Since this year, the power battery industry has been turbulent. Various new batteries carrying black technology have suddenly appeared, from "cobalt-free" batteries to "blade batteries", from "sandwich" Structural batteries to “honeycomb batteries” and most recently “graphene batteries”. When the COVID-19 epidemic is raging around the world, it seems that power battery companies have not been disrupted in their plans. Instead, they have concentrated on research and have used new concept technologies to break through and dispel the haze of the COVID-19 epidemic. They have also inadvertently occupied the market. Auto industry headlines.
Blade Battery
The most famous power battery in the first half of 2020 should undoubtedly be the Blade Battery. This new concept battery is called a new concept battery that can be put out of its sheath to secure the world. Wang Chuanfu released the It was even said at the meeting: "The blade battery will completely erase the word spontaneous combustion from the dictionary of new energy vehicles."
In fact, simply speaking, the so-called blade battery is BYD's improvement in the original lithium iron phosphate battery. The technical specifications have been changed, and the size of the battery has been made flat and long, similar to the shape of a blade. BYD has not announced too many other technical details. But the conclusions can be summarized in three points. First, the volume energy density of blade batteries has been improved; second, the overall cost of blade batteries has been reduced; third, most importantly, blade batteries have very high safety.
In addition, BYD also claimed that the blade battery has been mass-produced and will be installed in the "Han" model launched on the aircraft, and the information that can be seen from public information is that the core patent of BYD's blade battery says BYD The name of the founder Wang Chuanfu is enough to serve as an important basis for judging his reliability.
What’s more important is that BYD’s approach of releasing technology, quickly mass-producing it, and maintaining a high level of secrecy has used solving the problem of spontaneous combustion of electric vehicles as a breakthrough, allowing BYD’s power battery, which was once considered to be on the wrong track, to be relaunched. Back in the spotlight. However, safety and battery density and capacity have always been contradictory. Whether the blade battery has solved this contradiction, I believe that after the launch of "Han", we will receive the most objective evaluation from consumers.
Cellular battery
Compared with blade batteries, cellular batteries are not as well-known as blade batteries. Maybe many friends are unfamiliar with them, but in fact they have a long history. They are JAC New Energy’s 14 years of experience The latest results developed. Its biggest feature is the bionic design of a honeycomb structure. The hexagonal arrangement fills the cells with thermally conductive glue, which ensures the heat dissipation speed of the cells.
At the same time, the cells of the honeycomb battery are filled with thermally conductive glue, which can also achieve electrical and thermal isolation between lithium battery cells. If one battery cell fails, it will not affect the surrounding areas, so it will not cause a chain reaction, and it has the characteristics of safety first. Moreover, the design of the honeycomb battery makes the cell size small and the module structure flexible. It can make full use of the irregular space of the battery pack and obtain the maximum battery pack energy.
Therefore, in fact, compared with blade batteries, honeycomb batteries also work hard on the structure, using a new bionic structural concept to comprehensively improve the energy density and safety of power batteries. As representatives of lithium iron phosphate batteries, blade batteries and honeycomb batteries have a very important impact on the counterattack of this once forgotten technical route.
"Sandwich" structure battery pack
Sandwich battery pack is actually an innovative structural model. It adopts the method of isolating the battery module from the cooling layer to separate the dry parts in the battery. The wet area is separated from the wet area. First of all, the design avoids safety hazards caused by cooling penetrating into the battery module, and greatly reduces the risk of battery short circuit, leakage, and spontaneous combustion even if the power battery is squeezed, deformed, or bumped. Compared with ordinary power batteries, which directly assemble the battery module group on the coolant panel, this has to be said to be a pioneering work.
The second is lightness, because the battery pack and the cooling plate are separated, so the cooling plate can use lighter materials, which is often lighter in volume and weight than ordinary battery packs. The third is the improvement of energy density. The energy density of the sandwich structure battery pack is close to 165Wh/kg, which is about 20% higher than the 120Wh/kg of common lithium iron phosphate.
Therefore, compared with sandwich structure battery packs, blade batteries and honeycomb batteries, they can be considered to have their own merits. The latter two increase battery energy density by improving space utilization, while the former increases battery energy density by improving space utilization. The special sandwich structure avoids safety hazards.
Although the technologies used are different, they have greatly improved the safety performance of new energy vehicles. However, the sandwich structure battery pack has just been tested and there are no plans to trial it in new cars, while blade batteries and honeycomb batteries have been mass-produced and are ready to be rolled out in new cars.
Graphene Electricity
As early as 2010, a researcher from the University of Manchester in the UK won the 2010 Nobel Prize for preparing two-dimensional graphene material using transparent tape in 2004. Physics Prize. And it was a fact recognized in the scientific community at that time that graphene was of great significance in batteries and was expected to subvert the current world's understanding of battery energy storage and charging.
Since then, there have been overwhelming reports about graphene batteries, but they have only been heard but not seen. Until recently, GAC New Energy, a domestic independent brand manufacturer, took the lead in completing the mass production research and development of graphene batteries, saying that it has moved towards actual cars. The new car Aian will be the first to carry this ultra-light and ultra-high strength battery. , graphene batteries with super conductivity and other characteristics. Its biggest advantage is that it only takes 8 minutes to charge the battery to 85%, which is equivalent to the refueling time of a traditional fuel vehicle.
It is worth mentioning that since GAC New Energy has not announced technical details, it is still a mystery whether graphene appears as the main material or as an additive in this new battery. In addition, we still need to wait for news on when the application can be implemented on a large scale, whether it is a gimmick or whether it can actually perform in the market.
"Cobalt-free" battery
The proposal of the concept of "cobalt-free" battery has caused a huge shock in the power battery industry. As one of the essential materials for power batteries, the price It once rose to 600,000 per ton. This is undoubtedly the main reason why the cost of electric vehicles is increasing and remains high.
Currently, global battery suppliers are trying to find ways to minimize the content of cobalt in ternary batteries. There are two main directions:
The first is the traditional lithium iron phosphate battery path. By increasing the energy density of a single cell and structural technologies such as honeycombs and blades mentioned above, we can reduce costs and increase efficiency.
The second is to develop new cobalt-free material batteries to minimize the ratio of nickel-cobalt-manganese or nickel-cobalt-aluminum. For example, in February this year, Tesla revealed that "cobalt-free" batteries will be used in future electric vehicles produced at the Shanghai Gigafactory. In addition, it is reported that CATL plans to supply an improved long-life nickel manganese cobalt battery to Tesla in China next year, with a cathode containing 50% nickel and only 20% cobalt.
There is no doubt that if the new energy vehicle industry wants to develop rapidly, it is urgent to reduce the cost of power batteries, especially to vigorously develop and promote cost-reducing cathode materials. After reducing the proportion and content of cobalt in ternary lithium batteries, not only will the cost of the vehicle be reduced accordingly, but it will also weaken the impact of cobalt price fluctuations on car companies, and this will definitely be an important research direction for the next generation of battery technology.
Written at the end
No matter how the route of battery technology changes, its fundamental purpose is to make electric vehicles charge quickly, be safe, and run far. As for which battery technology can win the PK in the end, it doesn’t seem that important, but whether the power battery can achieve a breakthrough through a series of new technologies in the near future and usher in a predictable turning point may be something more exciting. .
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This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.