European Union Approves Ban On Petrol Cars, Industrial Robots Dig For New Energy To Create Trillion Market

The European Union's 27 environment ministers agreed on Wednesday June 29 to ban the sale of petrol cars in the EU by 2035.

It is believed that because this plan has been previously supported by the European Parliament, after the EU member states reached a consensus, it is expected to be determined in legal form, meaning that the development of new energy vehicles in the world was once again accelerated.

Automobile has always been the largest field of industrial robot application, accounting for as high as 70%. Over the years, with the progress of technology, the application field of industrial robot has been expanding, and the proportion in the automobile industry has decreased year by year, so far, it has dropped to about 37%, but still firmly occupies the first position.

Now market changing from traditional fuel vehicles to electric cars, which involves more than just a the change of the power system, but a whole manufacturing chain need to change, in the process of the transformation, whether to upgrade the old mode of production, or meet the demand of new manufacturing, will have great demand on industrial robots.

Historic opportunity brought by new energy vehicles

Now China has become the world's largest new energy vehicle market, while promoting the replacement of new energy vehicles is also the fastest in the world, the growth of new energy vehicles has become the main driving force to promote the growth of the auto industry.

According to the relevant data released by the Passenger Association, in 2021, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China will exceed 3.5 million, with a year-on-year growth of 165%. This year, under the background of epidemic spread and supply chain obstruction, from January to May, the cumulative sales of new energy vehicles in China still reached 2.003 million units, with a year-on-year growth of 111.2%.

At the same time not so long ago at the 2022 China automobile supply chain meeting, assistant secretary general of the China association of automobile manufacturers and technology minister Wang Yao said that at present domestic automobile has 208 cars, one thousand but one thousand new energy vehicles has only 5.4 cars, new energy, one thousand is still at low level of ownership, the development of new energy vehicles has a great space.

In the case of huge market demand, whoever can go one step faster can seize more market share. Therefore, in order to improve production quality and efficiency, major automobile brands are trying to improve the automation rate of factories, and the demand for industrial robots is growing.

In a "black light in saic gm factory", all kinds of industrial robots, stamping, welding, painting process, such as them together in an orderly way, and seamless docking, and shows the amazing skill, and in the assembly workshop, the industrial robot can also find different models corresponding parts, to the production line, realize the mixed model production, On average, one vehicle rolls off the production line every 76 seconds.

Earlier this year, audi, formally began production base in changchun, it is understood that all process in the new factory will be fulfilled through new information technology architecture of intelligent interconnection, digital tools from the early stages of construction will be put into use, including about 860 robots and other automation equipment, as the audi in one of the world's most advanced production base, The new Changchun plant is not only responsible for electric vehicle manufacturing, but also for setting a new standard in digital technology and sustainability, setting a benchmark for future production bases.

Some institutions have analyzed that industrial robots can be applied to automobile manufacturing. For the optimistic prospects of downstream new energy vehicles, the next 1-2 years will still be the peak period of new energy vehicle production line construction, and the automobile manufacturing industry will usher in sustained growth.

Lithium electric wisdom made trillion market

The outbreak of the new energy vehicle market has driven the development of upstream components, among which the demand for lithium batteries is particularly prominent. And if the new energy vehicle manufacturing can also be transformed from the traditional automobile production line, most lithium battery manufacturing factories need to be built, so the demand for industrial robots is greater. Now the lack of lithium batteries has become an obstacle to the development of new energy vehicles.

According to The White Paper on The Development of China's Lithium Battery Industry (2022), the global shipments of automotive power batteries in 2021 will be 371.0GWh, up 134.7% year on year; Energy storage battery shipments were 66.3GWh, up 132.6% year on year, among which China's lithium battery shipments accounted for 59.4% of the global market. Agencies predict that the global power battery gap will expand to 40% by 2025.

"Producing enough batteries for electric vehicles will be a more serious challenge than the plan to stop selling petrol cars by 2035," said Arnaud Antlitz, VW's chief financial officer. "Improving the battery supply chain and increasing battery production will be key."

Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, also expects the battery shortage to affect electric vehicles and the automotive industry as a whole in 2024-2025.

Therefore, in recent years, while the manufacturing industry has contracted, the newly registered power battery expansion project is in full swing. According to incomplete statistics, only in the first half of this year, China's power battery investment and production projects reached 26, the total investment amount of 252.7 billion yuan, almost a certain scale of battery enterprises have planned new production projects, more than 10 billion projects are also frequent.

Driven by the continuous expansion of lithium battery industry, the sales volume of industrial robots in the field of lithium battery is rising. Statistics show that in 2021, the sales volume of industrial robots in the lithium battery industry will reach 20,000 units, with a year-on-year increase of nearly 100%, mainly six-axis and SCARA robots.

The basic process of lithium battery manufacturing process can be divided into three sections, namely the front section of batching, coating, rolling, cutting; Winding, laminating, assembling, welding, liquid injection and sealing of the middle part; After the formation, capacity, PACK, warehousing and logistics.

At present, in the manufacturing process of lithium battery, industrial robots are mainly used in the middle and back sections, such as assembly, testing, assembly, PACK, etc., but it does not mean that the front section cannot be used. At present, some enterprises are trying to use SCARA robots in the rapid and accurate lamination process. Parallel robots with speed advantage can also replace part of it and so on.

In addition, at present the structure of the industry for lithium battery is not a fixed standard, so different kinds of structure forms emerge in endlessly, such as razor blades, magazine, and large cylindrical battery, etc., means that the lithium battery manufacturing plant in guarantee capacity at the same time, also has the certain differentiation capacity, and this is what the advantages of industrial robots, Using robots to replace some of the older automation equipment will be a big trend in the future.

Senior executives of robot manufacturers said, "At present, orders in the lithium battery industry tend to be multi-batch and small-batch. Industrial robots have natural advantages to adapt to complex changes in various processes and products. Under the pressure of rising prices of raw materials, battery factories are also paying more attention to efficiency and cost control. Replacing people with machines brings down costs, while improving accuracy and quality in the production process is also an important part."

At present, the new energy vehicles, lithium battery manufacturers in rapid expansion can seize the market, higher requirements for the construction of the production line speed, for the industrial robot industry brought a historic opportunity for development, at the same time due to problems such as supply, foreign brand it is difficult to meet the requirements of rapid construction, it is undoubtedly a robot on domestic enterprises in the development of the golden age, go forward, Right on time.