SAIC Motor, CATL sign MoU on power battery recycling

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- SAIC Motor and Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL), China's leading power battery maker, signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MoU) on March 22 to develop a deeper cooperation on new energy vehicle (NEV) battery recycling. Both parties will make full use of their advantages in R&D, manufacturing and services of new energy products to jointly boost the development of power battery recycling industry in China. 

This was not the first cooperation of SAIC Motor and CATL. The prospectus CATL exposed before says that CATL and SAIC Capital Investment Limited jointly built CATL-SAIC Motor Power Battery Co.,Ltd and SAIC Motor-CATL Power Battery System Co.,Ltd in June 2017, with registered capitals of RMB 2 billion and RMB 300 million respectively. Both parties announced at that moment to co-produce a production base of highly intelligent and environmentally friendly battery products and battery system.

According to public materials, CATL, established in 2011, achieved power battery system sales of 11.84 GWh in 2017, ranking first among global power battery producers. SAIC Motor is China's biggest automaker listed in A-shares market. Last year, SAIC Motors accomplished annual sales exceeding 6.93 million vehicles with a year-on-year sales growth of 6.8% which was far ahead of the average sales growth (3.3%) of overall China's auto market. Meanwhile, SAIC Motor's NEV annual sales skyrocketed 140% year on year which much outnumbered the average sales increase (50%) of overall market. 

At the two sessions this year (the 13th NPC and the 13th CPPCC), Chen Hong, SAIC Motor's chairman, delivered a proposal about normalizing the NEV recycling and power battery echelon utilization. Specifically, he suggested establishing the NEV recycling qualification and the technology admittance threshold of power battery echelon utilization enterprises. Meanwhile, the government should unify the construction planning of the parks of retrieving and dismantling NEVs and recycling power batteries. In addition, he advised the authorities to offer subsidiaries to power battery echelon utilization R&D projects.