Understanding the Key Points of the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference from a Single Article

From January 11th to 13th, 2019, the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People Forum (2019) was held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. Before summarizing the important speeches given to the attending leaders and guests, let’s talk about the overall trend reflected in the entire conference.

First, as the production of high-nickel batteries becomes more mature and the energy density of the batteries gradually reaches the expected target, the industry has returned to a rational focus on the core performance indicators of electric vehicles and batteries.

  • The attention to driving range and energy density has gradually shifted to battery safety. Whether it is Chairman Wan Gang at the main venue or Academician Ouyang Minggao or all the experts and professors in the Power Battery Technology sub-conference, they all listed “safety” as the primary focus indicator in their speeches. Academician Ouyang Minggao also pointed out that the bottleneck in the development of high specific energy lithium-ion batteries is battery safety. It is not realistic to completely eliminate the thermal runaway of individual battery cells, but it is possible to prevent its initiation and propagation.

  • In terms of driving range, the actual driving range is the core concern, rather than the theoretical driving range. Academician Ouyang Minggao proposed that the actual driving range is too sensitive to temperature and driving style. Increasing the battery capacity to increase driving range is not the fundamental solution. Therefore, the mainstream technology route should focus on the energy efficiency and charging convenience of electric vehicles, and this should also consider the support of policies.

  • Maintain policy continuity while focusing on the double drive of policy and market. Chairman Wan Gang said that we should focus on safety, cancel detailed requirements for driving range and energy density, and give decision-making power to companies.

Second, we should base the changes in future technology routes on the development of China’s new energy automobile industry.

  • XIA Mingjiu, a member of the Party Group of the Ministry of Science and Technology, proposed the development of self-driving technology with Chinese characteristics.

  • Academician Ouyang Minggao proposed that we should develop a fuel cell technology route with Chinese characteristics, and the hydrogen fuel cell system is more suitable for replacing diesel engines, while the lithium-ion battery system is more suitable for replacing gasoline engines. The characteristics and advantages of China’s hybrid technology still lie in pure electric drive. Pure electric drive includes pure electric drive but does not equal pure electric vehicles.

  • Chairman Wan Gang said that we should promptly promote the development of range-extender hybrid cars from plug-in hybrid cars, promote the integration of internal combustion engines and electric drive technologies, and also promptly expand the industrialization focus to fuel cell vehicles.

Finally, we share the predicted data of Academician Ouyang Minggao for the future.

  • 2025 is the key turning point for all-round breakthroughs. 2015-2025 is the new energy vehicle 1.0 stage, developing electric vehicles including BEV, PHEV, vehicle networking, etc.

  • 2020-2030 is the new energy automobile 2.0 stage, developing EV and charging grid connections, V2G and other technologies based on 1.0.* 2025-2035 will be the third stage of new energy vehicles, with intelligent electrified vehicles featuring self-driving technology built on the foundation of the 2.0 stage.

  • By 2030, non-fossil energy will account for 50% of China’s power generation, with new energy vehicles accounting for 40-50% of that total.

  • By 2030, sales of new energy vehicles will make up 40-50% of total automobile sales, with a total number of vehicles amounting to 80-100 million.

  • The energy capacity of power batteries in vehicles will reach around 5 billion kWh.

  • The total charging and discharging power of power batteries in vehicles will reach 1 billion to 20 billion kW.

Below are key points from the speeches of leaders, executives, and technical experts at the event.

Key Points from the Speeches of Leaders

Technological Direction

We still need to prioritize safety, especially the electro-thermal safety of the power battery system, as the most critical indicator of new energy vehicles. Taking into account various factors such as the monomer module of the power battery, battery pack, electro-thermal management, and structural layout, we must especially focus on the stability of materials, charging and discharging mechanisms, heat control and protection, and electro-thermal management system to achieve the optimal system solution.” — Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC, and Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology, Wan Gang

