The main differences between pouch lithium batteries and aluminum-cased batteries lie in their performance, application areas, and manufacturing costs.
In terms of performance, there are no technological barriers in the industry, while pouch lithium batteries still face many technical challenges to be solved, especially regarding battery cycle expansion indicators, a problem that most cell manufacturers have not yet resolved. Aluminum-cased batteries have a higher degree of automation in manufacturing than pouch lithium batteries, thus reducing the impact of human factors on product consistency to some extent, while also saving labor costs.
In terms of application areas, pouch lithium batteries dominate in regions with higher consumption levels, such as Europe and the United States. However, in most developing countries, such as India and the Middle East, aluminum-cased batteries have a clear advantage. This overlap in application areas is most evident in the high-end smartphone market, where pouch lithium batteries (represented by Apple) and aluminum-cased batteries (represented by Samsung) are used roughly equally. Samsung phones generally use a large 4.8-inch screen with an average battery capacity of approximately 2700mAh, while Apple phones have an average battery capacity of around 1700mAh.
In terms of manufacturing costs, aluminum-cased battery materials are now completely domestically produced, while the aluminum-plastic film materials used in pouch lithium batteries still need to be imported. Furthermore, aluminum-cased batteries have lower technical requirements for battery materials than pouch lithium batteries. Therefore, for the same capacity, the overall material cost of aluminum-cased batteries is about 10% lower than that of pouch lithium batteries. In addition, the finished product is simpler to process, more reliable, and has a significant cost advantage.
