The Blade Battery is a battery product launched by BYD on March 29, 2020. Utilizing lithium iron phosphate technology, the Blade Battery achieves its design goal by skipping the "module" stage during assembly through structural innovation, significantly improving volume utilization and ultimately allowing more cells to be packed into the same space.
Compared to traditional battery packs, the blade battery improves volume utilization by over 50%, meaning a range increase of over 50%, reaching the same level as high-energy-density ternary lithium batteries. So, which is better, the blade battery or the ternary lithium battery?
1. Blade batteries have a longer actual lifespan than ternary lithium batteries.
One major reason for the low resale value of electric vehicles is the relatively short lifespan of their batteries, a problem that the Blade Battery addresses significantly. Lithium iron phosphate batteries inherently have a longer lifespan than ternary lithium batteries due to their materials, and the Blade Battery, being a further optimized version of lithium iron phosphate, can easily withstand over 3000 charge-discharge cycles.
2. Battery life and charging speed are comparable.
The blade battery is a lithium iron phosphate battery, so each battery pack contains three basic structures: cells, modules, and the battery pack itself. Traditional lithium iron phosphate batteries require brackets to fix the cells and modules, resulting in a larger volume. The blade battery, however, eliminates these brackets, directly assembling the cells into a pack. This allows the blade battery to have 50% higher energy density than a typical lithium iron phosphate battery for the same volume.
The blade battery has 50% higher energy density than ordinary lithium iron phosphate batteries, and its driving range is comparable to that of ternary lithium batteries.
3. Blade batteries are safer than ternary lithium batteries.
Because the blade battery has a long strip structure, the positive and negative electrodes are separated by a long distance, which can effectively reduce the heat generated during internal reactions and reduce the probability of internal short circuits.
4. Blade batteries are significantly affected by low temperatures.
The blade battery is not without its drawbacks. Since it is essentially a lithium iron phosphate battery, it still experiences significant range loss in low-temperature environments. The main reason is that the lithium-ion ionization capacity of the cathode decreases as temperature drops, leading to a reduction in battery capacity. At zero degrees Celsius, the battery capacity can only be maintained at a maximum of 70%, and at -10 degrees Celsius, it drops to only 50%.
5. If the blade battery is difficult to replace, replace the individual battery cells.
The manufacturing process of the blade battery involves gluing the individual battery cells to the battery module frame, making it difficult to replace if a cell malfunctions. However, for car owners, a faulty battery usually means replacing the entire module; it's just that refurbishing the battery isn't as convenient.
