Hosted by the China Electric Vehicle 100 (CEV100), and co-organized by Tsinghua University, China Society of Automotive Engineering, China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, China Automotive Technology & Research Center, and China Automotive Engineering Research Institute, the China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum (2023) opened in Beijing.
The forum gathered representatives from relevant government departments and leading enterprises in automotive, energy, transportation, urban, and communication sectors, diving deep into topics such as the global automotive industry landscape, high-quality development paths for new energy vehicles, China’s smart connected vehicle development strategy, power battery and other core industry supply chain trends, new automotive consumption trends, synergistic development strategies for automotive and energy sectors, new energy transportation guarantees systems, commercial vehicle transformation directions, innovative paths for the automotive aftermarket, and digitalization and intelligent manufacturing models in the automotive industry.
At the 2023 China Electric Vehicle 100 Forum, Liu Jincheng mentioned the following points in his speech:
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EVE Energy firmly pursues large cylindrical and high iron lithium routes, with 4695 large cylindrical batteries scheduled for mass production and delivery this year.
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Liu Jincheng believes that fast-charging technology still needs to be overcome. Superfast charging should be done using direct current methods rather than large-scale, ultra-high power charging stations.
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Plans to expand cooperation in Huizhou this year and conduct related experiments in Jingmen High-tech Zone.
The original speech transcript is as follows:
Dear Academician Yang, Academician Chen, Academician Sun, and colleagues, good morning!
Last year, we just reported our thoughts on power batteries through an online format, and our topic last year was called “Large Cylindrical, Large Iron-Lithium, Large World.” For the first time at the China Electric Vehicle 100 forum, we shared this topic with everyone, “The New Stage of Development for EVE Energy’s Power Batteries.”
EVE Energy has been making batteries for quite some time, and through these years of development, our business structure is as follows, we’d like to introduce our development profile through this format.
The first part of our business is consumer batteries, especially lithium batteries. I started making lithium batteries in 1989 and even created copper oxide batteries that can achieve 1.5 V. After enthusiastically obtaining some copper slag from a copper factory in Wuhan and making copper oxide, lithium batteries have now formed an “unlimited ceiling” pattern as described by Director Zhu. We must remember Academician Sun’s words, striving for enough influence and international leadership in the next generation of lithium batteries and fuel cells. At that time, we never dared to think like this because batteries were very difficult. There is a photo hanging in Wuhan University with these six words written on it, “I love you, lithium battery.”Back then, conducting research meant using a pair of scissors and a compatibility pool, with a multimeter at most. This is not a complaint to the younger generation, or reminiscing the past, but how lithium batteries developed. Later on, we also developed sulfur dioxide batteries, manganese dioxide batteries, and thionyl chloride batteries, which I participated in.
Of course, by now, YiWei Lithium Energy’s thionyl chloride batteries and nickel-cobalt batteries are among the best in the world. We’re on par with our Japanese counterparts, supporting two significant national projects: our country’s smart electric meter construction, and the electronic tags in the highway toll system that you use daily. Out of over 500 million electric meters nationwide, over 400 million use our batteries, which handle data storage and dynamic transmission. 90% of the electronic tags utilize our thionyl chloride batteries and capacitors. Our combination of thionyl chloride batteries and capacitors earned us the Guangzhou Province Science and Technology Progress First Prize. Without such technology, ETC efficiency would be significantly reduced.
So, compared to our peers working on power batteries, we’re a bit luckier, having accomplished so much.
To share my experience with my peers, we call it “embracing innovation while cherishing tradition.” We continuously improve Chinese lithium batteries. I consider venturing into power batteries a playful challenge rather than a life-or-death endeavor. It’s enough to accomplish one thing in a lifetime, as Academician Yang often encouraged us.
However, persistence is essential when manufacturing lithium batteries, as quick success is impossible. The 37-degree constant temperature test alone takes 36 months. Therefore, cultivating long-term work habits is necessary. That’s why we’ve been relatively slow in power and energy storage batteries. We started participating in power battery activities in 2015, initially producing 18650 cells. Later, we realized that 18650 cells in Chinese cars were aiming for longer mileage due to state subsidies. We bought back nearly 400 vehicles, reducing the voltage to 4.15V without any issues. Meanwhile, the customers had problems with 4.2V occasionally but were psychologically unstable. After calming down and adopting a long-term perspective, we considered consumer needs and saw significant improvement.Last year, we focused on large cylindrical and iron-lithium batteries. We have maintained our efforts in these areas after a year of diligent work, gaining substantial trust from our clients. We have essentially established a complete production line and provided batteries for clients’ testing. According to our plan, we will mass produce 4,695 batteries for clients this year. The construction of a 60 GWh iron-lithium battery super factory has begun, which will lower both the battery and system costs, making it one of our main priorities.
