In 2019, China's auto industry fell into a cold winter, and the overall auto market sales continued to decline. The new energy vehicle industry, which has been in the growth stage, is also facing certain pressure. Since the second half of 2019, the production and sales of new energy vehicles have experienced a significant year-on-year decline. However, in the face of the huge wave of global energy conservation and emission reduction, promoting the popularization of new energy vehicles is still the general trend of the development of the global automobile industry. In China, new energy vehicles are listed as "national strategic emerging industries", and the country has also issued a number of related policies to support the development of new energy vehicles.
At present, there is still a huge obstacle to the popularization of new energy vehicles, that is, consumers' "anxiety" about the cruising range. In addition to the battery and the drive system, the lightness of the body and the endurance are also inextricably linked. For example, for a pure electric vehicle, if the weight of the vehicle is reduced by 10kg, the driving range can be increased by 2.5km. Therefore, body weight reduction has become the key for domestic and foreign new energy vehicles to seize the market. Only light weight can reduce the weight of expensive batteries, reduce the cost of the entire vehicle, and achieve the ability to upgrade the cruising range, thus approaching the market demand. Driven by the trend of automobile lightweighting, carbon fiber lightweight materials have become the mainstream choice for current lightweighting.
"The King of New Materials" Carbon Fiber Application Road
The origin of carbon fiber can be traced back to 1860, it was invented by the British when making electric lamp filaments. This is a high-strength, high-modulus new fiber material with carbon content above 95%. It is 30% lighter than aluminum and 50% lighter than steel, but 7 to 9 times stronger than steel. It has corrosion resistance, high modulus, low density, no creep, good electrical and thermal conductivity, and a non-oxidizing environment. The characteristics of ultra-high temperature resistance and good fatigue resistance not only have the inherent characteristics of carbon materials, but also have the soft processability of textile fibers.
With the development of industry and technology, this seemingly soft yet excellent carbon fiber has gradually become the "king of new materials" for competition among major powers. Carbon fiber was first used in high-tech fields such as aviation, aerospace, and military. The F-35 fighter plane, which was once troubled by the overweight problem, finally realized the dream of flying by using up to 35% carbon fiber composite materials to "weight loss" and achieve "light weight"; in the field of drones, carbon fiber materials It has become an irreplaceable "best shell"; there are too many examples of carbon fiber materials used by the navy. The use of carbon fiber composite materials will improve the seawater's resistance to seawater corrosion, electromagnetic interference, and impact resistance. Army equipment also has The trend of shifting from heavy to light; in the field of civil aviation applications, the proportion of carbon fiber composite materials used in representative Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 is as high as 50% and 52% respectively.
In addition to showing its talents in the fields of aviation, aerospace and military industry, carbon fiber is now widely used in sports goods, automobile industry, energy equipment, medical equipment, engineering machinery, transportation, construction and structural reinforcement, etc. Important strategic materials for the national economy. As the use value of carbon fiber has become more prominent, higher performance and more varieties of carbon fiber materials have also emerged, and seemingly soft fibers have become the "king of new materials" for competition among major powers.
China will become the world's largest carbon fiber market
According to the "Energy Saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap" released by the China Automotive Engineering Society, from 2026 to 2030, China will achieve a 35% reduction in vehicle weight compared to 2016, and will focus on the development of magnesium alloy and carbon fiber composite materials technology to achieve Carbon fiber composite material hybrid body and carbon fiber parts are widely used. The R & D, layout and application of multinational auto companies in the field of carbon fiber vehicles have long been far ahead. GM Corvette is the world's first car that uses carbon fiber as a car material. It was manufactured in 1953. In 1992, American General Motors exhibited an ultra-light concept car made of carbon fiber composite materials. The weight of the car body was 191.0 kg, the weight of the entire vehicle was reduced by 68%, and fuel economy was achieved by 40%. BMW Germany is currently the only car manufacturer to master the technology of carbon fiber reinforced composite materials (CFRP) in mass production. The annual production capacity of carbon fiber for vehicles will reach 9,000 tons, which has an absolute advantage in this field.
Compared with foreign giants, the application of Chinese car companies in the field of carbon fiber is still in the stage of initial research and development and small-scale application. Overall, the production of carbon fiber in the world is still mainly concentrated in a few developed countries such as Japan, the United States, and Germany, and Taiwan in China. province. The main reason is that the current high cost of carbon fiber composite materials, the lack of mass manufacturing processes and lack of equipment, and other factors have seriously restricted the large-scale application of Chinese automakers in the automotive field. In 2015, the automotive industry accounted for 12% of carbon fiber's global application, reaching 8700 tons, with an average annual growth rate of more than 20%. By 2020, the automotive industry's demand will exceed 20,000 tons, which will become the fastest growing carbon fiber application field. One of the areas with the greatest demand. Global carbon fiber demand is expected to reach 130,000 tons in 2020, and domestic demand will reach 29,000 tons in 2020. With the launch of the lightweight carbon fiber market for automobiles and civil aviation, China will become the world's largest carbon fiber market. Therefore, in order to realize the road of China's "automotive power", China's capital intervention and participation in the layout of the carbon fiber industry chain are urgent.
China Capital joins the global carbon fiber player camp and lays out the carbon fiber industry chain
In September 2019, Weilai Capital completed the acquisition of Kangde's new European composite research and development center and changed its name to Bavaria Lightweight Technology Co., Ltd. The company was founded in 2017 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, with a total investment of 30 million euros. It has a 3000-square-meter laboratory and carbon fiber composite research and development equipment. It is a technical cooperation unit for BMW, Audi, Nissan and Airbus.
As the world's top automotive technology country, Germany has a leading position in the frontier of automotive technology. It is reported that the company is composed of top researchers from Germany, Austria, Spain, India and China, and can realize process development and custom process according to customer needs to meet the needs of individual products, design research, prototype or small-scale mass production, Complete industrial value chain services from research to complete development of standard models, from basic research to high-end mass production support. Bavaria is the economic center of Germany. BMW, Audi, Siemens and other international corporate giants are in Bavaria. Among them, BMW is in the forefront of carbon fiber for cars. The i3's full carbon fiber body and the 7 series Carbon core concept are used by BMW. A model of innovation in carbon fiber. Bavaria is also a state of innovation. The core of the carbon fiber "valley" that the state wants to create is the lightweight of carbon fiber. The establishment of Bavarian Lightweight Technology Co., Ltd. is an important platform for China and Germany to carry out technical exchanges, industrial cooperation, capital cooperation and market cooperation in the field of automobile lightweighting.
Founded only three years ago, Bavaria Lightweight Technology Co., Ltd. has made great breakthroughs in the field of carbon fiber research. Take its proprietary technology-"Surface RTM technology" as an example: the product can reach the A-level surface after demoulding. The company has successfully developed and mastered the know-how of the technology from design, process simulation, process, manufacturing and testing. It is currently cooperating with BMW, Nissan, Hyundai and other European and Asian OEMs on the development of the technology's parts. In addition, the R & D center successfully developed proprietary technologies and products such as mass-produced fiber-breaking leaf spring technology and sandwich structure wet molding. It can carry out the research and development and trial production of carbon fiber auto parts. It is equipped with automatic equipment, which can be used for high-pressure RTM and wet molding. The Dieffenbacher 1000T press has an annual output of 150,000. Bavarian Lightweight Technology Co., Ltd., with its world-class R & D level, industrial-grade laboratory, R & D trial production equipment and high-tech carbon fiber products, and the level of small-volume mass production that has been achieved, will add strong strength to China's leading global carbon fiber technology. Power, while promoting the lightweight application of carbon fiber body will enter a stage of rapid growth.