Original link: https://www.latepost.com/news/dj_detail?id=1186
The new battery of the Ningde era is to fight for the right to speak to the car factory
In the past few years, there has been no breakthrough application of power battery materials. Car companies and battery companies have conditionally reached a consensus on battery iteration ideas – if they can’t make batteries that carry more power, they will put more batteries in the car. The difference is what kind of battery to put in.
Tesla insists on using round batteries, and the long-term cooperation between LG New Energy and Panasonic follows up and iterates new technologies (the latest model is called 4680), and new samples of domestic Yiwei lithium energy and BAK batteries can also be mass-produced.
However, CATL, which has the largest market share of power batteries and is also one of Tesla’s suppliers, confirmed this week that it will release a “Kirin battery” compatible with ternary lithium and lithium iron phosphate materials within this month – square – in Under the same chemical system and the same battery pack size, the power of the Kirin battery pack is 13% higher than Tesla’s latest cylindrical battery.
In the CATL era, Tesla has two different technical paths. The Kirin battery is a square battery, and the 4680 battery is a cylindrical battery, but it may be packaged in a square shape in the end. Both have their own strengths and can be replaced by each other. There will be gaps in the arrangement of cylindrical batteries, but the heat dissipation conditions are better. There is also a view that the production efficiency of cylindrical batteries is higher than that of square and pouch batteries due to product standardization. When the square battery is arranged, the space utilization rate is higher and the energy density is higher.
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As of the first quarter of this year, square batteries accounted for 63.6% of global power battery shipments, cylindrical batteries only accounted for 15.6%, and the rest were soft pack batteries. The Ningde era is a square battery faucet. BYD’s blade battery and the short-blade battery developed by Honeycomb Energy hatched by Great Wall Motors are also square batteries.
At the same time, a number of power battery companies are stepping up the research and development of 4680 cylindrical batteries. LG New Energy and Panasonic both said their 4680 battery production lines will be put into operation next year.
The battle over the power battery route is essentially a battle for the right to speak to the electric vehicle industry chain between car companies and battery cell manufacturers. CATL is in the middle reaches of the industrial chain, with large volume and weak flexibility. For a long time before, Tesla’s price cuts were proportional to the decline in profits in the CATL era. Now that the price of battery raw materials is soaring and the supply is limited, the right to speak has suddenly come to the side of the Ningde era.
The pattern changes at any time. Car companies need personalized batteries to enhance their product competitiveness. The battery cell factory wants to make standardized batteries to further reduce costs.
CATL has caught up and seized the opportunity of the rise of the smart electric vehicle industry. However, the car brand that consumers see first when buying a car, car companies can use a series of ways to use powerful suppliers for their own use. In the end, it is not necessarily the one with the strongest technology, but the one that can directly occupy the minds of consumers.
In this process, upstream parts suppliers like CATL often face brutal competition. Either it sticks its own label directly onto all PC casings, like Intel does. Either do everything possible to establish their position in the industry chain. The Kirin battery is one such attempt. (Li Zinan)
Byte education, game business layoffs
- According to “LatePost” , ByteDance’s education and game businesses have started a new round of layoffs, and education has been cut by 80%, from more than 20,000 people before the double cut last year to more than 1,000 people; games began to cut projects and teams. Including the overall abolition of the Shanghai 101 studio with more than 370 employees.
- Smart education was originally the focus of transformation after the double reduction, but this time it has become the hardest hit area for layoffs. The commercialization of its AI teaching product “Hippo Love Learning” has been suspended because it is difficult to promote it in public schools, and it is unable to accumulate enough data to improve the product, and the trial will not see the effect. The original sales and operations team of about 600 people laid off most of the employees, but still retains some products and R&D personnel.
- Gaming’s layoffs are relatively small. According to reports, Byte Games has a traffic advantage. Its previous strategy was to roll out in an all-round way. Some teams made games with low cost and easy to generate cash flow, and supported the other team to make large-scale games with high investment. However, after the game version number is shrunk , the former is difficult to achieve; while the latter has a high threshold, technology and experience need to be accumulated for a long time, and it is difficult to make profits in the short term. It is said that since last year, Byte Games began to assess revenue, and turnover and gross profit are important indicators.
- After rounds of business adjustments, Byte gradually returned to its best algorithm business. According to the statistics of “LatePost”, from 2018 to 2020, ByteDance developed and acquired a large number of projects. There are about 140 applications on the Apple App Store alone. In the past three years, more than 100 yuan has been invested in the education business. billion. In 2018, Toutiao changed its name to “ByteDance”; in May this year, ByteDance changed its name to “Douyin”. (Chen Jing Gao Honghao)
When the “Fruit Chain” move is in progress?
