However, while energy density is increasing, the improvement in supporting processes and manufacturing costs will also bring competitive pressure on prices. How to maintain a balance between improving quality and reducing costs to achieve stable development has become a topic of concern for battery companies.
Below is a summary of the R&D strategies of five battery companies in high-energy-density power lithium batteries.
CATL: Industry leader, far ahead of the competition.
In October 2016, the "Development of Industrialization Technology for Next-Generation Lithium-ion Power Batteries" project, led by CATL, was launched in Ningde. The project is expected to be industrialized in 2020, at which time the high-energy-density power lithium batteries developed will double the driving range of electric vehicles to 450-500 kilometers.
According to Wu Kai, Chief Scientist and Vice President of R&D at CATL New Energy, the project is based on the TS16949 product development process and develops a lithium-ion power battery with high-nickel ternary material as the positive electrode and silicon-carbon composite as the negative electrode. This can significantly increase the specific energy of lithium-ion power batteries from the current 150-180Wh/kg to over 300Wh/kg, effectively enhancing the international competitiveness of my country's power battery industry.
The recently unveiled Geely Emgrand EV450 has made a stunning debut, with the most prominent upgrade being its improved range. It boasts a remarkable 400km range according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, largely thanks to the CATL battery it is equipped with.
BYD: Transformation and Upgrading
As a benchmark company in the lithium battery industry, BYD has always maintained a low profile and adhered to its own principles in choosing its technology roadmap. From its 2018 product plan, we can see that BYD has shifted to ternary lithium batteries in the passenger vehicle sector, abandoning its long-standing commitment to lithium iron phosphate batteries.
BYD's spin-off of its battery business and its technological transformation became hot news in 2017. Perhaps BYD is too conservative in the context of the rapidly developing new energy industry, but BYD's world-leading sales of new energy vehicles prove that it is the company at the forefront.
At the 2018 my country Electric Vehicle 100 Forum, Wang Chuanfu argued that plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are currently the mainstream of private car development globally. While this contradicts the trend towards pure electric vehicles, in reality, overly aggressive pure electric vehicles have not yet achieved the ideal user experience.
Perhaps, the biggest problem for my country's new energy vehicles is time.
Guoxuan High-Tech: Vigorously developing high-nickel ternary lithium batteries
On January 17, 2018, Guoxuan High-Tech announced that it had developed ternary 811 soft-pack battery cells with an energy density of 302 Wh/kg, and planned to start construction of production lines in 2019. It was projected that the output of power lithium batteries in 2018 would reach 8-9 GWh, with total output reaching approximately 13-14 GWh.
On January 14, 2018, the kick-off meeting for the 2017 key project of the National Key R&D Program "New Energy Vehicles", "Research and Integration Application of High-Safety and High-Energy-Density Lithium Battery Systems", led by Hefei Guoxuan High-Tech Power Energy Co., Ltd., was held in Hefei.
This project brings together 17 top domestic companies, universities and research institutes, and plans to develop a power lithium battery system with a system energy density of over 200Wh/kg by the end of 2020, which meets the functional safety and other standards of the automotive industry.
Previously, in November 2016, Guoxuan High-Tech raised 3.6 billion yuan for a new generation of high-energy-density power lithium battery industrialization project. In September 2017, Guoxuan High-Tech's high-energy-density power lithium battery project was established in Liuhe Economic Development Zone. In response to investor inquiries, Guoxuan High-Tech stated that its VDA ternary lithium battery is superior to the 21700 in certain technical application parameters.
Aoyou Power
On December 8, 2017, the production line commissioning ceremony and new product launch of Aoyou Power, a subsidiary of Zhixin Group, was held in Zhaoqing, Guangdong, where lithium-rich manganese-based soft-pack power lithium batteries officially debuted.
After years of dedicated research and development, Dr. Chen Guangsen's team at Aoyou Power has successfully developed and manufactured the first lithium-rich manganese-based soft-pack power lithium battery in China. It has excellent characteristics such as a 3C discharge/1C discharge rate of over 90%, a 1C charge-discharge cycle of nearly 600 cycles, and no capacity decay during discharge.
Aoyou Power's lithium-rich manganese-based soft-pack power lithium batteries demonstrate excellent performance in improving battery energy density, with projected production density reaching 250Wh/KG in 2018, 300Wh/KG in 2019, and 350Wh/KG in 2020. In the foreseeable future, they are poised to lead my country's power lithium battery industry into a new era.
Tianjin Lishen: Focusing on 21700 Lithium Batteries
On July 20, 2017, Tianjin Lishen held a project construction achievement report meeting and production launch ceremony for the first phase of the Suzhou Lishen Power Lithium Battery Industrialization Project, as well as a product launch conference for the 21700 lithium-ion power lithium battery.
The Lishen 21700 lithium-ion power battery features three unique advanced core designs: a battery cover with a brand-new physical structure that maintains consistency during power-off and pressure relief, eliminating potential battery safety hazards; a battery casing made of pre-plated nickel steel plate that prevents the appearance of metal dust and reduces battery self-discharge; and a four-tab structure that enables ultra-high power discharge, challenging even higher performance.
In the 299th batch of motor vehicle product catalogs published in August 2017, Nanjing Golden Dragon and BAIC each had a pure electric van that used Lishen 21700 batteries with a single cell capacity of 4.0Ah, which also marked that 21700 batteries had begun to enter practical application in China.
Summary: From changes in technological direction and collaborative R&D to the application of new technologies and materials such as lithium-rich manganese, high-nickel ternary, and 21700, battery companies are demonstrating their capabilities in the R&D of high-energy-density power lithium batteries. The era of technology as king has arrived!