Our business’s balanced structure allows the company to operate robustly, even in the face of market fluctuations or localized changes. As lithium battery manufacturers, we must remain focused on long-term plans, particularly given the industry’s enormous scale. We believe that supply chain inadequacies may cause delivery difficulties for some time. Therefore, we have made significant investments in our supply chain since 2018 by forming 22 joint ventures with leading domestic industry partners. This primarily ensures supply chain security and controls costs, supporting our overarching business framework as we move forward.
Power battery cost-efficiency has become a key focus. Previously, safety was the primary concern in the industry. After years of concerted effort, automotive power battery safety has undergone a fundamental transformation. From 2021 to 2022, we have seen excellent results in power battery system safety from leading enterprises, having delivered batteries for nearly 100,000 vehicles with full safety assurance. As safety is the basic attribute of power batteries and cannot be compromised for other performance factors, we can now enter a stage of cost-consciousness and new design considerations.
Over the past two years, our work on power battery systems has primarily focused on optimizing structure, thermal management design, space, and layout, increasing battery loading capacity, and improving space utilization rates to enhance driving range.Translate the following Markdown Chinese text into English Markdown text, maintaining a professional style and preserving the HTML tags in Markdown. Only output the result.
At the same time, as we mentioned earlier, large cylindrical and iron-lithium batteries also improve space utilization and reduce cost through a new structural feature. When discussing solutions with performance car companies on power batteries, we are always surprised to find that these “wealthy people” also want to negotiate the price with you. The price of this car is several million, and the price of his battery also needs to be discussed. The price of the battery is negligible, but industry is industry, and business is industry, and there must be a cost. I can’t say that we should make the performance better and better, but we should find a perfect combination between performance and cost. We are now working on this, including the so-called CTC design, and the CTC design is the best solution for large cylindrical batteries.
Our view is that by 2023, the industry will make directional choices in battery structure optimization and cost selection. All of this is closely related to the fast charging capabilities of batteries and the construction of fast charging networks. Our view is that from the perspective of the total social cost of use, the development of fast charging technology and the construction of fast charging networks is the solution to the last bottleneck of electric vehicle development.
Considering range anxiety, range anxiety is inevitable. It just varies in degree, just like whether my cough is flu or a cold. Professor Huang will definitely introduce the fast charging technology later, and we are very concerned about this. We focus on the battery’s main technical direction on fast charging technology. If we can increase the fast charging capacity of the battery to about 10 minutes, it will be very convenient for all users and consumers to experience, and the battery capacity of his car will decrease. As the battery capacity of the car decreases, it will bring a significant reduction in the total social cost of use. Now we are more convinced of such cognition. If the battery’s carrying capacity decreases, the reduction of lithium cobalt nickel materials is consistent with our actions and original intentions.
Our current vision is to create the most creative lithium battery and contribute to the sustainable development of mankind. If you possess so many resources and they are inefficient, it is not conducive to human sustainable development. This is a point we insist on very much. In addition, we believe that the technology of super-fast charging should be completed in direct current, without the need for large-scale, ultra-high-power charging piles. This implementation has a significant impact on the grid, and it is easy to charge the battery with a large battery. We already conducted tests in Guangdong and Hubei during the Spring Festival this year, with very good results. The car can be charged in 10 minutes or 8 minutes and then driven away. The results were very good, and the high-speed traffic moved on. We dragged down the charging container and continued to store the electricity. We will carry out trials in the High-tech Zone of Huizhou, and we hope that this method has the lowest cost and the best results.With the advancements in battery technology and fast-charging network technology, we believe the future of power batteries will be brighter.
I’d like to specifically discuss the promising future development of power batteries. Our confidence in this aspect is strong, as there’s no need for exploration or trial-and-error, since we’ve already passed that phase.
Secondly, the penetration rate of electric vehicles has been quite high in the past, reaching up to 20%, or even higher. This is because the cost-efficiency and convenience of electric vehicles and tools attract more people. It’s anticipated that the annual number of cars in China will not be 25 million but 50 million. I tend to agree with this forecast. If the annual usage of cars in China is indeed 50 million, a penetration rate of 20% for electric vehicles (i.e., 10 million) represents a golden starting phase for the power battery market.
Moreover, the theme of our conference is building world-class battery enterprises, which is apt for what we’re currently doing. We have built a battery factory in Shenyang and have announced the plans for a new factory for BMW in Europe, aiming to become one of the primary battery suppliers for European automakers. Battery operations require global manufacturing, service, and collaboration. In fact, I’d like to take this platform to call for global cooperation among Chinese enterprises. Although we get along well socially, competition has always been intense.
However, employing cutthroat tactics globally may not be a pleasant experience. I believe we should adopt a more graceful and gentlemanly approach to compete, aiming for trustworthiness, reliability, and harmonious development. With such a vast industry, each player can forge their own path and perfect their technology solutions. Collectively, we can contribute to the sustainable development of mankind. Thank you all!
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.