Chapter 293: Battery manufacturers unite to lower prices
Beijing, north side of Chang'an Street.
On a small island across the North Sea, an old man in a Chinese tunic suit carefully read the report document in his hand.
Looking up, he looked at Wu Weizhao, who replaced Qin Anguo as the liaison officer at the Ministry of Science and Technology, and asked softly: "Does Professor Xu really think so?"
On the opposite side, Wu Weizhao, who was slightly nervous, nodded seriously and replied: "We have already communicated with Professor Xu, but he insists on leaving and has no interest in continuing to serve as the general person in charge."
The old man nodded and said, "In that case, let him go."
After a pause, he continued: "But please communicate with Professor Xu again and ask him to serve for a while. At least, let us hold the celebration banquet and award ceremony before stepping down."
Wu Weizhao nodded: "Okay, I will communicate with Professor Xu."
"Have you ever asked Professor Xu whether he has any scientific research arrangements for the next time?" the old man asked.
Wu Weizhao nodded and said: "I have consulted and heard from Professor Xu that he seems to be planning to return to theoretical research in mathematics and physics in the second half of the year."
"Including the European Atomic Energy Research Center. In the first half of the year, they detected traces of dark matter. The LHC will conduct experiments in this area in the second half of the year. Professor Xu said that he may focus on these aspects."
The old man thought for a moment and said, "Then let's do this for now."
He originally wanted to see if he could ask Professor Xu to continue his research on lithium batteries to see if he could make some breakthroughs, but since he had his own research, he would let it go first.
Anyway, with the breakthrough of the lithium dendrite problem, it will take some time for the domestic industry to digest these changing technologies.
"By the way, how is the patent authorization for the artificial SEI film developed by Professor Xu going?" the old man continued to ask.
Wu Weizhao quickly replied: "Negotiations are still ongoing. There are currently 13 battery industry manufacturers shortlisted, four domestic and nine foreign."
"But what I heard from the Chuanhai Materials Research Institute is that they are planning to authorize three domestic manufacturers and five foreign manufacturers, a total of eight."
The old man nodded and said: "Scientific and technological innovation is a strategic support for improving social productivity and comprehensive national strength, and must be placed at the core of the country's overall development."
"Go and communicate with Minister Qin to include the Chuanhai Materials Research Institute into the latest tax preferential policies for supporting enterprises in scientific and technological innovation issued by the state."
"For high-tech enterprises like Chuanhai Materials Research Institute, the state must vigorously assist and support them."
Hearing this, Wu Weizhao's eyes flashed with surprise.
The latest tax preferential policies issued by the state to support corporate scientific and technological innovation are only intended to support enterprises or institutions such as national and provincial science and technology business incubators and university science and technology parks.
This support policy not only provides a great degree of tax reduction or even exemption, but also allocates special scientific research funds every year.
In addition, scientific research institutions’ research and development buildings, land use, equipment purchase, etc. can all receive state support.
It has to be said that it is really surprising that a small private enterprise like Chuanhai Materials Research Institute can make an exception and enter it.
After all, the only non-state-owned enterprises currently eligible to enter this policy are Warwick, DJI and several other large companies that are of strategic significance to the country.
Of course, relying on the patent of artificial SEI film, Sichuan-Hai Materials Research Institute is also of great strategic significance to the country.
Breakthroughs in the field of lithium batteries can greatly drive the rapid growth of the global new energy vehicle market, and the growth rate of the power battery market will also increase significantly.
According to the plan of the "Lithium-ion Battery Industry Development White Paper" previously formulated in China, it was originally expected to reach the goal of 300wh/kg in the lithium battery field in 2020, 400wh/kg in 2025, and 500wh/kg in 2030.
The goal.
But now, due to breakthroughs in the lithium dendrite problem, let alone 500wh/kg, in the second half of this year, the capacity of lithium-ion batteries will even directly exceed 1,000wh/kg.
From this we can completely see the importance of that small piece of artificial SEI film.
It is reasonable to include companies with such patents in the latest preferential tax policies to support corporate technological innovation, even if their registered capital is less than three million.
...
the other side.
After successfully completing the "Nuclear Energy Beta Radiation Energy Concentration and Conversion into Electric Energy Mechanism" project, Xu Chuan returned to Jinling after spending two days to deal with the subsequent work arrangements.
The successful incubation of a large-scale project is undoubtedly satisfying.
Especially for him, this technology was what he wanted to bring back in his previous life.
