Recent electric vehicle accidents serve as a reminder to the industry that while battery energy density is rapidly advancing, battery safety remains the primary concern. With the market share of high-nickel ternary batteries steadily increasing, finding a better balance between safety and driving range has become a critical challenge for the power battery industry.
Besides safety, battery cost and grid integration are also challenges facing electric vehicles. However, challenges often mean opportunities. Envision Group, which recently completed its acquisition of Nissan's battery business AESC, hopes to leverage intelligent technologies to address these challenges and help the industry find a turning point in its development.
“Battery safety is the biggest ‘gray rhino’ in the electric vehicle industry. Envision will continue AESC’s record of ‘zero major accidents’ for battery safety, and expects to reduce battery costs to $50/kWh by 2025. Based on Envision’s intelligent IoT operating system, electric vehicles will become green mobile intelligent terminals, organically integrated with clean energy systems, and providing dynamic balance for fragmented renewable energy networks,” said Zhang Lei, CEO of Envision Group and Executive Chairman of the Board of Envision AESC.
Pursuing ultimate safety
At the recent 18th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition, Envision AESC officially launched its new generation Gen5-811 AIoT power battery product. This product will officially enter mass production at Envision AESC's Wuxi plant in 2020. The Wuxi plant will have a total annual production capacity of 20GWh, expected to provide power batteries for over 400,000 new energy vehicles globally each year. Of particular note is the newly released Gen5-811 AIoT power battery product's high specific energy exceeding 300Wh/kg. Higher battery energy density also necessitates a higher level of safety management.
Shoichi Matsumoto, CEO of Envision AESC, revealed that to date, 430,000 electric vehicles have been equipped with batteries manufactured by Envision AESC in Japan, the United States, and Europe, with a zero incidence of major malfunctions such as battery fires. It was this safety record that initially impressed Zhang Lei and his Envision team.
“This achievement stems from AESC’s relentless pursuit of excellence in battery research and design. Through years of collaboration with Nissan, we have gained a comprehensive understanding of the battery’s entire lifecycle data and have thoroughly tested and verified the product’s performance, safety, durability, and reliability. We monitor target data in real time and strictly control more than 770 quality control items in the production process, achieving traceability and trackability of data throughout the entire production chain,” said Shoichi Matsumoto.
In Zhang Lei's view, such a safety record, while seemingly due to high-quality materials and excellent quality control, is underpinned by countless experiments and verifications, and at its core lies the production process and technology. This is precisely the most crucial competitive advantage in the power battery industry.
Zhao Weijun, Executive Director and Head of China Business at Envision AESC, revealed that Envision AESC's global shipments last year were approximately 4.1 GWh, with its main markets in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Shipments are projected to reach 6-6.1 GWh this year.
Redefining the power battery
Currently, CATL, Panasonic, and BYD firmly occupy the top three positions in the global power lithium battery market, with a combined market share exceeding 50%. However, Zhang Lei believes that this market structure is far from settled, and the industry is still in the early stages of a marathon.
Zhang Lei believes that truly solving the three major pain points—safety, battery cost, and grid integration—requires redefining the entire power lithium battery industry. This is precisely where Envision AESC's opportunity to leapfrog the competition lies. Just as Envision, a dark horse entering the wind power field 12 years ago, led the wave of smart wind power, today, Envision AESC also aims to lead the transformation of the power battery industry.
So, how exactly will Envision AESC redefine the power battery industry?
Zhao Weijun told reporters that the redefinition is primarily reflected in safety. Based on AESC's years of experience in batteries and Vision's digital and AIoT technologies, sensors are used to accurately monitor and process changes in temperature and internal resistance within the battery in real time, enabling strategic control and achieving ultimate battery safety.
“As an electric vehicle, it may only be in operation 10% of the time and parked 90% of the time. The battery not only provides power to the car, but it is also an energy storage device. In this sense, the battery only realizes 10% of its value throughout its entire life cycle. Redefining the power battery industry means that we need to truly release the full life cycle value of a battery,” said Zhao Weijun.
The release of the full life-cycle value of batteries also involves the issue of the secondary use of retired power batteries. In Zhao Weijun's view, retired batteries can be used without disassembling them, and by directly filtering data, three battery packs can be stacked together to form a building energy storage device. This is the most suitable application scenario for the secondary use of retired power batteries.
Beyond redefining the relationship between batteries themselves, the relationships between batteries and electric vehicles, electric vehicles and the power grid, and electric vehicles and people also need to be redefined. Redefining these relationships requires leveraging digital capabilities, AI capabilities, and the Internet of Things (IoT).
"In the future, power batteries will need to work in tandem with the power grid. Tens of thousands of electric vehicles and power batteries will need to rely on the Internet of Things to achieve this," Zhao Weijun told reporters.
Empowering with digitalization and the Internet of Things
If the previous AESC incorporated Nissan's understanding of automobiles and chemical batteries, then today's AESC will incorporate Envision's understanding of energy systems and digital technologies.
In Envision's vision, electric vehicles and power batteries are no longer isolated entities, but rather mobile power stations on its intelligent IoT operating system, EnOSTM. Their value is no less than that of any wind turbine or solar panel on the same operating system. Based on this concept, Envision AESC will not only be a power battery manufacturer, but also an energy system manager using power batteries as its core.
In fact, Envision's low failure rate and high power generation largely rely on digital and intelligent technologies, leveraging data, AIoT platforms, and analytics capabilities. "Envision's intelligent business is precisely such an enabling tool. Originating in the wind power sector, it is not limited to wind power. Now it can be used to empower the power battery industry and bring disruptive changes to the industry," said Zhao Weijun.
Zhang Lei believes that with the empowerment of digital technology and the Internet of Things, the power battery industry can fully realize the management optimization of the entire life cycle. From R&D, production, installation, secondary use, recycling and other stages, the battery status and fault warning can be managed in an all-round way, improving the safety, efficiency and service life of the battery, reducing the battery cost, and thus unlocking the full life cycle value of the power battery.
How can Envision replicate its success in the wind power sector to the power battery sector? How can batteries better leverage industrial synergy with wind power and photovoltaics in the energy production sector? The industry awaits a clearer answer from Envision.
