Intl power battery event pursues low-carbon future

Institutions and enterprises jointly sign the “2022 World EV & ES Battery Conference (Yibin) Declaration” in Yibin, Sichuan province, promising to help build a cleaner and more beautiful world. [Photo provided to China Daily]

An international power battery industry event was held in the city of Yibin in Southwest China's Sichuan province from July 21 to 23 to seek better ways to expand the power battery industry worldwide and help realize carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals.

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.

With the tagline "intelligence-driven green power, shared low-carbon future", the event drew some 800 participants to Yibin, including government officials, top scientists, and industrial executives from power battery makers such as Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) and BTR (Jiangsu) New Material Technology Ltd, and electric vehicle makers such as BYD and Nio.

The event not only showcased the latest achievements in cutting-edge power battery technology and green and low-carbon travel, but also featured discussions on important issues in the power battery industry, such as technological innovation, supply chain development, and the recycling of power batteries.

Industry representatives from the China Battery Industry Association, Panasonic Holdings, CATL, BYD and other institutions and enterprises jointly signed the "2022 World EV & ES Battery Conference (Yibin) Declaration", promising to increase investment in research and development, accelerate green development, accelerate industry collaboration, strengthen international exchange, and help build a cleaner and more beautiful world and a community with a shared future for mankind.

An industry development report and an industry development index were also released at the conference, serving as a useful reference for the development of the power battery industry.

Agreements for a total of 48 power battery and new energy vehicle auxiliary projects were signed at the conference, with 96.2 billion yuan ($14.2 billion) in investment. These projects are expected to further boost industry development in Yibin, the host city of the conference.

As a rising "city of power batteries", Yibin has developed a complete power battery industrial chain comprised of the initial production of raw materials, the manufacture of components for power batteries, the assembly of new energy vehicles and battery recycling.

CATL, a world-leading EV battery provider, has invested 64 billion yuan in Yibin, building the world's largest single-power battery production base with an annual output of 235 gigawatt-hours.

The latest figures showed that so far, Yibin has signed agreements for more than 70 power battery and auxiliary projects with investors, with an investment of over 180 billion yuan. When all projects are put into operation, the annual income of the sector in Yibin will exceed 500 billion yuan.

Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that China's power battery industry will also move to the west, especially to Sichuan, and Yibin "will be a global production base of power batteries".