Apple is rumored to be considering expanding production capacity outside of China, with a focus on Vietnam. And this week, at least two Apple suppliers took action, announcing increased investment in Vietnam.
On June 15, South Korea’s LG Display said it would raise US$1 billion to add OLED module production lines and build infrastructure in Vietnam. LG is one of the iPhone panel suppliers. Foxconn’s parent company, Hon Hai Group, said that after two years of construction, its factory in Vietnam has become second only to China, with more than 60,000 employees recruited locally, and Hon Hai will expand significantly in the next two years.
iPhone assembler Pegatron also emphasized this week that it is considering expansion outside China, possibly to Vietnam or India, Indonesia and other places, mainly to address labor shortages and the gap in capacity utilization between peak and low seasons.
At present, at least 31 Apple industry chain companies have set up factories in Vietnam, with a total of about 160,000 employees, producing parts and components needed for Apple devices, and assembling peripheral devices such as Apple watches, Bluetooth headsets, and stereos. There are no iPhone, iPad and computer production lines. Apple still makes about 90% of its devices in China.
In May, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Zheng went to the United States to attend the ASEAN meeting and visited Apple CEO Tim Cook at Apple headquarters. He hoped that Apple would expand investment in Vietnam and help introduce more partners to build factories. Cook responded that he would be active. Consider suggestions.
Vietnam, with a population of nearly 100 million and a minimum wage equal to 70% of China, is considered to be the preferred destination to undertake some of China’s relocated manufacturing capacity. Recently, Vietnam’s domestic aviation market has seen a strong recovery, and the number of international passengers has also increased by 905% year-on-year.
However, for now, Vietnam’s advantages over China are mainly in agricultural products, and the gap between China and Vietnam’s export advantages in some manufacturing industries (clothing, aerospace vehicles and parts) has narrowed. (He Qianming)
The Cyberspace Administration of the People’s Republic of China solicits opinions on the “Administrative Provisions on Internet Thread Commenting Services”
On June 17, the official website of the Cyberspace Administration of China publicly solicited opinions on the “Administrative Provisions on Internet Thread Commenting Services (Revised Draft for Comments)” . Feedback deadline is July 1, 2022.
- “Thread Commenting Service” refers to websites, applications, or social platforms with “public opinion attributes or social mobilization capabilities” that publish pictures, texts, emoticons, symbols, audio and video, etc. by means of posting, replying, leaving a message, barrage, etc.
According to the draft, what the platform will do includes, but is not limited to:
- According to the principle of “real name in the background, voluntary in the front desk”, the platform only opens the function of commenting and posting to registered users who have authenticated their real identity information.
- If a “barrage” is posted, the platform should provide the corresponding static version of the information content on the same platform and page at the same time.
- The platform should review the content of the comment information on the thread before publishing it, discover and deal with illegal and bad information in a timely manner, and report it to the Internet Information Department.
- Equipped with a review and editing team suitable for the scale of services to improve the professional quality of review and editors.
- The platform shall not use software, hire commercial organizations and personnel to disseminate information, maliciously interfere with the normal order of post comments, and mislead public opinion.
Please visit the official website of the Cyberspace Administration of China for the full version of the draft. (Gong Fangyi)
Q&A with Musk and Twitter staff
- On Thursday, Musk and nearly 8,000 Twitter employees connected for more than 60 minutes to answer employee questions; during this period, he talked about products, working from home, layoffs, and mentioned that he had not seen evidence of alien creatures for the time being. However, because the problems were collected in advance, thorny issues such as acquisition storms did not arise.
- When asked why he chose Twitter, Musk said he loves Twitter, he learned a lot from it, and it’s a great way to convey information. “Some people express themselves with their hair, I use Twitter”.
- What should Twitter become? Musk mentioned WeChat, a super app that integrates various functions such as payment and subscription, and at the same time is very interesting, like TikTok. Musk said that in the clutter of half-baked ideas lies the secret to Twitter’s 1 billion daily active users (770 million more than it is now).
- Musk insists that he wants to push the general direction of the product, no matter what his title is, he must listen to what Twitter is going to do and how to design and improve the product. But I don’t care about the details, such as how to implement it.
- Musk also mentioned that users should be allowed to say what they want to say on Twitter, but not necessarily promote them. He said the most inclusive thing was making Twitter accessible to everyone, but he believed in strict meritocracy.
