A Day at the Auto Show

I spent the whole day at the auto show today, and unlike last year, where the focus was on electric vehicles and battery technology, this year the emphasis was on smart cars. Nevertheless, I managed to gather some interesting information on related topics, which I’ve outlined below.

Battery Manufacturers

I visited the booths of major component manufacturers, including Hunan Corun New Energy, Thunder Sky Winston Battery, and EVE Energy (Liwei). Hunan Corun New Energy held a press conference where they mainly talked about cobalt-free and fast-charging batteries. I’ll cover this separately below.

For now, I’ll focus on the modules and battery packs presented by EVE Energy (Liwei). There were several types of technology on display, including lithium iron phosphate long modules (with liquid cooling plates at the bottom), flexible battery modules, and four types of large battery module solutions, including lithium iron phosphate whole packs (with liquid cooling plates on top).

Note: Although the booth was small, EVE Energy (Liwei) presented a lot of things.

One of the large modules presented was a 228 Ah 2P10S module, measuring 306 x 595 x 100 mm and weighing 37.5 kg. It seems to have been made according to BMW specifications.

An interesting aspect of EVE Energy’s presentation was the fact that they designed a long module identical to the one used by Tesla, measuring 340 x 94 x 1720 mm, with a capacity of 160 Ah and 1P25S.

Another battery solution showcased was a lithium iron phosphate whole pack with a water-cooling system integrated on top, designed as shown below.

Finally, there was a small pack solution consisting of flexible battery modules. The pack had a capacity of 120 Ah and was designed as 1P48S, with a capacity of 21 kWh. It appears to have been designed specifically for A00-class small cars.

The interesting thing is that after BYD, CATL and Lishen both showcased their 4680 batteries, as shown in the following picture.

In the automotive industry, Hyundai Kia, General Motors, Hongqi, GAC and IM have highlighted their electric vehicle platforms separately. The ones presented at the module level mainly include the magazine battery released by GAC last time.

It seems that all automotive companies have agreed not to showcase the details of their battery technology at the auto show. I estimate that in the next stage, each car company may concentrate on releasing these special technologies on events such as Powertrain Day and Battery Day. The reason is that facing these batteries of different shapes and sizes, and modules of different specifications, these internalized technologies are actually more of interest to industry personnel. For consumers, what matters are primarily the range, fast-charging speed, and safety.

Conclusion:

Let me first summarize the most important part I am concerned about. However, there is not much content in the powertrain section of the auto show, and I will sort out the other contents tomorrow.

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.