According to Reuters, Tesla will jointly develop a new low-cost and long-life battery with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, and plan to carry it on the domestic Model 3 at the end of this year or early next year.
Coincidentally, two days ago, GAC New Energy just announced that the "super fast charging battery" based on 3D graphene (3DG) material will be mounted on the production car at the end of this year.
BYD's proud blade battery was officially launched more than a month ago, and the first pure electric vehicle with blade battery, Han EV, was launched in Europe.
From Tesla to GAC New Energy, the addition of OEMs has made the smoke in the power battery industry more and more concentrated. A brand-new war has started between automobile main engine factories.
Musk's ambition
Tesla's "Battery Day", which was postponed continuously due to the epidemic, aroused everyone's appetite.
At the end of last month, some media revealed that Tesla applied for a patent of "single crystal nickel-cobalt-aluminum electrode" last year, and said that this process would make the battery charge 4,000 times during its life cycle, and the capacity would only decrease by 10% after 100 cycles, effectively prolonging the battery life, and the accumulated mileage is expected to exceed 654,380+0 million miles.
Recently, Reuters quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that Tesla plans to launch a new low-cost long-life battery at the end of this year or early next year, and put it on the domestic Model 3, with a cruising range of 6,543.8+0,000 miles (about 6,543.8+0,609 kilometers).
It is worth noting that Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. is a partner of brand-new battery Tesla.
Reuters previously reported that Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. has developed a simpler and cheaper battery pack packaging technology, which saves the intermediate step of binding the battery. Tesla is expected to use this technology to help reduce the weight and cost of the battery.
Sources also revealed that Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. also plans to supply Tesla with improved long-life Ni-Mn-Co (NMC) batteries in China next year. The cathode nickel content is 50% and the cobalt content is only 20%. The cobalt content is greatly reduced, which means the cost will be lower.
So much information proves the same thing: Musk (CEO of Tesla) does not want to be controlled by others (power battery manufacturers) and wants to maximize profits.
His ambition, the sun and the moon can shine.
According to the latest data released by High-tech Industry Research Institute, the battery of domestic Model 3 is supplied by LG Chem and Panasonic. In the first four months of this year, the two power battery companies provided Tesla with a total of 1.45 GWh power batteries.
Shanghai Super Factory is of great significance for Tesla to alleviate production anxiety and improve profitability. The gross profit of its automobile business in the first quarter was as high as 25.5%, which was attributed to the improvement of the profitability of the Shanghai factory.
At present, the weekly production capacity of Tesla Shanghai plant is 3,000 vehicles, and it will reach 4,000 vehicles in the future. By the middle of this year, the annual production capacity will reach 200,000 vehicles. With the increase of production capacity, the supply of power batteries will gradually increase. Self-made power batteries can not only ensure the supply, but also reduce the cost, thus further enhancing the competitiveness of domestic Tesla models.
It is reported that Tesla is currently cooperating with Panasonic to produce nickel-cobalt-aluminum (NCA) batteries in its super factory in Nevada, while the NMC batteries used in the Shanghai factory are purchased from LG Chemical's factory in China.
Cobalt-free batteries will be the focus of Tesla's next phase of research and development. As early as the middle of last year, Musk said in Twitter that "the next generation of batteries will not use cobalt."
The new battlefield of the main engine factory
Musk told us with practical actions that the OEM that does not want to produce power batteries is not a good OEM.
As a result, while the global automobile industry is moving towards electrification, the war ignited by OEMs around new energy vehicles has also begun to spread to the field of power batteries.
Just two days ago, GAC New Energy released a big move for graphene batteries, which caused a topic in the industry. GAC New Energy announced that the "ultra-fast rechargeable battery" based on three-dimensional graphene (3DG) material will move from the laboratory to the real vehicle at the end of this year, and relevant technical achievements will be carried on the models of Ai 'an.
Graphene battery has the characteristics of ultra-light, ultra-high strength and ultra-high conductivity. Its magic lies in that the "super fast charging battery" can fill 85% in just 8 minutes, and the charging time is close to the refueling time of traditional fuel vehicles, and the battery life and safety have reached the use standard.
Although there is not much information about the specific application of graphene in GAC New Energy, there is no doubt that GAC New Energy, which has been developing graphene technology for 6 years, has certainly accumulated a lot of research and development experience.
On the other hand, BYD's "Blade Battery" was launched at the end of March this year and has been used on BYD Korean EV.
It is reported that this brand-new power battery technology has unparalleled safety and long battery life. Korean EV equipped with blade battery has a battery life of 605 kilometers, which is not lost to the general ternary lithium battery.
In foreign countries, multinational car companies have also set off a wave of self-built power battery factories, taking different routes.
The joint venture between audi ag and Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt is gradually taking shape, and the production of lithium-ion batteries is expected to start in early 2024.
BMW cooperated with Toyota to develop a hydrogen fuel cell power system, which was mounted on the i Hydrogen NEXT model released at the 20 19 Frankfurt Motor Show.
Toyota's self-developed solid-state battery technology will be used for its electric vehicles serving the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and it is expected to be mass-produced around 2025.
With the acceleration of global electrification of automobiles, power batteries will become a brand-new battlefield for main engine plants, and fierce competition will be launched with the popularization of electric vehicles.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.