Recently, Guangzhou Automobile Group revealed on the interactive platform that the research and development of graphene batteries is continuing, and it is expected that the technology will enter the real vehicle mass production test by the end of this year. GAC Aian will be the first brand to use graphene batteries.
If graphene batteries are mass-produced, it may solve two core problems of electric vehicles: slow charging and endurance anxiety. The biggest advantage of graphene battery is to improve the fast charging speed. Guangzhou Automobile Group said that it can fully charge 80% of the electricity in 8 minutes, realize charging 10 minutes and have a battery life of 200-300 kilometers.
However, Guangzhou Automobile Group also stressed that whether the technology can finally achieve mass production still needs to wait for the verification results of real vehicles. In addition, the realization of fast charging technology of graphene battery also needs to solve the problems of cost and charging facilities.
Graphene battery entered the real vehicle mass production test.
20 14, Guangzhou automobile group started the research and development of graphene technology; By 20 19, 1 1, the "ultra-fast rechargeable battery" based on three-dimensional graphene (3DG) material was officially announced; At the end of 2020, the mass production research and development of graphene batteries entered the stage of mass production testing of real vehicles.
According to Guangzhou Automobile Group, the specific principle of its research and development of graphene battery is to add graphene with three-dimensional structure as an additive to the positive and negative electrodes of the battery to improve the charging performance of the battery. At present, related graphene technology has been patented, covering many technical fields such as graphene preparation, supercapacitors and fast-charging batteries.
In July this year, Guangzhou Automobile Group said that based on the conductivity and three-dimensional structure of graphene, a super-fast rechargeable battery was developed, and the graphene technology was preliminarily verified from the aspects of battery, module and vehicle.
Aian brand will take the lead in carrying graphene battery technology. Guangzhou Automobile Aian told Caijing Automobile that the AION model equipped with graphene-based super-fast rechargeable battery technology has entered the stage of calibration and testing of production models, and relevant mass production information will be released in the near future.
For Guangzhou Automobile Group, equipped with graphene battery technology can enhance the product competitiveness of Aian brand and can be gradually applied to independent brands such as Chuanqi.
Guangzhou Automobile Aian said that AION models equipped with graphene-based super fast-charging battery technology can achieve 80% charging within 8 minutes.
Xiong Shusheng, deputy director of the Institute of Vehicle Engineering of Zhejiang University and doctoral supervisor, said that if graphene battery technology can be mass-produced, it will bring subversive changes to the whole industry and solve the existing problems such as slow charging and battery life anxiety.
Bai Yiyang, the international research department of China Merchants Bank, believes that if the technology is rolled out on a large scale and the cost is reduced, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles will increase significantly.
As for whether it will help the sales of new energy vehicles surpass those of fuel vehicles, Bai Yiyang said that many factors need to be integrated, including battery life, safety, charging and replacing facilities, low temperature attenuation, subsidies, supply side, etc., and it also depends on the OEM's planning for fuel vehicles and new energy vehicles.
Reduce dependence on industry giants
At the same time, the graphene battery technology independently developed by Guangzhou Automobile Group is conducive to reducing the dependence on head battery enterprises and getting rid of the dilemma of battery technology relying on third parties.
In the process of high-end transformation of automobile enterprises, the trend of new four modernizations is obvious. Since car companies have not yet built advantages in forward-looking fields such as autonomous driving and three-electricity technology, it is an option to jointly build high-end electric vehicle brands with battery companies and Internet technology companies.
Not only Guangzhou Automobile Group, but also many domestic car companies have cooperative relations with head battery companies such as Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., and adopt the battery solutions provided by the latter. At the same time, it cooperates with Internet technology companies such as Huawei and Baidu in the field of intelligent networking. For example, in September this year, Guangzhou Automobile Group and Huawei deepened cooperation, and the two sides will comprehensively deepen cooperation in the field of smart cars.
At present, the accumulation of auto companies in the fields of autonomous driving and three electric technologies is not enough, and cooperation can enhance the competitiveness of products. However, Xiong Shusheng said that in the long run, car companies will increase forward-looking technical fields regardless of their initiative or pursuit of interests.
Take Tesla for example. The cost of lithium battery technology in cooperation with Panasonic has been decreasing, and it has been as low as $65,438+000/kWh, ranking first in the industry. Tesla also cooperated with Panasonic to build a new super battery factory and developed new energy vehicle batteries.
However, Tesla continued to push forward the self-developed battery project, and it acquired the battery company Maxwell, aiming at improving battery life and reducing costs. Tesla revealed in this year's "Battery Day" that the battery of 100GWh will be produced by 2022.
In the field of autonomous driving, Tesla has reached L2+ level and is in a leading position. With Autopilot-assisted automatic driving, FSD (fully automatic driving) was pushed to users from June 5438 to this year 10. Test suite. Tesla's advantage in the field of intelligent driving technology is the main reason why it is different from traditional car companies and its sales volume continues to increase.
The path of the new four modernizations of Guangzhou Automobile Group and other car companies is exactly the same as Tesla. For example, GAC Aian is equipped with a self-developed ADiGO? 3.0 Automatic driving system.
Graphene batteries "on the road" need to wait for opportunities.
Guangzhou Automobile Group's graphene battery technology is about to be mass-produced and tested, but the real "listing" still needs to wait for the opportunity.
Xiong Shusheng said that even if graphene battery technology can achieve fast charging, it still needs to consider the endurance of the charging network system. He said that at present, electric vehicles should be fully charged at 80%, and it usually takes 30 minutes for fast charging and 6-8 hours for slow charging. Guangzhou Automobile Group's graphene battery can be fully charged 80% in 8 minutes, and the existing charging facilities are difficult to meet.
Guangzhou Automobile Group also admits that whether the technology can be mass-produced in the end still needs to wait for the verification results of real vehicles. Xiong Shusheng raised five questions, "Is it really possible to achieve fast charging? Can the power grid system withstand it? What is the reliability and safety of the battery? How about battery durability? The cost may be reduced? "
Guangzhou Automobile Aian told Caijing Automobile that the current cost of using graphene has been lower than per gram 1 yuan; Secondly, graphene-based ultra-fast rechargeable batteries mainly use graphene as an additive, which will not have much impact on the cost.
Moreover, after the recent completion of mass production tests, GAC Aian and Juwan Technology Research will gradually develop its applications in the fields of super-fast rechargeable batteries, super-capacitors, lightweight car bodies, fuel cells and so on. According to the maturity of technology and market. When conditions are ripe, it will also extend to the upstream and downstream of the new energy industry chain, including the super fast charging supporting system.
Bai Yuyang said that the final application scenarios of graphene batteries continued to improve.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.