So much so that after the project was completed, he rarely did anything for a few days. Except for attending a few classes at NTU according to the curriculum, he forgot all about scientific research and study.
After a few comfortable days, the Chuanhai Materials Research Institute finally started the final quotation for patent licensing.
More than half a month is enough for manufacturers in the battery industry to conduct a complete test on the artificial SEI film.
Using the "complete version" of the artificial SEI film and related electrolytes and other accessories provided by the Chuanhai Institute of Materials Research, these manufacturers were surprised to find that the film created by Professor Xu was astonishingly effective.
The products they imitate based on the information in papers and patent documents are simply rubbish compared to the genuine products.
Although those imitation products can also solve the problem of lithium dendrite formation, they cannot solve the problem of lithium precipitation.
Severe lithium evolution problem will quickly consume the lithium ions in the electrolyte, thereby rapidly reducing the battery capacity.
However, when using the genuine artificial SEI film provided by Chuanhai Materials Research Institute, this problem is almost eliminated.
The battery capacity can be maintained at more than 90% after more than 500 cycles, and can also be maintained at about 80% after a thousand charge and discharge cycles.
The effect is so amazing that they don't even want the good ones.
After all, battery scrap control is one of the ways for the battery industry to make money, especially in the mobile phone industry. The service life of most brands of mobile phone batteries is generally only about one to two years.
If you don't want to replace your phone, then it is necessary to replace the battery. Otherwise, the severely reduced power of your phone will make people want to carry a power bank and data cable with them.
A thousand charge and discharge cycles, coupled with the increased battery capacity, are enough for users to use it for three to four years without replacing the battery.
But then, how can they make money from batteries?
Of course, raising battery prices is also a good method. Compared with the benefits from updating production capacity and planned scrapping, the benefits gained from increasing prices are less than half.
...
In the Sichuan-Hai Materials Research Institute, Xu Chuan didn't pay attention to these problems.
This was the second time he attended such a business meeting at the research institute, but he didn't speak much. He almost sat silently watching the professionals he hired communicate with the battery manufacturers.
Seeing this group of people arguing, Xu Chuan felt a little bored and reached out to wave to a hired professional next to him.
"Do you have the latest quotation statistics from these manufacturers? Give me a copy."
Soon, the staff member handed him a report. Xu Chuan took it and flipped through it. Fan Pengyue would collect and send these things to him once a week, but he had not paid much attention to them before. After all, nuclear energy
The real business is at the institute.
He is not very interested in things like business, and the patent authorization of the artificial SEI film only needs to meet his psychological expectations.
If it fails, he doesn't mind leaving it in his own hands.
Anyway, this is the only one with no other branches.
As for other countries or laboratories and research institutes coming up with substitutes in a short period of time, the probability is basically so small that it can be ignored.
After all, if this thing was really that easy to make, it would have been done long ago.
Institutions such as industry and laboratory research institutes have failed to solve the problem of lithium dendrites in recent years, not to mention tens of billions, but certainly billions.
After decades of losing so much money, this problem has not been solved. If you want to find a replacement in a short time, even with a sample like his, it is almost impossible to do it here.
.......
Looking through the quotations in his hand, Xu Chuan found that the quotations from these manufacturers were almost exactly the same, and the values were very close.
Domestic BYD quoted 530 million for three-year patent authorization, CATL quoted 550 million for three-year patent authorization...
In foreign countries, whether it is Panasonic from a small island country or large battery manufacturers such as LG Chem, their quotations are almost around 70 million gold. When converted into RMB, according to the current exchange rate, it is just around 500 million.
It is obvious that these manufacturers are in private contact during every round of negotiations and quotations.
Faced with the three domestic quotas and five international quotas he released, these battery manufacturers plan to unite and obtain this patent authorization with minimal effort.
After all, if there is no unification, no one knows how much anyone will quote, and in the end the price will be swept up in the sky by everyone. Rather than doing this, it is better to sit down together and have a meeting to discuss it in advance.
Of course, even after the negotiation, each battery manufacturer will definitely increase some prices secretly.
The quota is limited, and there are many manufacturers participating in the competition. If you follow the unified quotation honestly, if someone else raises the quotation, the quota may not be yours.
As for how much you lift secretly, it all depends on your own tolerance and bottom line.
Although Xu Chuan doesn't understand business behavior very well, he can still see such simple things.
After pondering for a while, he knocked on the table to draw the attention of the representatives who were arguing and discussing in the conference room.
