Over the past 25 years, BYD has relied on its industry-sensitive foresight, accumulation of technological heritage, and continuous exploration of innovation capabilities to write a new chapter for its new generation with "blade batteries".
At this moment, BYD is open to the world and enjoys cooperation, and when combined with the official slogan of "New Energy Vehicle Leader", BYD's commitment to the development of new energy vehicles has never stopped.
In the words of BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu, "Blade Battery" is BYD's determination to completely end the safety pain points of new energy vehicles, to get the global power battery technology roadmap back on track, and to put the "spontaneous combustion" label back on track. Energy vehicles have been completely erased from the dictionary.
In traditional power battery packs, cells are first packaged into modules, and finally each battery module is placed in the battery pack to form a cell-module-battery pack installation system. Packaging mode.
However, one of the drawbacks of traditional battery packs is that the space utilization rate is too low. In a traditional battery pack, the space utilization rate can reach 80%, and the addition of battery modules and other structural parts makes The space utilization rate is only 50. At this time, the battery cell space utilization rate in the module is only 40. As a result, the capacity of the battery pack is reduced, and improving battery life becomes a big problem.
BYD's "Blade Batteries" directly make batteries into structural parts. 100 blade batteries are fixed on the frames at both ends of the battery pack and laid out in order. The elongated batteries are shaped like "blades". So it was named "Blade Battery".
The design of the blade battery can save the module structural parts from occupying space. The reduction of parts can also reduce the failure rate, allowing the space utilization rate of the entire battery pack to reach 60%, while ensuring that the battery pack The structural strength also makes the manufacturing cost lower.
Returning to the essence of battery packaging, BYD Blade Battery uses CTP packaging technology (CELL?TO?PACE). By canceling the modules in the battery pack, all the cells are directly connected in series in the battery pack. , and CTP technology is the key node for major car companies to break through the cruising range of pure electric vehicles.
Prior to this, CATL has taken the lead in launching the concept of CTP packaging technology. This year, more blockbuster new pure electric vehicle products will also use CATL’s CTP-packaged batteries.
Ternary lithium batteries have higher energy density, which allows power batteries to achieve higher cruising range. Therefore, under the impact of ternary lithium batteries in recent years, lithium iron phosphate batteries have begun to become " "Past tense" products, even BYD is using ternary lithium batteries in many pure electric passenger models to meet longer-distance travel requirements.
However, compared with lithium iron phosphate batteries, ternary lithium batteries have the fatal problem of low thermal stability. Especially after thermal runaway, it is easy to cause battery short circuit and even spontaneous combustion. This is why these two One of the important reasons why new energy vehicles have brought a serious lack of sense of security to the public in recent years.
This blade battery using iron phosphate cathode material has obvious advantages:
1. High exothermic starting temperature: The iron phosphate material has a high starting point of exothermic reaction temperature. Below 500 degrees Celsius, lithium iron phosphate materials are relatively stable and are not prone to overheating problems.
2. Slow heat release: When the lithium iron phosphate material encounters an extreme environment and causes a short circuit, the temperature of the material itself rises slowly.
3. Low heat production: When the battery is hit, the battery itself releases less heat, and the battery temperature rises slowly.
4. No oxygen release: No oxygen is released during the material decomposition process, reducing the risk of combustion.
A few days ago, BYD released an acupuncture comparison video on "ternary lithium batteries, traditional lithium iron phosphate batteries and blade batteries". Under the same test conditions:
The temperature of the ternary lithium battery was directly out of control at the moment of acupuncture, and the battery surface temperature quickly climbed to more than 500 degrees Celsius. The battery thermal runaway caused violent combustion.
Ordinary lithium iron phosphate batteries produce smoke after being punctured by acupuncture, and the battery surface temperature reaches 200-400 degrees Celsius, but there is no open flame.
BYD's latest "blade battery" not only produced no open flames after acupuncture, but also no smoke appeared. The surface temperature of the battery was only 30-60 degrees Celsius.
Through this experiment, BYD claims that the "blade battery" completely gets rid of the safety risks caused by thermal runaway of traditional power batteries, and has innate and incomparable safety advantages; and overcharge tests to ensure battery safety to the greatest extent.