- Employees are also concerned about working from home and layoffs. Musk said that software development is different from car building, and that people who are good enough can work remotely, but still hope to return to offline in the future. As for layoffs, he gave an ominously vague response that now costs outweigh revenue, which is not great.
- According to media reports, some employees said that while Musk sounded enthusiastic about Twitter, the overall incoherence and rambling reinforced the negative impression. Others said Musk wasn’t hostile and seemed to have a vision for the product, though sometimes it wasn’t clear. (Lin Guangying)
Sequoia says investing in Southeast Asia now and harvesting in ten years
- Sequoia Southeast Asia managing director Abheek Anand said on Tuesday that the long-term outlook for startups in Southeast Asia is “pretty optimistic.” He mentioned that as first-generation tech companies like GoTo and Grab matured, their employees also started entrepreneurship. They are experienced and their vision is not limited to local, but to serve regional or global markets.
- However, Anand also admitted that it is difficult for startups to get “quick money” at a time when the market is cooling down, but as long as they focus more on fundamentals, Sequoia will work with enterprises to build a “lasting business model.” In the long run, investments made now will pay off in 10 years.
- Sequoia Capital has been investing in Southeast Asia since 2014, and most of it has invested in early-stage startups since 2020. This week they announced the first dedicated $850 million fund for the Southeast Asia region, in addition to a new $2 billion fund for India. This is not a small amount. Currently Sequoia India/Southeast Asia has approximately US$9 billion in assets under management.
- It may be that the cooling of the market brings new opportunities. In May of this year, the Silicon Valley startup incubator YC reminded entrepreneurs that the cold winter is coming, “If there are still investors giving money now, even if the conditions are the same as the previous round, it is best to accept it.” General Atlantic also said that businesses in Southeast Asia and India have become cheaper, and plans to invest an additional $2 billion over the next two years, almost half its current size.
- Southeast Asia itself is also becoming increasingly attractive. Loose international environment , positive government guidance, coupled with slowing growth in other regions. According to research firm Preqin, as of May, venture capital funds focusing on Southeast Asia and India had raised $3.1 billion, close to the level of last year, while China-focused VC funds raised about $2.1 billion during the same period, less than 1/10 of last year. (Lin Guangying)
OTHER NEWS
Property sales in second-tier cities picked up this week.
According to Wind data, in the first four days of this week (6.13-6.16), the transaction volume of commercial housing in 30 large and medium-sized cities across the country was 2.4668 million square meters, about 60% more than the same period in the previous week. Divided by first-, second-, and third-tier cities, the proportion of the transaction area in the 30 cities was 23.64% (YoY -1.1 pct), 58.97% (YoY +7.76 pct) and 17.37% (YoY -6.65 pct).
Alibaba’s U.S. stocks rose sharply in premarket trading.
Alibaba’s shares rose about 10% in pre-market trading. It may be related to the new progress made by Ant Group in applying for the establishment of a financial holding company.
JD.com admitted to inspecting the food delivery business.
“LatePost” first reported on June 8 that JD.com is testing the food delivery business. On June 17, JD.com Retail CEO Xin Lijun told the media that JD.com had “considered and explored” the food delivery business. “As for when we start doing this, it will depend on our capabilities and when we can build a talent team.” Xin Lijun did not launch a takeaway plan, but mentioned the ability of Dada, a subsidiary of JD.com, to deliver in the same city. In the first quarter of this year, Dada’s revenue was 2.025 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.08%. Net loss was 604 million yuan.
The Civil Aviation Administration stated that it plans to gradually and steadily increase scheduled international passenger flights.
According to the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the civil aviation industry completed 361,000 hours of transport air flights in May, down 62.7% year-on-year. Passenger traffic and cargo and mail traffic increased by 53.2% and 17% month-on-month, respectively, down 76% and 31% year-on-year. However, the Civil Aviation Administration said that it is in talks with some countries to gradually and steadily increase scheduled international passenger flights.
Jingdong plans to dismantle the Jingxi business group within a month and start a new round of personnel optimization.
According to 36 Krypton, JD.com plans to dismantle the Jingxi business group within this month, optimize personnel and business, and then integrate it into other business groups; among them, Jingxi Pinpin, Jingxi APP, and Jingxitong will be merged into Jingxi Retail. According to reports, JD.com’s current optimization focus is on businesses that are difficult to make profits in the short term. For example, Jingxi Pinpin previously covered more than 20 provinces at most, but now it has shrunk to two cities, Beijing and Zhengzhou; Beijing is said to have achieved regional profitability, and Zhengzhou is testing 2B distribution model.
