With raw material prices rising, power batteries are under pressure. Recently, a group of power battery enterprises also launched a new technology, does it mean a new round of innovation?
High market demand
According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the production and sales of new energy vehicles reached 465,000 and 484,000 respectively in March, up 1.1 times year-on-year. Among them, the production and sales of pure electric vehicles were 376,000 and 396,000 respectively, with year-on-year growth of 1.1 times. The production and sales of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles were 89,000 and 88,000 respectively, up 1.6 times and 1.4 times year-on-year respectively. The production and sales of new energy vehicles continued the momentum of rapid growth, both more than one million units, market share reached 19.3%, the strategic leading role of new energy vehicles further highlighted.
With the popularity of new energy vehicles and the continuous rise of the number of vehicles, a series of problems have emerged while ushering in the moment of brilliance. As the "heart" of new energy vehicles, power battery has always played a crucial role, so the good development of power battery industry has become a key link in the development of new energy automobile industry. New energy vehicle sales take off, the power battery industry put forward higher requirements.
In the past winter, range anxiety has become an unavoidable topic for new energy vehicle owners. "When I go to a place far away, I'm afraid to turn on the air conditioner in cold weather, but the battery still drops very quickly." Ms. Guo complained to the new Energy Vehicle newspaper reporter. Such complaints are not uncommon, car companies are also working hard on products, the range of further improve, one after another launched 1000 km range models, for users to solve the range anxiety.
With the recognition of consumers for new energy vehicles, the sales volume is increasing, which is transmitted to the upstream, and the phenomenon of "unbearable" appears at the raw material end. The price of lithium carbonate, the key raw material of power battery, has soared, once exceeding 500,000 yuan/ton, bringing a lot of pressure to the power battery industry. Affected by this, the price of new energy vehicles has to rise, causing concerns in the industry, and the power battery industry is also facing a new test.
In an interview with The New Energy Vehicle News, Ningde Times said that since the second half of last year, the price of power battery materials has risen rapidly, which has deviated from the growth of demand, producing an abnormal growth. As commodity prices rise, the price of the company's main metal materials rises, creating some pressure on the cost side. The company mainly reduces production costs and raw material costs by improving product performance and energy density, optimizing product design, improving production technology, improving product yield, realizing more efficient automated production, and reaching in-depth cooperation with the industrial chain.
Innovation plays a big role
Battery is the power of the third energy revolution, which promotes the development of new energy vehicles. At present, the power battery industry encounters obstacles and moves to the TWh era. Innovation has become the key to boost the high-quality development of the industry, and also a "shot in the arm" to boost the confidence of the new energy vehicle industry.
The technical innovation of power battery can be roughly divided into two general directions: one is material innovation, the other is through structural innovation. Recently, many power battery companies have launched new technologies and opened a new round of innovation. Wu Kai, chief scientist of Ningde Times, said recently that the company has launched the third generation OF CTP(high efficiency Group) technology, code-named "Kirin" battery. Its efficient group technology can not only solve the problem of range anxiety, but also meet the economic needs of different chemical systems. With the same chemical system and the same battery pack size, the Kirin battery delivers 13% more power than the 4680 system.
Tesla founder Elon Musk recently announced that tesla sees the potential of manganese-based cathoides in battery chemistry. Musk said the industry needs to pay more attention to the battery supply chain, down to minerals.
Csia's one-stop technology, which is based on "highly integrated and simplified" product design and manufacturing, has recently attracted attention in the industry. It can achieve products with "high specific energy, high safety, high reliability and low cost".
The role of innovation can not be underestimated, but it is not easy. Throughout the recent innovation, some people say that there is no innovation involving materials, is the power battery industry "roll-in", manganese based battery is also a long time ago, not innovation. An expert in the power battery industry said in an interview with the New Energy Vehicle News that in the face of a severe situation, innovation is important, but the response is not as fast as imagined, nor can it be achieved overnight. Ouyang Minggao, academician of The Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that greatly improving group efficiency through battery structure innovation is a great change in the technological leap forward of China's battery industry, and also an important symbol of China's battery industry leading the development of global battery technology.
Today, the power battery industry is under increasing pressure and stepping forward to the TWh era. Every step is worthy of respect, which is also to store up power for greater breakthroughs.
