Power battery world event in Yibin to deepen intl cooperation

A world event that comprehensively showcases the latest achievements in cutting-edge power battery technology and green and low-carbon travel is set to be held from July 21 to 23 in Yibin city in Southwest China's Sichuan province.

The 2022 World EV & ES Battery Conference, sponsored by the Sichuan Provincial People's Government and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, is said to be the world's first world-class power battery industry event held in China.

The conference aims to deepen international cooperation and exchanges in the global power battery industry and promote the innovative and healthy development of the industry. It will also serve the Belt and Road Initiative and the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Chengdu-Chongqing Economic Circle.

The event will include an opening ceremony, a main forum, an inspection tour, an entrepreneur's night, an investment promotion conference, sub-forums, an exhibition and an innovation and entrepreneurship contest, said Xu Zhiwen, deputy secretary-general of the Sichuan Provincial People's Government, at a press conference held on June 20.

Yibin is one of the major production bases of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL), a world leading EV battery provider. [Photo by Zeng Lang / For China Daily]

More than 800 guests from around the globe will gather in Yibin during the conference. They include foreign guests from leading countries or regions in the power battery industry, heads of international organizations, leaders of relevant ministries and commissions, heads of well-known domestic and foreign industry organizations, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, and executives of leading new energy vehicle companies and power battery companies.

The conference will mainly discuss the policies, regulations and industrial standard systems related to the power battery industry and explore new trends in the development of power battery technology, Xu said.

Experts in power battery-related fields will hold discussions on frontier issues in the industry, such as the "dual-carbon" strategy, forward-looking technologies, supply chain ecological construction, application model innovation, and recycling.

An exhibition will also be held to comprehensively display the latest achievements in cutting-edge battery technology and green and low-carbon travel, including power batteries and materials, new energy vehicles and parts, power battery application products, charging and swapping, and industrial services, he added.

The organizers will invite guests to visit the power battery industry town, power battery industry innovation center, and university town in Yibin.

Under China's dual carbon goals to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, the country's power battery industry has maintained rapid growth. The installed capacity of power batteries in China reached 154.5 gigawatt-hours in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 142.8 percent and accounting for 52.1 percent of the global total, according to Guo Shougang, an official at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Employees work at a power battery production workshop in Yibin, Sichuan province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Zhai Gang, director of the Sichuan Provincial Economics and Information Department, said Sichuan is a key location for the development of China's power battery industry and has now formed a pattern of coordinated development among several cities in the province, with Yibin playing the leading role.

The province has among the most complete industrial ecosystems and the strongest industrial supporting and collaboration capacity in the global power battery industry, he added.

Liao Wenbin, mayor of Yibin, said the city has planned and laid out a power battery industry ecosystem centered on Sanjiang New Area, the first provincial-level new area in Sichuan. It has built a power battery industrial chain from upstream basic raw materials to components, new energy vehicles, and battery recycling.

Yibin is currently home to six major battery cell projects with a total investment of 64 billion yuan ($9.58 billion). The annual output value of these projects is estimated at more than 171 billion yuan when operating at full capacity, Liao said.

The city has also attracted 56 power battery supporting projects with a total investment of 66.8 billion yuan to meet the needs of power battery companies, including Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL), a world leading EV battery provider.

"Yibin will use this event to help promote the development of the power battery industrial chain and build itself into a 'power battery city'," Liao said, adding that Yibin's power battery industry is expected to achieve an annual output of more than 200 GWh of power batteries and generate more than 300 billion yuan in total revenue by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25).

Power batteries produced in CATL's production base in Yibin have been sent to Shanghai from Yibin Port through the Yangtze River waterway since December 2021. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Famous for being the first city that the Yangtze River flows through, Yibin is a transportation hub located at the junction of the Belt and Road Initiative route, the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the China-India-Myanmar-Bangladesh Economic Corridor.

Power battery products made in Yibin can be easily transported to surrounding provinces and cities and down the river to the major automobile cities of Wuhan and Shanghai, or head south to the emerging automobile city of Liuzhou, Guangxi. Through the international freight trains departing from nearby cities Chengdu and Chongqing, the products can also be quickly sent to European and Southeast Asian markets.

Power batteries produced at CATL's production base in Yibin have been sent to Shanghai from Yibin Port through the Yangtze River waterway since December 2021 for the production of new energy electric vehicles in the city.

As an important clean energy base in western China, Yibin has an installed power generation capacity of 9.8 million kilowatts, which has been essential to the development of its power battery industry. More than 80 percent of the energy used in CATL's Yibin factory is from hydropower, which can reduce carbon emissions by 400,000 metric tons per year.