By the end of 2018, the energy density of mass-produced power battery monomers in China had reached 265 Wh/kg, with a cost controlled under 1 yuan per Wh, exceeding the target set for 2020. In addition, the battery management system, electric drive system, and overall vehicle electronic control system have made significant progress, approaching international advanced levels. The maximum number of revolutions per minute for China’s existing permanent magnet synchronous motor products reaches 16,000 rpm, although there is still some gap compared to the most advanced 18,000 rpm internationally, the difference is not significant.” — Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Miao Wei

“First of all, in terms of energy efficiency, the technological transformation of high-efficiency electric drive systems will occur in the next 5 years, namely the high-speed, high-efficiency, and miniaturization of motor drive systems. Secondly, the new generation of high-frequency and high-efficiency power electronics represented by silicon carbide will be widely used, which will also support the development of high-speed motors, making motors develop towards small, efficient, and low-cost. There has also been breakthroughs in the optimization and integration techniques for the overall vehicle efficiency, and it can be said that power consumption is the most important indicator of overall vehicle integration technology, and energy-saving for electric vehicles is even more crucial than for fuel-powered cars, so regulations should be introduced to manage this.” — Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Executive Deputy Director of the China EV100, Ouyang Minggao”China’s 220-volt voltage is very suitable for low-power slow charging. Now, we should try to equip home sedans with slow charging piles, which will become the main power supply mode and the terminal node of the energy Internet in the future; 10-15 minutes of fast charging is necessary, but the positioning of fast charging is emergency, not the main charging mode, and fast charging accounts for about 15-20%. The current 350 kW DC fast charging and battery swapping costs are too high and not ideal. It is expected that in the next 5-7 years, a new generation of fast charging technologies that are combined with energy storage, safe and reliable will appear. ” – Ouyang Minggao, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Executive Vice Chairman of the China EV Hundred People’s Association

“We also saw that since last year, Japan’s Nissan E-power, which is in series, the sales volume and fuel consumption can be comparable to that of Toyota’s power split product, which demonstrates that** we don’t necessarily have to take the power split route, and for China, the series circuit is relatively simple.**” – Ouyang Minggao, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Executive Vice Chairman of the China EV Hundred People’s Association

In China, parallel and series are likely to be the main types, and hybrid will not become mainstream. Leading domestic companies are striving to explore low-cost pure electric parallel plug-in hybrid technology, which I believe is a technology route worth paying attention to and has advantages in China. Moreover, it can compete with foreign deep hybrid conventional hybrids.” – Ouyang Minggao, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Executive Vice Chairman of the China EV Hundred People’s Association

How to implement hybrid technology? One is the energy-saving car route upgraded from the fuel car, from conventional hybrid to plug-in hybrid. Another is the hybrid route converted from a pure electric car, from pure electric to extended-range electric and pure electric plug-in hybrid.” – Ouyang Minggao, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Executive Vice Chairman of the China EV Hundred People’s Association

“As for the pure electric power system, we can learn from Nissan, develop series hybrid power, and then fuel cell series hybrid power. We can also add extended-range series plug-in hybrid power or extended-range electric vehicles. In short, the characteristics and advantages of China’s hybrid technology are still pure electric drive.” – Ouyang Minggao, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Executive Vice Chairman of the China EV Hundred People’s Association

“Especially since the second half of last year, the development of plug-in hybrid technology has been very fast. Therefore,** we should also promote the development of plug-in hybrid technology in a timely manner, and at the same time, shift towards the development direction of extended-range hybrid technology.**” – Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology”By analyzing the structure, it is found that plug-in hybrid electric vehicles are increasing their share in the entire new energy vehicle market. *Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles can balance the mileage anxiety and the rising cost of pure electric vehicles, improve the efficiency of traditional internal combustion engines and the overall energy efficiency of vehicles, reduce the amount of battery usage, vehicle weight and costs.*” — Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology

“Domestic and foreign studies show that the price of battery systems will reach about 100 US dollars/kWh by 2025, and China’s lithium iron phosphate will reach it earlier. Based on the overall lifecycle costs, the prices and lifecycle costs of fuel vehicles and electric vehicles will be comparable. We believe that around 2025, the cost-effectiveness of pure electric vehicles will achieve significant breakthroughs.” — Ouyang Minggao, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Executive Vice Chairman of the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People’s Association