Hearing the movement, everyone looked over curiously, somewhat confused as to what the ultimate scholar wanted to do.
In fact, it was not that no manufacturer directly contacted Xu Chuan himself at the beginning, hoping to obtain patent authorization directly from him.
After all, he has the final say.
But at first, this person said that they should go to the research institute to handle it, and he didn't care about it. But later on, he couldn't find anyone at all.
There was no other way, so these manufacturer representatives focused their attention and breakthroughs here.
So even though this person came to attend the meeting today, he didn't say much during the whole process. The manufacturer representatives just thought he was curious and came to listen.
After drawing the attention of these people, Xu Chuan said: "I have read your latest quotation, but to be honest, I am not very satisfied."
"I'm too lazy to talk about how vast the lithium-ion battery market is, what the global annual output value of lithium battery anode materials is, etc. I believe everyone here knows these things better than me."
"And, to be honest, I don't really like the monopoly series of behaviors, including your joining forces to lower prices. Although this may be a normal business behavior in your eyes, I don't like it. I prefer to be more sincere.
"
"It has been almost twenty days since the original press conference. I believe you have all tested the artificial SEI film and electrolyte provided to you by the Chuanhai Materials Research Institute."
"These two are common spare parts based on existing lithium batteries. You do not need to independently manufacture a separate supporting lithium battery production line or something."
"So now here I give you two choices."
"The first one is the sharing of patent fees. That is, after you pay a relatively low patent fee, how much money will you give me for every artificial SEI film used to produce a lithium battery? This is very common in patent licensing in the current market.
A sort of."
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! "Second, buy it out directly. The electrolyte supporting the artificial SEI film has a minimum of 120 million meters of gold for three-year patent authorization. Based on this, the price is higher.
have to."
"That's it. I'll give you three days to go back and discuss it. I'll wait for you here three days later and decide on the final authorization directly."
Although he put forward two conditions, for these manufacturers, there is actually only one of the two conditions, which is a buyout or a share of something. If they can buy out, these manufacturers will definitely buy out.
After all, only by buying out can you make more money. I believe these manufacturers will 100% choose to buy out at the same time.
...
As soon as Xu Chuan finished speaking, there was an uproar in the conference room.
"Professor Xu, your price is too high. Lithium batteries are not only made of artificial SEI films. We also need to consider other costs."
"It's impossible. One hundred and twenty million meters of gold is far beyond our planned results. This price is too exaggerated."
"If it is an exclusive international license, we can accept a quote of 200 million or even 300 million, but there are five international patent licenses..."
"..."
Obviously, these people did not expect Xu Chuan's sudden intervention.
But Xu Chuan didn't want to pay attention to these people.
Indeed, producing a lithium battery is not just an artificial SEI film; indeed, the patent authorization he gave is not exclusive.
But technology is exclusive, love is necessary or not.
The bottom line for the professional negotiators he hired before was one hundred million yuan a piece. These manufacturers obviously knew this, but they still joined forces to lower the price by nearly 30%, hoping to obtain the patent license at a lower price.
.
Maybe you think he is just a researcher or scholar and is easy to bully?
In this case, then just increase it from 100 million to 120 million.
Xu Chuan is not worried that these manufacturers will choose to give up. Even if the quotation is 120 million meters of gold, these manufacturers will definitely make a profit, and they will still make a big profit.
With so many manufacturers, if they all gave up, he wouldn't mind selling the artificial SEI film technology directly to them.
It’s not like no one from the Department of Energy approached him, hoping to get a patent authorization, but he also rejected it.
Standing up, Xu Chuan walked outside.
But when he was at the door, he stopped and turned around and said, "By the way, there is one more thing."
"I can tell you clearly here that the bottom line I gave to the Sichuan and Hai Materials Research Institute was 100 million. The reason why it has been raised to 120 million now is because you have made me unhappy."
"My attitude towards my partners has always been very sincere. In this cooperation, if any new products are developed by Chuanhai Materials Research Institute in the future, I will give priority to partners with whom we have had good cooperation before."
"In addition, I am just a scientific researcher and a scholar. Don't treat me like a businessman and use commercial methods. It would be better if everyone is sincere."
After saying that, Xu Chuan left the conference room directly, leaving everyone in the conference room behind.
Although he didn't know much about the strategy of giving a sweet date with a stick and applying both soft and hard tactics, it could still be used temporarily.
If these manufacturers really want to unite and not purchase the patent license for artificial SEI films, he doesn't care. They are not the only battery manufacturers, there are others.