Breaking new directions
According to the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, China's power battery output in 2021 totaled 219.7GWh, up 163.4% year-on-year. In terms of installed capacity, the total loading capacity of power batteries in China in 2021 is 154.5GWh, up 142.8% year-on-year. Since the beginning of this year, the major power battery enterprises have also expanded production, starting this year's "war preparation".
In March 2022, China's power battery output totaled 39.2GWh, up 247.3% year-on-year and 23.3% month-on-month. In terms of loading capacity, in March 2022, the loading capacity of power batteries in China was 21.4GWh, up 138.0% year on year and 56.6% month on month, showing a rapid growth trend.
For the relatively new field of new energy vehicles, innovation can better reflect the vitality of enterprises and industries. As the "heart" of new energy vehicles, the continuous innovation of power batteries is crucial to the development of their own and even the new energy vehicle industry.
Wu Hui, vice president of IVEY Economic Research Institute, said in an interview with The New Energy Vehicle News that three aspects of the development direction of the future power battery are crucial: in the direction of electrolyte, solid state battery is an important development direction in the future; In terms of cathode materials, high nickel is an effective way to further improve the energy density and reduce the cost of batteries. In terms of anode materials, silicon carbon anode can improve battery energy density and will become the direction of material upgrading in the future.
An expert in the field of power battery put forward in an interview with the reporter of New Energy Vehicle News that he is most concerned about the development of the power battery industry in the future. The first is to ensure the safety of power battery under the condition that high specific energy can be achieved. In addition, the cost of power batteries needs to be further reduced.
In an interview with new Energy Vehicles, Ningde Times said that in terms of power batteries, according to the mainstream market demand, it will continue to promote technological innovation in the dimensions of fast charging, high specific energy, long life and battery safety, which directly hits the pain points of the industry and addresses user anxiety. Through years of accumulation, Ningde times gradually formed four innovation systems: material and material system innovation, system structure innovation, extreme manufacturing innovation, business model innovation, to ensure that the product science and technology continue to lead. For cobalt-free batteries, all-solid-state batteries, rare metal-free batteries and other next-generation batteries and emerging technologies in the industry, the company has always maintained a high level of attention and carried out technical layout. Test is the driving force to drive the industry forward, spur further technological innovation, and promote the high-quality development of the industry. Market expansion, demand improvement, innovation and iteration, power battery industry has a promising future.
Afterword.
Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Emergency Management, the State Administration for Market Regulation and other five departments jointly issued the "Guidance on further strengthening the construction of new energy vehicle enterprise safety system". It mentioned improving the safety level of power batteries. Enterprises should actively cooperate with power battery suppliers in design, continuously optimize the safety matching and thermal management strategy between vehicle and power battery, clarify the safety boundary of power battery use, and improve the safety protection ability of power battery in collision, vibration, extrusion, flooding, abnormal charge and discharge conditions. Enterprises are encouraged to study and apply real-time monitoring and warning devices for thermal runaway and early suppression and fire extinguishing measures.
We can see the importance of safety, because safety is the most concerned about the people, is an important topic related to life safety. When the mileage "race" was in full swing, new energy vehicles caught fire, causing users to worry about the safety of driving. As experts say, innovation is the key to the development of power battery industry in the future. While pursuing high specific energy, the safety of power battery is the top priority of the high-quality development of the industry.
The General Office of the State Council has issued the Development Plan for the New Energy Vehicle Industry (2021-2035) to promote the development of the whole value chain of power batteries. We will encourage enterprises to increase their capacity to secure key resources such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and platinum. We will establish and improve the modular standard system for power batteries, speed up breakthroughs in key manufacturing equipment, and improve technological level and production efficiency. We will improve the recycling system of power battery recovery, cascade utilization and recycling, and encourage joint construction and sharing of recycling channels. We will establish and improve management systems for transportation, storage, repair and maintenance, safety inspection, retirement and withdrawal, and recycling of power batteries, and strengthen supervision over the whole life cycle of power batteries.
It is mentioned in the plan that the development of the whole industrial chain of the power battery is very important. In addition to safety problems, the most troubling thing in the industry is the soaring price of raw materials. When reporters worry about the high price of raw materials, Wu Hui told reporters: "Recycling is a very key way, key materials can be obtained through recycling. So in the future, the recycling of power battery raw materials as the end of the power battery industry chain, will also become the key to industrial development, or will become a huge blue ocean.