“The cost balance point for fuel cells and pure electric vehicles is approximately 500 km for Hyundai passenger vehicles and 100 km for commercial vehicles. Domestic and foreign studies have shown that hydrogen fuel cell systems are more suitable for replacing diesel engines, while lithium-ion battery systems are more suitable for replacing gasoline engines.” — Ouyang Minggao, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Executive Vice Chairman of the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People’s Association

China’s unique technological route is fuel cells, power batteries, and hybrid power systems, which China has pioneered.” — Ouyang Minggao, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Executive Vice Chairman of the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People’s Association

“Fuel cells currently face many challenges, mainly membrane motors and air compressors at the fuel cell engine level. In addition, hydrogen energy technology, especially onboard hydrogen storage technology, such as the energy density of hydrogen storage, is still not high. Current hydrogen energy technology lags behind fuel cell technology and needs new breakthroughs in all links of the entire chain. For example, liquefaction needs to further reduce energy consumption. We expect that a new generation of hydrogen energy technology will appear between 2025 and 2030. In summary, according to the development process of China and global hydrogen fuel cell technology, I believe that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be about ten years behind pure electric vehicles in terms of industrialization.” — Ouyang Minggao, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Executive Vice Chairman of the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People’s Association

The biggest bottleneck in China is still the conversion of membrane motors, air compressors, and hydrogen storage tanks. We need to overcome the difficulties of core technology of basic materials and key components.” — Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and President of the China Association for Science and Technology””One of the current difficulties is the construction of hydrogen stations. Developed countries have established scientific and safe standards for hydrogen refueling stations and onboard hydrogen tanks, as well as detection systems, which effectively promote the commercialization of fuel cell vehicles. We suggest that we should learn from advanced experience, summarize pilot achievements, focus on studying hydrogen refueling station and storage tank technology standards to improve detection capabilities, and quickly break through the barriers of standards testing and market access.”

– Mr. Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology

Policy Directions

“The relevant departments are currently working to formulate the subsidy policy for 2019. The overall principle is to ensure that there is no major disruption in the industry after all subsidies are phased out by 2021. The phased-release and gradual reduction of subsidies will ease the pressure and prevent a large-scale reduction from causing a sharp decline.

– Mr. Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology

“During the period from the 11th Five-Year Plan to the 12th Five-Year Plan, we clearly defined the development strategy of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (including extended-range vehicles) and fuel cell vehicles based on the trend of market development. At the same time, we adapted to the reform of the scientific and technological system and included basic research into the management of major projects. In the 13th Five-Year Plan, we proposed that we must adapt to the direction of development of electrification, intelligence, and sharing, with intelligent network connection, automatic driving, high-efficiency drive motors, energy feedback, and high-energy-density and high-power-density batteries as the main areas of research and development.

– Mr. Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology

“We should promptly promote the industrialization of fuel cell vehicles. Compared with some transportation methods such as long-distance buses, dual-purpose taxis, urban logistics, and long-distance transportation, fuel cell vehicles have the advantages of being clean, zero-emission, long endurance, and fast acceleration, making them the best choice to meet market demand. Therefore, we should promptly expand the focus of industrialization to fuel cell vehicles.”

– Mr. Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology

“We suggest that local governments should introduce policies to allow property management companies to charge a reasonable fee for charging services, in order to increase their willingness to install and manage charging piles.”

– Mr. Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology

“So, we still need to encourage local governments to boldly innovate in energy prices, construction land, business models, policy support and other areas, and accelerate the market-oriented construction and operation of various charging facilities.”

– Mr. Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology

“As for fiscal subsidies, we have always believed that they are only temporary and will gradually be phased out as the new energy vehicle industry develops. Therefore, we believe that policies should not only include fiscal policies but also other comprehensive policies.”1. Strictly implementing fuel consumption standards, dual credit policies, and timely converting them into carbon trading mechanisms to enhance the internal driving force for the development of new energy vehicles in the automobile industry.

