.
The Toyota Motor, which has cooperated with this time, is the first heavyweight external customer for BYD’s power battery business. In addition, the first product of the cooperation between the two parties, bZ3, has a super high value, coupled with Toyota’s consistent quality, good reputation in the minds of users, and extensive channel layout, it is likely to become a leader in China’s new energy vehicle field. A blast. If the bZ3 is successful, it will also drive the sales of BYD’s power battery business.
In addition, the cooperation with Toyota also has a very strong demonstration effect. Toyota is the most successful car company in the world today. When Toyota casts a vote of confidence in BYD’s power battery, it will naturally attract more car companies to choose to cooperate with BYD. For example, there has been news that BYD will supply power batteries for Tesla recently.
If Tesla is successfully won, BYD’s position as an independent battery supplier will be more stable. At that time, it is also expected to use its own brand and external brand two-wheel drive to catch up with CATL in the power battery market. BYD is also expected to catch up with the CATL era in the capital market.
But all of this is just an assumption. Zeng Yuqun, the founder of CATL, is a very capable entrepreneur, and he will definitely guard against BYD in terms of core customers. It is reported that in order to continue to expand the scale of supply, CATL is still investing in the construction of production bases. For example, in July, CATL invested 14 billion yuan in Jining City, Shandong Province to build a new energy battery industrial base project in Jining, and in August, it invested 7.34 billion euros in Debrecen, Hungary to build a new energy battery industrial base project in Hungary Times , at the end of September, invested 14 billion yuan in Luoyang City, Henan Province to build a new energy battery production base project in Luoyang.
On the one hand, Wang Chuanfu was eyeing the tiger, and on the other hand, Zeng Yuqun responded cautiously. Regardless of the final outcome, the battle between the two best Chinese entrepreneurs, Wang Chuanfu, founder of BYD, and Zeng Yuqun, founder of CATL, will be one of the important points of interest for China’s power batteries and even the entire business community in the future. Closely.
