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The future success of electric vehicles may depend on giving up a key component of batteries: heavy metal cobalt.
Recently, Reuters reported that Tesla is in "in-depth negotiations" with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited to use cobalt-free batteries in some products.
If this negotiation finally lands, it means that lithium iron phosphate battery will enter Tesla production line.
According to the institutional market, Tesla is negotiating with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. to supply lithium batteries, and plans to manufacture Model in China? Model 3 adopts cobalt-free battery to replace Panasonic 8 1 1 ternary lithium battery which is currently suitable for Tesla.
However, neither Tesla nor Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited made public comments on the report, but Musk had previously said on Twitter that Tesla's existing batteries used less than 3% cobalt, and the "new generation batteries" would not use cobalt.
Affected by this news, BYD, Fengyuan, German Nano, xiangtan electrochemical and many other related companies have daily limit.
Another good news is that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently issued "Guiding Opinions on Orderly Promoting Enterprises in the Industrial Communication Industry to Resume Work" and "Guiding Opinions".
Clearly put forward to give priority to supporting industries with long industrial chain and strong driving ability, such as automobiles, and focus on supporting strategic emerging industries such as new energy vehicles. And actively stabilize traditional mass consumption such as automobiles, encourage areas where automobiles are restricted to purchase to appropriately increase the amount of automobile number plates, and drive the consumption of automobiles and related products.
The new energy vehicle market will usher in a new round of growth.
According to the different cathode materials, the power batteries on the market now mainly include nickel-cobalt-manganese, nickel-cobalt-aluminum, lithium ferrous phosphate, lithium titanate, lithium manganate and lithium cobaltate.
It is worth noting that batteries made of nickel, cobalt, manganese, nickel, cobalt and aluminum are also collectively called ternary batteries, and lithium iron phosphate batteries have become the two mainstream power battery schemes at present.
According to the presence or absence of cobalt, lithium iron phosphate batteries can also be divided into two types, one is a completely cobalt-free battery, and the other is a material with cobalt at the anode, which is essentially high nickel and low cobalt.
But at present, the market of ternary batteries is much broader than that of lithium iron phosphate batteries. At least in three to five years, the mainstream of the domestic market is ternary batteries.
In 20 19, the cumulative production and sales of power batteries in China were 85.4GWh and 75.6GWh respectively, of which the cumulative production of ternary batteries was 55. 1GWh, accounting for 64.6% of the total production, with a cumulative year-on-year increase of 40.8%, and the cumulative sales of ternary batteries was 53.0GWh, accounting for 70.0% of the total sales.
The cumulative output of lithium iron phosphate batteries was 27.7GWh, accounting for 32.4% of the total output, down 1.2% year-on-year, and the cumulative sales of lithium iron phosphate batteries was 20.6GWh, accounting for 27.2% of the total sales.
Cobalt-free battery is a new technology, and it is also a subject that the whole lithium battery industry is actively tackling. It refers to finding a cheaper and energy-free material to replace the existing cobalt element under the existing high nickel route, so as to achieve the same performance and stability as the existing ternary lithium battery.
Some critics mentioned that the LFP battery of Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. will be used in the early stage of Tesla. However, a fatal disadvantage of LFP battery is its low energy density, but the report points out that Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. has been working hard to improve this.
What contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. does is through cells? Where to? Pack technology improves the energy density of LFP battery pack, which is the modular battery pack of CTP technology that is often mentioned recently.
This is a concept similar to the vacuum fixing technology adopted by Obrist, which does not need to integrate the unit into the module and then into the package, but can directly integrate the unit into the package.
According to the introduction of Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., compared with the traditional battery pack on the market at present, CTP? The volume utilization rate of battery pack has improved? 15%-20%, with fewer parts? 40%, production efficiency has improved? 50%, after put into use, the manufacturing cost of power batteries will be greatly reduced, and the energy density will also rise to? 200Wh/kg？ Above, and plans to reach in 2024? 200 WHr/kg.
CTP？ There are three main advantages: first, CTP? Battery packs can be used in different models because there are no standard module restrictions.
Second, reduce the internal structure, CTP? Battery pack can indirectly improve the volume utilization and energy density of the system.
Third, the heat dissipation effect is higher than the current small module battery pack.
According to the information released by Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd., CTP? The battery pack will still be packaged in square shell, which is a better choice considering the stability of high nickel batteries at present.
According to GGII survey data, as of 20 19 12, the duty-free price of ternary battery system is 0.95- 1.05 yuan /Wh, and that of LFP system is 0.85-0.95 yuan /Wh. The price difference between 0.2 yuan and WH means that it can save RMB 6,543,800+0.2 million when used in the same 60KWh passenger car.
At this stage, although Tesla has not yet defined the specific technical route of the "cobalt-free" scheme, it can be seen that Tesla should take two routes in the selection of battery technology at present.
One is to introduce lithium iron phosphate battery without cobalt, and the other is to use NCM8 1 1 high nickel battery to NCMA (nickel-cobalt-manganese-aluminum) quaternary battery, and gradually replace cobalt with other elements in the production process.
