Recently, official website, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, published the latest batch of new energy vehicles promotion catalogue (hereinafter referred to as the Catalogue), and BYD brand 7009BEV 1 pure electric vehicles produced by BYD Auto Industry Co., Ltd. were among them. According to the verification of the First auto channel reporter, this vehicle is the first BYD Korean EV pure electric vehicle equipped with "blade battery".
Previously, during the 100-member Forum Committee of China Electric Vehicles (2020), Wang Chuanfu, chairman of BYD, revealed that BYD "Han" will be the first vehicle equipped with "Blade Battery" in the world, and it is expected to be listed in June this year.
According to the catalogue, Korean EV models are available in single-motor and dual-motor versions. The dual-motor version has a maximum battery life of 605 kilometers under NEDC condition, and its applicable battery system energy density is 140Wh/kg. This value is slightly lower than the NCM8 1 1 (high nickel battery) released and put into production by Contemporary Amp Technology Co., Ltd. last year, and the highest energy density of inclusions reaches 180Wh/kg, which is also lower than the highest system energy density150 ~/kloc-0 of products mainly promoted by overseas mainstream battery manufacturers such as LG Chemical and Panasonic.
BYD has been self-sufficient in the supply of power batteries for new energy vehicles, so its battery shipment scale has been overtaken by Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd.. In 20 18, the battery shipment of Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. was twice that of BYD. At present, the gap between the two has further widened. As a result, "blade battery" is expected to become an important weapon for BYD to catch up with its competitors.
According to BYD's official data and related patents, the so-called blade battery is actually a battery design process in which large batteries with a length of more than 0.6m are arranged in an array and inserted into a battery bag like a blade, hence the name "blade battery". Wang Chuanfu once revealed that the new generation of "blade battery" can not only improve the energy density per unit volume by 50% compared with the traditional lithium-iron battery, but also make the vehicle last more than1.20 thousand kilometers in eight years. It is planned to increase the energy density of single battery to 65,438+080 Wh/kg and the system energy density to 65,438+060 Wh/kg in the next two years.
The "blade battery" is causing controversy. Judging from the current energy density data, the value of blade battery is different from the combination of "NCM8 1 1" battery pack and CTP (direct integration of battery into battery pack) technology promoted by contemporary Anpu Technology Co., Ltd. and other enterprises. Does this mean that the "blade battery" once rumored in the industry is not as good as competing products?
Yu Qingjiao, secretary general of Zhongguancun New Battery Technology Innovation Alliance, told First auto channel that this needs to be considered from the different technical methods of the two companies. At present, most mainstream battery factories use ternary lithium batteries, and BYD's "blade batteries" belong to lithium iron phosphate batteries. The two materials are completely different and have different characteristics.
Yu Qingjiao introduced that on the whole, lithium phosphate batteries were used frequently in the initial stage of electric vehicle promotion, with the characteristics of low cost and long service life. Moreover, the lithium phosphate battery has high safety performance at the material level because of its high runaway temperature. At present, lithium phosphate batteries are mainly used in commercial vehicles with complex environment; Ternary lithium batteries have advantages in energy density. In addition, in recent years, Japanese and Korean power battery enterprises have been competing for the China market, which has also increased the pressure on domestic power battery enterprises. Therefore, efforts to make up for their respective disadvantages between two different technical routes have been going on.
According to the data of China Chemical and Physical Power Industry Association, at present, the battery price of ternary lithium battery in China is about 0.9 yuan /Wh, and that of lithium iron phosphate battery is about 0.7 yuan /Wh. According to the data of SNEResearch, a power battery market research institution, the cost per kWh of square batteries of LG Chem and SKI is about 10% lower than that of local enterprises in China. Therefore, contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. introduced CTP (direct integration of battery cells into battery pack) technology at Frankfurt Motor Show 20 19, which saved module assembly and aimed at increasing the energy density by 10%~ 15% and reducing the estimated cost by about 30%.
Zhang Qiang, an analyst in the automotive industry, believes that under the current market background of obvious decline in subsidies, cost has naturally become a topic that major car companies must consider. There are two ways to increase the value of their products by reducing the production cost of batteries and improving the energy density and cruising range. According to the goals given by BYD and Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., both companies have given the goal of reducing the cost by 30%. The value of BYD's blade battery lies in improving the cruising range of cars equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries to the level that can compete with ternary lithium batteries, which mainly depends on the design of flat blade battery pack, so that more blade batteries can be stuffed into the battery pack.
Regarding the above-mentioned controversy about energy density, Zhao Changjiang, general manager of BYD Sales Company, posted on his social networking site that the GCTP (Cell to Battery Pack) technology adopted by blade battery has improved the inheritance efficiency, which saves a number of software and hardware processes, so it can make the cost saving more optimistic, which may also lead to the further improvement of the cost performance of Korean EV.
However, Zhang Qiang also believes that for blade batteries, there are no mature cases for reference in terms of product design and safety except for energy density testing. In addition, the current lithium iron phosphate battery has a low temperature range, for example, the low temperature limit is only MINUS 20 degrees, which means that the application range of this car in winter in the northern region is strictly limited, which is a defect for a car running in such a complex environment as China.
In addition, Liu Taigang, deputy director of GAC New Energy Technology Center, said that at present, both Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. and BYD are facing tremendous pressure from foreign-funded power battery companies such as LG soft package 590 module supported by Volkswagen MEB platform, especially the 590 soft package module represented by LG Chemical. The technical process is more difficult, and Aion? Take LX as an example, equipped with 590 modules, the energy density of the system can be as high as 180Wh/kg. The high integration of modules reduces the unit cost, which can not be fully realized by domestic power battery enterprises at present.
Liu Taigang believes that both the integration mode of blade battery and CTP of contemporary Amp Technology Co., Ltd. are two different technical ways of highly integrating modules. At present, both technical routes need a long way to go.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.