In fact, to answer this question, we first need to understand what a cobalt-free battery is. The so-called cobalt-free battery means that the battery produced does not contain cobalt element. As for the lithium iron phosphate battery and ternary lithium battery currently used in pure electric vehicles, the lithium iron phosphate battery does not contain cobalt element, so it is regarded as cobalt-free. A type of cobalt battery. Compared with batteries containing cobalt, cobalt-free batteries have lower production costs, which will help reduce the price of the vehicle. This is one of the reasons why Tesla is optimistic about cobalt-free batteries.
As for lithium iron phosphate batteries, a type of cobalt-free battery, great technological progress has been made in recent years. For example, at the China Electric Vehicles Conference of 100, BYD said that its blade batteries will be mass-produced soon. According to BYD's official news, the blade battery is a super lithium iron phosphate battery. Through structural changes, it has reduced production costs and increased energy density. The battery volume specific energy density will be increased by 50, which is no different from the current mainstream ternary lithium batteries. Up and down.
Based on the long battery cell solution of BYD Blade Battery, the battery cells are designed to be flat. BYD's patent shows that the length of the blade battery can reach up to 2500mm, which is more than 10 times that of traditional ordinary lithium iron phosphate batteries. This can improve the recombination efficiency of the battery cells and achieve an increase in energy density.
In addition to BYD's blade batteries, CATL actually launched a new CTP battery development platform as early as the Frankfurt International Auto Show in Germany, and this technology integrates battery cells directly into the battery pack. Improve the space utilization of the battery pack and reduce the weight of the battery pack. Therefore, for current batteries, production costs can be reduced and energy density can be increased. In terms of energy density, the energy density has increased from 140.19Wh/kg to approximately 178.1Wh/kg.
However, it should be noted that both BYD's blade batteries and CATL's CTP technology are structural changes in batteries and do not involve material innovation. In addition, although Tesla is conducting battery-related negotiations with CATL, it also stated on February 21 that "no cobalt does not mean it must be lithium iron phosphate." Therefore, we still need to wait and see how the battery industry develops. .
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.