From April to May, Shanghai’s total social consumption decreased by 121.2 billion yuan year-on-year.
According to the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Statistics, the total retail sales of consumer goods in Shanghai in May was 94.828 billion yuan, down 37.5% year-on-year; of which, the accommodation and catering industry was 5.057 billion yuan, down 64% year-on-year. From April to May, the total retail sales of social consumption was 166.525 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 121.2 billion yuan, a decrease of about 42%; of which the accommodation and catering industry was 8.73 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 18.53 billion yuan, a decrease of about 68%.
Shanghai encourages car owners to upgrade pure electric vehicles, and each eligible person will receive a subsidy of 10,000 yuan.
Shanghai today announced the implementation rules for promoting automobile consumption subsidies. From June to the end of the year, individuals who scrap or transfer non-commercial passenger cars registered in Shanghai and purchase new pure electric passenger cars will receive a one-time subsidy of 10,000 yuan. The subsidy is only applicable to consumption upgrades, and new car buyers who originally did not have a car cannot enjoy it. At the end of last month, Shanghai issued the “Shanghai Action Plan for Accelerating Economic Recovery and Revitalization”, which mentioned vigorously promoting automobile consumption.
The price of the Tesla Model Y high-end version has increased by 19,000 yuan.
Tesla has raised prices for the first time in nearly 3 months. The price of the Model Y long-range version has risen from 375,900 yuan to 394,900 yuan. The last price increase for this model was in mid-March, which increased by 18,000 yuan. According to the experience in March this year, Tesla’s price increase pace was relatively scattered. At that time, there were 3 price increases in 7 days , and the best-selling Model 3 and Model Y models all increased.
TSMC officially announced the 2nm chip process technology, the first in the world.
According to TSMC, compared with the previous generation of 3nm chips, 2nm is 10-15% faster at the same power consumption; the power consumption is reduced by 25-30% at the same speed. TSMC expects to start mass production of 3nm chips in the second half of this year and mass production of 2nm chips in 2025. This week, it was reported that Japan and the United States are also planning to mass-produce 2nm chips in 2025; Japan announced today that it will provide about $3.55 billion in subsidies for chip manufacturers such as TSMC to build factories in Japan.
TikTok says the ad market isn’t slowing down.
TikTok recently responded that it was imitated by Facebook, saying that the other party is a social platform and TikTok is an entertainment platform. The difference between the two is huge and they will not imitate the other party. As for the decline in ad revenue cited by peers due to inflation and recession risks, TikTok said it did not see a slowdown. This week, Facebook mentioned that it will add more algorithmically recommended content to its news feed in response to being taken away by TikTok; it had previously expected that revenue in the second quarter of this year may decline year-on-year for the first time.
With low pay and long hours, British creators quit selling on TikTok.
According to media reports, TikTok influencers in the UK are giving up live-streaming sales because of low pay and spending time dealing with out-of-stock, logistics, and product quality issues. According to reports, they had previously received thousands of pounds and sales commissions for live broadcasts twice a week for 2-6 hours each time, but their income has been cut since April; Company executives see the TikTok Shop as the future of shopping, but employees complain that they don’t understand the local market and don’t want to listen, instead trying to copy the Douyin model.
- “LatePost” is operating TikTok’s overseas e-commerce topic selection. If you are willing to provide relevant clues, please contact reporter Shi Xian (WeChat/Tel 18052090716).
VW executives say there is a shortage of U.S. manufacturing workers and challenges to electric vehicle battery production.
Volkswagen US CEO Keogh recently mentioned that the United States has many difficulties in increasing battery production and promoting the transformation of electric vehicles, including a shortage of skilled workers, mining, and broader education and infrastructure issues. Keogh said that the core component of electric vehicles is the battery. It is estimated that the US battery industry will need hundreds of thousands of new workers by 2030, and will produce 8.5 million batteries per year; but the current manufacturing jobs in the United States have dropped to 12.8 million, more than 20 years ago. Nearly a third less, and manufacturing is harder work than services.
Musk, Tesla and SpaceX have been sued by investors for allegedly using Dogecoin for pyramid schemes.
A Dogecoin investor sued Musk and his companies Tesla and SpaceX on Thursday, alleging that they have jointly touted Dogecoin, causing its price to soar and then plummet to gain profit and attention. Investors suffer losses. Plaintiffs seek $258 billion in damages, $86 billion of which is Dogecoin’s fall in market value since May last year — when Musk called “Dogecoin a scam”, plus double the damages; is said to be seeking collective lawsuit, hoping to represent all “victims”.
The title picture comes from the movie “The King of Speed”
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