However, according to the current technology, the former will have a certain energy density decline, while the latter has security risks.
According to a new report by Kane Energy Research Consulting (via American Consumer News and Business Channel), Tesla's current cost in 20 19 reached $58.27 per kWh/kloc-0, which was more than $0/00 lower than that four years ago.
This is close to the price of 100 USD/kwh. Many industry observers think this is a "magic number", which shows that the cost of electric vehicles is equivalent to that of traditional vehicles.
If Tesla relies on Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. to achieve cost reduction again in China, what about domestic Tesla models? There is still room for price reduction.
This move is likely to terminate the cooperation between Tesla and Panasonic. According to the latest news, Tesla and Panasonic recently gave up cooperation in solar cell production after Tesla Buffalo Solar Factory in upstate New York tried every means to increase production.
Tesla's internal team has been developing lithium battery technology. Previously applied patents show that the service life of lithium batteries can be extended to 6.5438+0.6 million kilometers, thus delaying the replacement of battery packs.
According to foreign media reports recently, Tesla plans to build an experimental production line for lithium batteries in fremont, and gradually develop the production technology of lithium batteries.
Recently, Tesla began to build a second overseas electric vehicle factory in Brandenburg, Germany. According to Tesla's official information, this factory will produce Model? 3. Model? Y and lithium battery.
Of course, cobalt-free will be the future trend.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology? Institute? Yes? Elsa Olivetti of technology (Elsa? A new analysis by Olivetti and her colleagues found that if we can't recycle cobalt effectively, there may be a shortage of cobalt.
It is predicted that by 2030, the global demand for cobalt will increase to 235,000 to 430,000 tons-according to the data of 20 16, this figure is at least 1.6 times of the current global cobalt smelting capacity.
Cobalt is usually a by-product of copper or nickel mining, which is expensive due to the demand and price fluctuation of these metals.
In addition to price, mining metals also requires labor costs, and most of the global supply (60%) comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
It can be said that with the growth of new energy vehicles, it is a good choice for Tesla to switch to cobalt-free batteries. Of course, the main reason is cost reduction.
In fact, Tesla's use of cobalt has been decreasing in recent years. In 2009, Tesla used lithium cobaltate on Roadster. 20 12, Tesla in the model? On S, the consumption of cobalt is 1 1kg/ vehicle. 20 18, Tesla in the model? 3. The dosage of cobalt is 4.5 kg/vehicle.
However, London's Benchmark mineral information (benchmark? Mineral? Simon from intelligence? Morse (Simon? Mures) and other industry analysts said, "This initiative is unlikely to be replicated outside China. This move is more out of the desire to reduce production costs in China than to phase out cobalt. "
Finally, talk about the differences between lithium-ion batteries, nickel-hydrogen batteries and lead-acid batteries.
Lithium-ion battery: It is considered as the standard battery of modern electric vehicles. Compared with other mature battery technologies, lithium-ion batteries have many advantages.
Its unique physical and electrochemical properties have broad application prospects in civil and national defense fields. Its outstanding features are: light weight, large energy storage, no pollution, no memory effect and long service life.
Under the same volume and weight, the storage capacity of lithium battery is 1.6 times that of nickel-hydrogen battery and 4 times that of nickel-cadmium battery. At present, only 20% ~ 30% of its theoretical electricity is developed and utilized.
Lithium-ion batteries are also excellent in maintaining energy, and the self-discharge rate (5% per month) is one order of magnitude lower than that of nickel-hydrogen batteries.
However, lithium-ion batteries also have some disadvantages. Lithium-ion battery is a very expensive battery technology, and there is also a major safety problem related to overcharge and overheating of the battery. Lithium ion may lose thermal control, causing the vehicle to catch fire or explode. How many Tesla models have used lithium-ion batteries? This is a fire caused by unstable charging or battery damage.
Lead-acid battery: originally used in early electric vehicles, such as EV 1 of General Motors. It is also a mature battery for electric vehicles, with good reliability, readily available raw materials and low price, and its power can basically meet the power requirements of electric vehicles.
The two major disadvantages are: first, the energy is low, the mass and volume are too large, and the charging mileage is short; The other is short service life and high use cost.
Ni-MH battery: Ni-MH battery is considered to be the best, with a specific energy as high as twice (68? Wh/kg), the electric vehicle using Ni-MH battery is lighter, thus reducing the energy cost of driving on slopes. Compared with lead-acid batteries, nickel-hydrogen batteries also have higher energy density, which will limit the battery system to a smaller space.
Foreign companies that produce Ni-MH batteries for electric vehicles are mainly joint ventures of Ovonie, Toyota and Panasonic. Ovonie has 80A h and 130A h batteries, with specific energy of 75-80W h/kg and cycle life of more than 600 times.
However, the charging efficiency of Ni-MH battery is lower than other batteries, and when the battery is in a high temperature environment, serious problems will occur in self-discharge (up to 12.5% per day at normal room temperature). This makes the Ni-MH battery less ideal in a hotter environment. In addition, there are legal disputes over large-scale Ni-MH batteries, which affect the use of Ni-MH batteries in pure electric vehicles.
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.