The world's first modern electric vehicle, the GM EV1, used 32 lead-acid batteries as the main energy source when it was unveiled in 1996, and it can travel 144 kilometers on a single charge. In the following 24 years, the power battery has developed from lead-acid battery to nickel-hydrogen battery, lithium manganate battery, lithium nickel-cobalt aluminate battery, lithium iron phosphate battery to high-nickel battery. Today, the cruising range of mass-produced pure electric vehicles has exceeded 7 kilometers with the help of advanced power battery technology.
judging from the actual demand of end consumers and the product development planning of international and domestic car companies, the models with a cruising range of 7km or more will become the mainstream. Based on this, high-nickel battery is becoming the consistent understanding and breakthrough direction of industrial development. This market has also become a battleground for Chinese and foreign power battery manufacturers, and there is no room for those who enter the game to slack off.
how high is the high nickel battery?
The technology is the highest in the mass production application of power battery
The so-called high nickel battery, as the name implies, means that the proportion of nickel in the electrode material of the battery is high. The background of its development is that the mainstream battery technology routes in the market were mostly around Ferrous lithium phosphate, lithium cobaltate, lithium manganate and ternary materials. Due to the high cost of cobalt, battery manufacturers had to try to reduce the proportion of cobalt in various forms. However, the high price of cobalt is an unsolved problem because of the unstable political situation in Congo, its main producing area, and the local restrictions on the export of cobalt ore. Therefore, the NCM811 battery came into being. In short, the proportion of nickel, cobalt and manganese in the cathode material became 8%, 1% and 1%, which not only reduced the proportion of cobalt to make the cost controllable, but also ensured the energy density of the battery to a certain extent, greatly improving the battery's cruising range, cycle life and safety.
how big is the challenge of high-nickel battery to traditional cell technology? In fact, it's as big as the upper limit of your imagination. The manufacturing process of high-nickel lithium battery from raw materials to batteries is far more difficult than other forms of batteries. The difficulty lies not only in the higher alkalinity of high-nickel materials, but also in how to overcome the oxidation of materials. Many power battery manufacturers committed to developing high-nickel ternary materials are unable to go any further in the face of these two problems.
Before Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, high-nickel ternary batteries could only be used for cylindrical batteries. Because the negative electrode of high-nickel batteries uses silicon alloy, it is much more difficult to put silicon alloy into square batteries than high-nickel itself. This problem was not solved until Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited became the first company in the world to mass-produce high-nickel 811 on square batteries, and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited successfully raised the energy density of the battery system to a new height of 17Wh/kg.
compared with the traditional 523, although the cost per ton of 811 is higher than the former, the high capacity of 811 can effectively reduce the amount of cathode materials per unit Wh battery. Thanks to the high physical energy density of 811, it can also reduce the amount of structural parts per unit Wh and the cost of manufacturing. It is certain that high nickel 811 will be a cost-reducing weapon in the power battery industry in the next few years.
After Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, the high-nickel battery 811 technology attracted the first-line power battery manufacturers in the world. However, almost every company's exploration is proving the fact that high-nickel 811 battery is still the most pragmatic technical solution to solve the bottleneck of the electric vehicle market in the current power battery mass production technology when the current battery material fails to really break through the scope of the Nobel Prize.
how many complete vehicle brands are there for high-nickel batteries?
Almost everything you can think of is at the end of p>218. At the new product launch conference, Li Bin, the founder of Weilai Automobile, said that the new model ES6 will be equipped with NCM811 battery, which opened the curtain of the complete vehicle brand with high-nickel 811 battery. A few months later, GAC New Energy announced the adoption of NCM811 battery provided by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, followed by BMW Brilliance X1 Hybrid Mileage Upgrade, which became the world's first plug-in hybrid vehicle with NCM811 battery. Then we can see that BMW Brilliance 5 Series Hybrid, Weilai ES8, Weimar EX5, Tucki G3, Hechuang 7, BAIC, JAC, SAIC, Dongfeng, Hezhong, Aichi and many other models and brands have joined the ranks of NCM811. You see, who else did the domestic new energy car companies miss?
since 219, when manufacturers of new energy vehicles began to increase the cruising range of their own models to more than 5 kilometers or even 6 kilometers, NCM811 battery, which has stronger endurance than lithium iron phosphate battery, has become the best choice.
traditional foreign brands also regard high-nickel 811 as the next choice of power batteries. BMW once again installed Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited's NCM811 battery in the global medium-sized electric SUV after the X1 and 5 series hybrid models? On iX3, foreign giants such as Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Nissan and General Motors have also announced that they will introduce high-nickel battery system. After all, in their eyes, they can reduce costs and improve cruising range, and there is no more suitable choice than high-nickel battery system.
according to the installed capacity data of high-nickel batteries in 219, the installed capacity of the whole year is about 3GWh, and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited accounts for half of the country. It is predicted that after the epidemic, the demand for high-nickel batteries in the global new energy vehicle market will continue to grow further. It must be noted that Japanese and Korean power battery enterprises that monopolized the international market in the field of high-nickel batteries will inevitably accelerate their penetration into the China market. Then, how can China's power battery enterprises ensure that they will not fall behind in the competition or even win?
how fierce is the competition for high-nickel batteries?
Slow down step by step must not be slow down
As the question just raised, Japanese and Korean power battery companies are eyeing the China market. How can China, which has just occupied a place in the global power battery field, ensure that it will not lose ground in this round of technological upgrading?
in fact, Japanese and Korean power battery enterprises have begun to contain China power battery enterprises through the growth of European market share. Renault ZOE and Audi e-tron and other best-selling models in Europe have driven the growth of LG battery installed capacity. Zeng Yuqun, chairman of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, even prepared for the worst-Europe will surpass China in electric vehicle sales in 22. In the domestic market, Panasonic and LG rely on supporting domestic Tesla Model? 3 also greatly increased the installed capacity of our own high-nickel batteries.
China's power battery enterprises not only face fierce competition in the market, but also have more fierce competition in the technical field that determines the future, which also comes from the technical pressure of power battery enterprises in Japan and South Korea. Japanese companies with NCA as the technology leading direction, together with Korean companies with NCM plus NCA as the technical route, have won almost all the international brands of passenger cars supporting NCA products. Moreover, LG Chem and SKI, representatives of Japanese and Korean power battery enterprises, have completed mass production of NCM811 batteries, and claimed that they are developing batteries with higher nickel content to further get rid of their dependence on cobalt.
Among them, SKI is ready to start producing a new generation of high-nickel batteries with NCM ratio of 9%: 5%: 5% in 22, and plans to commercialize them in 221. Japanese and Korean power battery companies such as LG Chem, Samsung SDI and Panasonic have also not relaxed their research and development in the field of cobalt-free batteries. LG Chem will start to provide NCMA batteries with nickel content of 9% for General Motors next year, and Panasonic will also provide high-nickel batteries for Tesla with cobalt content below 5%. Samsung SDI announced that it will expand its Hungarian factory to produce square NCA-Gen5 batteries with nickel content exceeding 8% next year.
all technical competitions are aimed at the high-nickel battery, which is the most advanced technology in mass production batteries at present. whoever can take the lead in further reducing the cobalt content can take the lead in further reducing the cost and improving the energy density, and who can become the global leader in the power battery market. For the power battery enterprises in China, represented by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, it is necessary to focus on technology research and development on the premise of adhering to the technical route of high-nickel batteries, so as to be invincible in the fierce competition, otherwise it will be slow step by step, so it must not be slow.
This article comes from the author of Chejia, car home, and does not represent car home's standpoint.