When it comes to electric vehicles, everyone always thinks that they are a product of the past 20 to 30 years. In fact, they have existed for more than 100 years, and they appeared earlier than fuel vehicles. As early as the mid-19th century, there were The emergence of electric vehicles using lead-acid batteries. From the current point of view, it is difficult to find an industry like electric vehicles that exploded rapidly 100 years ago but gradually declined, but is now back in the public eye. . ?
Although electric vehicles have a history of a hundred years, before the 21st century, limited by battery technology and technological level, electric vehicles never caused big waves. It was not until the early 21st century that battery technology improved Breakthrough, countries began to apply electric vehicles on a large scale. At this stage, the battery density has increased, the battery life of electric vehicles has improved very quickly, and the power performance of the motor is no longer weaker than that of some low-displacement fuel vehicles. ?
After several years of development, pure electric vehicles have gradually shown a trend of branding and scale. These are the main factors that influence people when buying a car. At present, there are many brands that develop and produce pure electric vehicles. Almost all car brands want to be linked to new energy. Even Porsche has launched its own pure electric supercar. ?
Although many pure electric vehicles now have a cruising range of more than 500km, due to people’s fast-paced lifestyles and limited battery and charging technology, the battery life and charging issues of electric vehicles have always been a problem for current electric vehicles. The biggest headache for car owners, so the development of new batteries has become the ultimate goal of major car companies in the next stage. To the extent that battery technology advances, the new energy revolution will advance. One-stop service will be the first step in the new energy revolution in the future. driving force. ?
At present, most fuel vehicles have a cruising range of around 600km. If electric vehicles want to meet this standard, the energy density of the existing battery system must be doubled and a half, from the common 160wh/kg to 400wh/ kg, is the beginning of electric vehicles completely replacing fuel vehicles. This indicator means a battery life of 600km, 80kWh of electricity, and a total weight of about 200kg. Now the weight is about 450-550kg. ?
But the current mainstream car batteries, whether they are lithium iron phosphate batteries or ternary lithium-ion batteries, are all lithium-ion batteries with liquid electrolyte. The theoretical maximum energy density is 350wh/kg. If Coupled with various battery management systems, the entire system can achieve 300wh/kg, which is basically the limit. ?
So to ultimately solve the problem of battery energy density and eliminate range anxiety, the final solution must be solid-state batteries.
Solid-state battery is a type of battery technology. Unlike the lithium-ion batteries and lithium-ion polymer batteries commonly used today, a solid-state battery is a battery that uses solid electrodes and solid electrolytes. As the scientific community believes that lithium-ion batteries have reached their limits, solid-state batteries have been regarded as batteries that can succeed lithium-ion batteries in recent years. Solid-state lithium battery technology uses a glass compound made of lithium and sodium as a conductive material to replace the electrolyte of previous lithium batteries, greatly increasing the energy density of lithium batteries. ?
In the race to produce solid-state battery electric vehicles, Toyota appears to be in the lead. Recently, according to a report by Nikkei, the Japanese auto giant plans to debut its first prototype in 2021. Toyota leads the way in the number of solid-state battery patents, with more than 1,000 patents related to the technology. ?
Recently, Toyota has demonstrated its achievements in solid-state battery technology, and it also plans to launch an original model equipped with solid-state batteries in 2021.
Toyota’s prototype was originally planned to be displayed to the public during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but it was delayed until 2021 due to the epidemic. According to the data obtained during the test, Toyota's solid-state battery prototype is significantly faster than lithium-ion batteries. It can be charged from zero to full power in just 15 minutes, with a range of 500 kilometers.
It is estimated that the cruising range of a mass-produced solid-state battery car can reach 1,000 kilometers, and the charging time is 10 minutes.
Solid-state batteries age less over time. Toyota's goal is to retain 90% of battery performance within a 30-year service life, allowing solid-state battery vehicles to have very good battery life throughout their life cycles.
Many people must have questions, why are such good batteries not mass-produced?
Mainly because there are still bottlenecks in the production of solid-state batteries. The key to solid-state batteries is solid-state electrolyte materials. The main reason why solid-state batteries are difficult to develop at this stage is the failure of electrolyte materials to achieve breakthroughs. None of the existing inorganic solid electrolytes and polymer electrolyte materials have both high ionic conductivity and mechanical strength and good processing properties.
To help speed up the development of the technology, the Japanese government is considering using part of a newly established 2 trillion yen ($19.2 billion) decarbonization fund to build solid-state battery production infrastructure domestically. Industrial companies such as Mitsui & Co., gasoline company Idemitsu Kosan and Sumitomo Chemical are preparing to produce solid electrolytes. Volkswagen said it will produce its own solid-state batteries by 2025, and Nissan expects to produce a solid-state battery prototype in 2028.
Domestic car companies have also made considerable progress in the field of solid-state batteries. As early as 2017, BAIC New Energy took the lead in launching a project to research solid-state batteries and vehicle-mounted matching technology, and cooperated with many domestic and foreign companies. The solid-state battery company established a partnership, conducted technical exchanges, clarified the development direction, and identified the difficulties in solid-state battery development. After multiple rounds of program iterations and repeated testing, the entire vehicle was finally debugged and rolled off the production line, completing the process from concept to prototype, from laboratory to Breakthroughs from trial production line, bench testing to vehicle installation.
BAIC Blue Valley recently stated on the interactive platform that the company's solid-state battery research and development project has made certain stage progress and is conducting vehicle-related tests.
However, prototype vehicles can only be regarded as test vehicles at best, and are not equivalent to mass production vehicles. In other words, all solid-state battery vehicles are still in the testing and development stage. According to the current development progress of solid-state batteries among various brands, even if Toyota is the fastest to implement use in mass-produced vehicles, the fastest is expected to be 10 years later. As for whether there will be other battery technology curves in the next 10 years Overtaking, we still don’t know what the future of solid-state batteries will be like.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.