"Acupuncture" is fatal to the battery. Because the battery is punctured by sharp objects, impurities come into contact with the battery core and cause an internal short circuit in the battery. At this time, the battery undergoes thermal runaway and spontaneous combustion. The stakes are high.
Therefore, acupuncture testing is an extremely stringent test condition for power batteries. In particular, the thermal stability of ternary lithium batteries is lower than that of lithium iron phosphate batteries and is more likely to cause thermal runaway problems.
So in the BYD power battery acupuncture test, it was difficult for us to determine at the first time whether it was in direct contact with the battery cells during the acupuncture process, or whether it was just punctured between the gaps of the blade batteries. But judging from the current test results, it is shocking enough.
The release of BYD Blade Battery is BYD's "positive response" after being suppressed by ternary lithium batteries in the past two years. It continues the lithium iron phosphate battery route it has adhered to in the past to defend its "right track" technical solutions.
We know that in ternary lithium batteries, the nickel-cobalt-manganese component can improve the cycle and rate performance of the material due to the presence of "cobalt", but too high a "cobalt" component will reduce the actual capacity of the battery. , and battery manufacturing costs are higher. The "cobalt-free" technical route is already a breakthrough for the next new era of ternary lithium batteries.
Nickel can increase the energy density of the material. As long as the manganese material content remains unchanged, the higher the nickel content, the further the cruising range can be improved. Therefore, NCM (Nickel Cobalt Manganese) 811 battery cell is the latest power battery formula ratio of CATL, and it is also the most popular power battery model on the market.
However, the birth of BYD's lithium iron phosphate blade battery has allowed the original shortcomings in battery life to be overcome. According to the information disclosed at the blade battery press conference, the production of blade batteries has been offline and has entered the mass production stage. The first The model equipped with the blade battery will be the "Han EV", and the working range of the Han EV will reach 605km.
This also means that the cruising range of BYD's blade battery is strong enough to compete with ternary lithium batteries, and can meet the needs of pure electric vehicles with high cruising range.
With the advantages of blade battery’s lower cost, higher stability and higher cruising range, BYD’s “fist” product will compete against CATL prismatic batteries, Panasonic cylindrical batteries, etc. An important masterpiece of the company, it is also an important historical moment in the past 20 years since BYD started making batteries.
In this press conference of BYD Blade Battery, we actually need to emphasize the key information points again:
Wang Chuanfu said that he wants to completely remove "spontaneous combustion" from the dictionary of new energy vehicles. Erase, this means that Blade Battery has "already" solved the problem of spontaneous combustion of power batteries due to "thermal runaway". The confidence of just saying this sentence is enough to shock people, and we hope that this will also be the case. .
In addition to CATL, BYD Blade Battery also uses CTP packaging technology, which is essentially aimed at solving the problem of excessive space occupied by components between battery pack modules, increasing battery capacity, and reducing manufacturing costs. Consistent.
The blade battery adopts the lithium iron phosphate technical route, which has a higher service life than the ternary lithium battery, and the CTP package provides high endurance conditions while avoiding the use of a large amount of rare metals.
At present, the blade battery is only planned to be used in the "Han" model of the Dynasty family. BYD's other new energy vehicle products have no plans to use the blade battery. The "Han" equipped with the blade battery will be officially launched in June. Meet everyone.
BYD hopes that blade battery technology will be open and can be shared with many companies to jointly promote the development of new power battery technologies.
For enterprises, long battery life, no spontaneous combustion and reduced procurement costs are undoubtedly another good choice.
If the blade battery performs well in Han, it will surely attract the attention of more car companies to achieve the vision of cooperation. The newly established joint venture between Toyota and BYD focusing on the development of electric vehicles is already Good start.
The important factor limiting the development of electric vehicles is undoubtedly the battery itself, and the battery life and safety of powered electric vehicles have become important indicators of concern.
Whether it is a ternary lithium battery or a lithium iron phosphate blade battery, the ultimate technical direction is to continuously explore new possibilities for long-range travel of electric vehicles. In 2020, the development of electric vehicles will inevitably be pushed to a higher dimension, allowing everyone to re-examine the necessity of the existence of electric vehicles.
The release of BYD Blade Battery has indeed provided ideas and directions for solving many core problems, and it has also made us look forward to the actual performance of this product after its launch. At this time, I have to say that to break the technology monopoly, domestic products should strengthen themselves. BYD has really impressed people this time.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.