Author: Zhu Yulong
As the end of 2022 approaches and the balance is about to run out, it’s time to take stock of the technological developments in the three electric vehicle fields and the field of intelligent driving. (Sorry, the video is missing. Please visit our video page to watch it.)
Today, let’s first talk about the major events in the field of batteries since 2022.
The naming war of batteries – the lively technological field of three electric vehicles
This year, production and life across the country have more or less come to a halt. But obviously, both battery and vehicle companies have been busy with the task of naming their new battery products.
I counted, and a total of 8 battery companies have launched new batteries this year, each with a name more dazzling than the last.
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The most straightforward and simple name belongs to YWE Lithium Energy’s “large cylindrical battery”, which is self-explanatory, even a waste of explanation;
Those who put their functions directly into the name are JW Energy’s “eXtreme Fast Control (XFC)” ultra-fast battery, and Amperex Technology’s “Super Fast Charge Battery (SFC480)”. The “F” in both names stands for “fast”. Fast charging has become a new trend in the battery industry this year, with almost every battery having fast charging capabilities. However, these two companies are particularly concerned, and their battery names emphasize their speed both in English and Chinese.
In comparison, the name of Funeng Technology’s “Super Pouch Solution (SPS)” battery is relatively low-key. Pouch refers to soft pack batteries, and SPS is the only soft pack battery launched this year. Funeng Technology is one of the most advanced companies in the development of soft pack technology in China.
The name of Riipu’s “Wending Battery” is more elaborate. “Wending” is not only homophonic with the phrase “ascend to the throne”, but also implies the pursuit of the ultimate volume of the battery core by pushing the space to the top.
If the above names still show the characteristics of the battery from literal interpretation, the remaining two can only show one word in the name: “cow!”One is “Kirin Battery” from CATL, and the other is “Dragon Scale Armor Battery” newly released by Hefei Guoxuan High-tech Power Energy Corporation on Battery Day in December. Just like Kirin and Dragon, next year’s battery industry will also see fierce competition, and Dragon will not be inferior to Kirin.
Next, let’s take a brief look at the technology behind these cool names:
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CATL’s Kirin Battery incorporates different designs with high energy density and fast charging in various directions, and integrates them into Pack solutions with different versions of upright and inverted shell.
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In the field of short knife cells, Guoxuan’s Dragon Scale Armor Battery combines decompression, cooling, and protective designs to become the next-generation high-efficiency solution.
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Riipoo Jun’s “Wending Battery” is the only product that does not do fast charging, focusing on pursuing the ultimate utilization rate of battery cells in shell batteries.
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Guangzhou Jingyi XFC’s “Extreme Fast Charging Battery” optimizes battery cells for fast charging.
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XW Power’s “SFC480 Fast-Charging Battery” also cooperates with new energy companies to develop super fast-charging batteries, matching the maximum charging power.
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EWT Battery’s “Large Cylindrical Battery” follows BMW’s lead to become the fastest and most active player in cylindrical battery production in China.
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FUNENG Battery’s “SPS (Super Pouch Solution)” is the only soft pack battery and also a solution for entering the era of large soft packs, taking into account volume utilization, fast charging, and safety design.
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The newly released products from LianDong Tianyi include SPEED’s cylindrical lithium-ion battery family, the newly released SPEED3 series with a diameter of 37mm, and the SPEED4 series with a diameter of 46mm.
After talking about battery companies, car companies have also been busy laying out the upstream industry chain for batteries this year. As a result, more and more car companies have been releasing new batteries. Car companies tend to give their batteries relatively plain-sounding names, perhaps because they don’t want the batteries to steal the limelight.
At least SAIC and FAW-Volkswagen don’t think so. One is named “Magic Cube Battery” and the other is named “Tiangong Battery”. The former sounds like it should have the shape of Sakura Kinomoto in Cardcaptor Sakura, but it’s actually just a lying battery. “Magic Cube” probably refers to a very magical and cubic shell battery? “Tiangong” should mean “ingenious workmanship”. In any case, both names carry a sense of mystery.
General and Volkswagen’s battery naming emphasizes the platform-based battery technology of car companies.
General Motors’ Altairnano platform, which looks like “Ultraman” at first sight, is a feeling of full electric power. The battery design of this platform is based on a steel structure shell armor, water-cooled plate module integration, and classic aerogel and pressure relief system design.
Volkswagen is more straightforward: the Unified Cell, which is simply called the unified battery and conforms to Volkswagen’s platform-based tradition. It also switched from a winding route to a stacked one, becoming a solution similar to that of a short blade battery. Volkswagen’s Power hopes to use battery platform technology to reduce the cost of the entire vehicle, and ultimately benefit consumers.