  1. Promoting new energy vehicles as an important strategic support for the “battle for blue skies,” providing new energy vehicle users with more road and purchasing rights, and integrating the scale benefits of electrifying road transportation with the assessment of urban air environmental performance.

  2. Increasing support for business model innovations such as time-sharing rental and sharing services, promoting enterprise transformation across multiple links in products, services, charging, and operations.

  3. Fully studying tax preferential policies for pure electric and plug-in new energy vehicles after the withdrawal of fiscal subsidies in 2020, compensating and rewarding transportation zero-emission and ultra-low emission vehicle costs.

  4. Guided by safety, energy conservation and environmental protection, strengthening safe operation management and services, gradually canceling detailed requirements on range and energy density, etc., and giving the decision-making power on technology to enterprises, while letting the market choose the most suitable products.

  5. Encouraging financial innovation.

  6. Strengthening the tiered utilization of energy storage after the retirement of automotive power batteries, and recycling and reusing materials.

  7. Actively supporting regions with conditions to take the lead in realizing automobile electrification. — Wan Gang, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology.

Key points of enterprise leaders’ speeches

“From the perspective of consumption structure, the popularity of non-operational new energy vehicles has reached 80% in the top 20 cities with new energy vehicle holdings. This indicates that private cars are becoming the main battlefield for new energy vehicles. From the perspective of regional structure, in the first 11 months of last year, the sales volume of A0 and above pure electric vehicle models in non-restricted cities has been evenly matched with that in restricted cities, and active selection has become the mainstream of new energy consumption. Comprehensive development driven by both new energy and intelligent interconnection has become a firm strategic choice for us in the future period.” — Xu Heyi, Chairman of Beijing Automotive Group.

“In 2030, we believe that achieving full electrification in China is completely feasible. The time point for the electrification of private cars can be set in 2030. Due to factors such as purchase costs, infrastructure, different consumer consumption concepts, and different levels of acceptance in different regions, private cars will achieve full electrification last. According to the current situation, by around 2025, electric vehicles can completely PK traditional fuel vehicles in terms of price and endurance mileage.” — Wang Chuanfu, Chairman of BYD Company Limited.

By 2021, the energy density of solid-state battery cells in our vehicles is expected to exceed 300 watt-hours per kilogram, and the energy density of battery packs can reach 220 watt-hours per kilogram, aiming to achieve initial commercialization. We hope that NIO can become the first automaker to adopt solid-state batteries, and the NIO ME7 will carry a small batch of solid-state batteries for market launch at that time.” – William Li, Founder, Chairman and CEO of NIO

“At present, NIO has a relatively complete R&D system in six aspects: electric motor, electric control, battery pack, integrated package, intelligent gateway, smart cockpit, and ADAS advanced driver assistance systems. We have the complete capability of developing from our own perspective and forward development in all areas. In these six areas, besides NIO, only Tesla is firmly committed to independent development. ” – Qin Lihong, Co-founder and President of NIO

“In 2018, Hongqi brand’s fuel cell engine was successfully ignited, and the 50-kilowatt fuel cell engine used for passenger vehicles is the latest breakthrough in China’s passenger car fuel cell field. This year, Hongqi fuel cell cars will be put into mass production, in 2022, Hongqi will launch a series of electric vehicles with a range of up to 600 kilometers, and by 2025 Hongqi will introduce 15 electric vehicle models in succession.” – Xu Guohua, General Manager and Deputy Party Secretary of China First Automobile Group

“As SAIC promotes the ‘New Four Modernizations’ strategy, we put electrification in the top priority position and rely on autonomous control of the core technology of ‘three powers’, continuously increase investment, and accelerate research and development upgrades. Although this year’s national new energy subsidy policy may have a certain degree of fallback and may cause some fluctuations in the new energy vehicle market for a period of time, SAIC’s determination to develop new energy vehicles is unwavering, and we are confident in the future and SAIC’s own technology and cost capabilities. ” – Chen Zhixin, President of SAIC Motor Corporation Limited

