Chapter 476 - 218: Making Full Use of (3)

Chapter 476: Chapter 218: Making Full Use of (3)

The inner liners and other components, on the other hand, can be refurbished and reused dozens of times.

Essentially, the investment in the inner liners and other components is a one-time cost for an asset that can be reused dozens of times.

After refining the waste soybean oil into biodiesel, about 50% of the battery’s cost can be recouped. The sponge structure and potassium chloride deposits can be sold as organic fertilizer, recovering another 10% or so of the cost.

The production cost of the Sponge Battery will only get lower. Aside from the relatively high initial investment, the cost will continually decrease as the inner liners and components are reused.

In this situation, both lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium batteries are doomed.

As for the semi-solid-state batteries that have entered preliminary trials and the all-solid-state batteries still in the experimental phase, while their theoretical energy density is higher than the Sponge Battery, their production costs are far too high.

Indeed, many chemical and solid-state batteries require various rare elements, which fundamentally drives up their cost. No matter how advanced the manufacturing process, there is no way to push the cost down significantly.

Take lithium iron phosphate batteries, for example. Unless they completely eliminate elements like lithium and cobalt, it’s impossible for the production cost to fall below 30,000 yuan per ton.

Most of the solid-state batteries currently being hyped to the moon also require rare elements.

Moreover, no matter how much the traditional battery industry improves its production model, it can’t compete with the Sponge Battery.

The Sponge Battery’s core component, the energy-storing sponge, is synthesized via a process of biological self-generation. Furthermore, this synthesis process actually releases electrical energy.

It’s practically generating power while it’s being produced.

The raw materials are also very inexpensive, and they are materials for which the country is completely self-sufficient.

In this situation, even if other battery companies were to roll out solid-state batteries right now, they would have no way of competing with the Sponge Battery.

At the very least, photovoltaic and wind power companies won’t adopt solid-state batteries; they’ll purchase Sponge Batteries instead.

The large-scale adoption of Sponge Batteries by photovoltaic and wind power companies would be another point of leverage for Jiang Miao to control battery-swapping automotive companies like Future Car.

The reason power grids currently implement time-of-use pricing is because of uncontrollable factors in power generation and fluctuations in electricity consumption.

Once the major photovoltaic and wind power companies finish deploying their energy storage systems, the power grid will certainly eliminate time-of-use pricing and adopt a single market rate.

At that point, it will be uncertain whether battery-swapping companies can still get off-peak prices for their large-scale industrial electricity consumption. While high-volume users will surely receive discounts, the rates will definitely not be as cheap as they are now.

Whether a business model can succeed...

...depends on many factors.

The emergence of the Sponge Battery will change the entire landscape of the new energy industry and the power grid’s pricing model, introducing a massive variable into the equation.

As the originating company and one of the masterminds, Hailufeng Company was naturally in a secure, unassailable position. Other companies, however, would have to rely on luck, determination, and strategy.

One wrong move could lead them to a point of no return.

During the New Year holiday, Jiang Miao was also contemplating the business model for the Sponge Battery.

A traditional sales model clearly didn’t align with Jiang Miao’s vision. The Sponge Battery needed to maintain a high recovery rate to effectively lower production costs.

Therefore, these factors had to be considered when formulating the business model.

The business model he envisioned was a leasing model: renting out batteries to companies that needed them, with Hailufeng Company handling unified collection and recycling at the end of the term.

Since it was a leasing model, the rental fee for the batteries couldn’t be too high.

Jiang Miao had already tasked the Pricing Office of the Market Research Department with studying how to set the rental fees.

The current rental price was set at 10,000 yuan per cubic meter of inner liner, plus a 10,000 yuan deposit. Upon recovery at the end of the lease term, Hailufeng Company would refund the 10,000 yuan deposit.

After deducting costs and factoring in the value of the recovered equipment, waste soybean oil, and discarded sponge structures, the profit was about 13,000 yuan per cubic meter.

This model was suitable for photovoltaic and wind power companies. They had high usage frequency, and the power of a single battery could be limited to under 60 kilowatts, thus extending its cycle life. The total lifetime discharge could reach 300,000 kWh, making the average rental cost per kWh just 0.033 yuan.

This cost was definitely profitable for photovoltaic and wind power producers.

However, for companies dealing with electric cars, electric boats, and the like, the leasing model was less suitable; they would have to use a purchase model instead.

The reason it was unsuitable was mainly because the Sponge Battery is designed for battery swapping. With the promotion of the swapping model, a situation would arise where various automotive companies would all be using Sponge Batteries. When it came time to collect the used batteries, who would the deposit be refunded to? This would undoubtedly cause disputes among the companies.

Therefore, Sponge Batteries used in vehicles could only be sold directly to the companies, with Hailufeng Company handling the unified battery collection later on.

From the third to the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, a span of five days, the bus company had already completed battery replacements for 86 of its K7 buses.

The vending machines and limiters on these buses were also adjusted and modified to be safer and more convenient.

Lei Bo wasn’t just staying in Gongping Town; he was busy preparing for a proper battery factory.

After all, the small workshop at the Gongping Town base only produced 50 cubic meters of battery core material per day. This output wasn’t even enough for Hailufeng Company’s own needs.

Moreover, as it was a new product, various patents had to be filed and all sorts of administrative procedures needed to be completed.

If the batteries were purely for internal use, it wouldn’t be so complicated. But to bring them to market, all this preliminary work was essential, keeping Lei Bo and his team incredibly busy.

Since the Sponge Battery had not yet been officially launched for sale, the major battery companies had not yet sensed the approaching crisis.

Meanwhile, as the first trading day after the Spring Festival arrived, the Xiangjiang River financial market finally sprang to life.