Tesla has been touting the 4680 battery for several years. Its mass production progress is relatively slow, and it has gradually started to be put on the market this year. This name is also very straightforward: the battery has a diameter of 46mm and a height of 80mm. This naming style is very Tesla. We have also been following it for a long time. Tesla’s short-term abandonment of dry electrode technology is to quickly increase production capacity.
BMW’s large cylindrical battery: it has signed three battery companies including EVE Energy, CATL, and Farasis Energy. BMW has suddenly entered the field of cylindrical batteries from a shell-shaped battery, which caught people off guard. However, BMW also has sufficient reasons to make strategic choices. On the road to battery standardization, cost reduction, energy density improvement, and fast charging speed improvement are possible. This kind of temptation also makes BMW make strategic choices.
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Tesla 4680 will be gradually put on the market, and it is estimated that 2-3 GWh will be produced in 2022.
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BMW plans to mass-produce cylindrical batteries in 2025.
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GM’s Altairnano platform’s battery is ready for commercialization.
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FAW-Volkswagen: Tiangong Battery, has taken a traditional path.
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SAIC: Magic Cube Battery, which is the only lying shell-shaped battery, has taken a unique approach.
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Volkswagen: Unified Cell, the name is also very straightforward.
Why is the technology in the three-electric field so lively —— the logic behind it is as follows.## Three Electrical Technologies Have Blossomed This Year. Why Is It So Lively and What’s the Logic Behind It?
As resources prices surge and power battery costs rise, we see that in the market’s supporting end, China’s phosphate iron lithium battery share is increasing. In November, we see that BYD, Tesla, Wuling and other car companies that have completed the entire phosphate iron lithium transformation are gaining momentum, while only joint ventures like Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz insist on using ternary technology.
From a global perspective, many car companies are beginning to adopt phosphate iron lithium. On one hand, it is because the development of battery core technology has made the energy density of iron lithium reach a height of 180-190Wh/kg. On the other hand, it is due to the continuous innovation in battery structure. By optimizing the battery structure, vehicles using phosphate iron lithium batteries can achieve a driving range of up to 800 kilometers.
There are some highly anticipated technical innovations in 2022:
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Sodium-ion batteries: This is a technical route that is considered a great threat to the lithium resource prices. Based on the calculation, the cost of sodium-ion batteries is not even close to the cost of lithium carbonate, which is priced at RMB 200 thousand per ton.
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Composite flow battery: In terms of safety, the composite flow battery can resist internal short circuits to a certain extent. Along with the large-scale investment on the equipment terminal, we also see a glimmer of hope in this field.
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New generation negative electrode technology: Pursuing high energy density and fast charging rate requires a breakthrough at the negative electrode level. This year, we saw progress made by many companies in carbon-based materials, and we believe there will be even greater progress by 2023.
Should Automakers Manufacture Batteries?
After discussing advancements in battery technology, let’s take a look at the shared development of automakers and batteries.
In 2022, the industry has formed a consensus that automakers make money by producing batteries, while they lose money working for battery manufacturers. Therefore, the relationship between automakers and battery manufacturers has become increasingly complicated. A few noteworthy points worth paying continued attention to this year are:
- The first domestic automaker to initiate manufacturing batteries: Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) is the first one to systematically propose manufacturing batteries. As GuoXuan High-tech’s electric vehicle battery and energy storage battery project officially begins, with a total investment of RMB 10.9 billion, it becomes Guangzhou’s largest project of power battery and energy storage battery, which completely connects various links in the battery research, development, design, manufacturing, sales, and service chain. Then, Deren Energy from Chery and Yaoning Technology from Geely have emerged. We can expect that in the next year or two, automakers will also start to name their batteries.
Secondly, CATL’s relationship with its customers is getting closer and closer: In order to show its support to automotive companies, CATL keeps investing in its customers. Companies like NIO, Aiways, Avatar, Xpeng, BAIC Blue Valley, Xiaokang and Chery have all benefited. With the maturity of the CTC integrated platform technology, it is hard to say whether CATL will build an electric vehicle empire in five years.
Thirdly, battery companies are opening up for investment: Those who do not want to build their own battery factories and do not want to work with CATL have a third option: investing in other battery companies. After all, there were many choices at the battery conference this year. It can be seen that XWDT split into three companies, and NIO, Ideanomics and XPeng respectively invested in them; SAIC invested heavily in Rui Pu Lan, while these battery companies also cooperated with their upstream partners through equity participation.
The battery industry has been lively this year. There have been cooperation, sticking to one’s own strategy, changing tracks, etc. In any case, we have a bright future.
That is the end of this year’s summary of battery technology. Many of the technologies mentioned above have been covered in our previous articles or videos. If you are interested, please check them out.
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.