“We are accelerating the commercial launch of connected cars, iteratively developing the Windlink system, which has now reached the third generation and is continuously upgraded. We are actively promoting the layout of autonomous driving vehicles. In the commercial vehicle field, 2B commercial operating vehicles will use a leap-like development approach to directly advance to above L4 level while passenger cars will use a progressive approach, with L3 level achieved by 2020, L4 technology mastered by 2022, and L5 level achieved by 2025. In the future, Dongfeng will continue to expand its product line, and by 2025, plans to launch 85 new energy vehicle models, which will fully carry Dongfeng’s latest technological research and development achievements in the field of intelligent connected vehicles.” – You Zheng, Member of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd.“`
Tesla has arrived in Shanghai. “It is difficult for us to meet a high-level executive, but anyone can meet Tesla.” This will undoubtedly bring more fierce competition and a new round of reshuffle to the new energy vehicle market. However, I support this because the more open the competition is, the more opportunities arise. Only through competition can Chinese new energy vehicles have the possibility of producing world-class brands. A batch of companies with slow market response, weak core capabilities, and low quality and safety performance will be eliminated. I also believe that in the future, a batch of world-class brands that can compete with Tesla or even surpass Tesla will emerge.

We must consider whether we truly have core technology in the three major areas of electric control, drive motors, and batteries, and whether we have leadership globally, which will determine the development trend of our future Chinese brands. If we cannot obtain the corresponding initiative, I believe the current global leading advantage of electric vehicles is only temporary, and we may face the same situation as traditional cars in the future. This must be highly considered and planned early on. “–Wu Song, Executive Vice President of Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd.

“In the near future, we will increase research and development investment in China, and not just copy European technology and solutions and localize them. They will be designed for China and based in China to serve the world. We should now focus more on safety, energy efficiency and standardization of charging infrastructure, not just battery energy density and driving range. Many other things can be decided by the market.”–Stephan Wöllenstein, CEO of Volkswagen Group (China)

“Electrification is one of our main policies. By 2025, we will have many new energy models, including the iX3 electric model, which will be produced in our Shenyang factory in China and exported to other markets. This means “Made in China.” It can be seen that iX is the first strategic model that can fully implement the “four modernizations,” completely electric and internet-connected, and provide good services. This model can demonstrate our BMW’s commitment to the future.”–Jochen Goller, President and CEO of BMW Group Greater China

“If we copy the same Tesla market share to New York and Chicago, we will find that its growth rate is actually lower than that in China, and the growth rate in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen is much lower. Even though it is the same building structure, long journeys are more difficult, and winter problems are also very severe. It is actually difficult to directly replicate the success of California Tesla in China. ”
“`We can see that many of our predecessors have tried their best to improve these issues. For example, Tesla has built a large number of supercharging piles, and NIO has developed charging vehicles and battery-swapping stations to solve charging and long-distance travel problems. “We have also chosen another way, which is to solve some of the problems of electric vehicles from the product itself,” said Li Xiang, Chairman and Founder/CEO of Chehejia.

“In the discourse system of intelligent automobiles, we believe that there must be two engines that drive automobiles. One is our electric engine, and the other is our data engine. The electric engine brings about a new way of driving, while the data engine brings about new smart and interactive experiences.” said He Tao, Co-Founder and Vice President of Xpeng Motors. “In the early stages, Xpeng Motors will not focus on L4 or above automatic driving solutions. Instead, we will focus on the capacity of L3-level automatic driving solutions and some scenario-based landing capabilities related to user pain points and itching points.”

“Our main focus is on being a provider of new energy automobile products and travel solutions in China. Based on this basic idea, WM Motor has divided the future development of the entire company into three steps,” said Xu Huanxin, Partner and Senior Vice President of WM Motor. “The first step is the evangelist of intelligent electric vehicles, the second step is a data-driven intelligent hardware company, and the third step is to try some new ways, such as our collaboration with Hainan Investment and Trading Co., Ltd. to explore new ecosystems of intelligent travel.”

“Tesla has adopted silicon carbide on a large scale. Thousands of vehicles with silicon carbide are produced every month. BYD recently released its silicon carbide products. Therefore, the development speed of this part is very fast,” said Gao Xiang, a researcher at the China EV 100. “We have some very preliminary suggestions on this aspect. We believe that the semiconductor industry is a very important industry with huge investment, so we need overall planning and support from the government, as well as how to identify good semiconductor products.”

“In terms of switch devices, the main semiconductor devices are silicon-based IGBTs and rare-earth permanent magnet motors. Now we can see this trend. It is definitely developing towards integration. In fact, Shanghai Electric Drive Zhuzhou Institute has launched integrated products,” said a technology expert. “The next generation of switch devices will definitely be dominated by wide-bandgap semiconductors, as it has higher switching frequency, higher voltage resistance, and temperature performance. For driving motors, considering cost and other factors, it will definitely develop towards technology of low heavy rare earth, less rare earth, or rare-earth-free permanent magnet motors.”We all know that the characteristics of silicon carbide are very obvious, but if we really want to develop high-reliability and high-current chips, we still have many technological problems to solve, such as non-equilibrium silicon carbide gate oxide growth technology, trench etching process and other process technologies. Only through these can we develop high-reliability and high-current chips. — Guo Shuying, Chief Technical Expert of CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Research Institute Co., Ltd.

From an international perspective, fuel cells have entered the stage of market introduction. The power of the engine has greatly increased, and a 70MPa gas cylinder can already run more than 500 kilometers at temperatures below negative 30 degrees Celsius, which basically meets the requirements. The problem now is the lack of large-scale production lines, and the relatively high cost constrained by hydrogen refueling stations. Therefore, the main task in the future from the perspective of stacks and fuel cells is to reduce the amount of Pt, and reduce the cost of catalyst fuel cells.

From a domestic perspective, we have already mastered the core technology of fuel cells and have accumulated rich experience through a large number of demonstration runs. We have the conditions to carry out large-scale demonstration runs. We should achieve batch production of key materials, electrocatalysts, proton exchange membranes, three-in-one membrane electrodes, bipolar plates, etc. as soon as possible to lay the foundation for reducing the cost and improving the consistency of the stack. We should also improve the specific power of the stack, reduce the cost and Pt usage of the stack, and further improve the reliability and durability of the stack system. — Yi Baolian, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering

“In the future, the technological progress of fuel cell vehicles will accelerate. By 2025, we can probably achieve 3-4 kW/L and minus 40 degrees Celsius, and the system cost will be reduced to 2,000-3,000 yuan. By 2030, it will be reduced to 1,000 yuan. Therefore, especially in our northern region, we should still adhere to the route of fuel cell development. If we achieve 2,000 yuan/kW by 2025, for example, a 50 kW car will cost only 100,000 yuan. I think it is possible to sell a complete car for about 250,000 yuan, which is a B-class car, so I believe there will be very good potential in the future.” — Li Jianqiu, Professor at Tsinghua University

“The safety of lithium-ion batteries ultimately comes from the thermal runaway of the batteries. The earliest reaction to safety accidents and thermal runaway is the decomposition of the SEI film on the surface of the negative electrode, which is now widely recognized. Why do electric vehicles usually burn instead of explode? Because when we design electric vehicles, we generally design safety valves. When the pressure reaches six or eight atmospheres, we will limit the pressure. Now, in the process of pressure limiting, the scattering of the electrolyte is very low, ranging from tens of degrees to more than 30 degrees Celsius. When these vapors are ejected, friction with the safety valve is enough to ignite them and cause combustion, which is why our power batteries always burn.” — Ai Xinping, Professor at Wuhan University”We treat batteries as a ‘black box’, and battery management covers five aspects, in addition to monitoring parameters such as voltage, current, estimating SOC, and controlling charging and discharging. We have two most important functions, one is the balance of individual battery cells, and the other is safety, safety monitoring and management. Many battery experts have told me that battery balancing is not necessary if the battery is designed well. I think they make a good point.

–Professor Mi Chunting, San Diego State University

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This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.