The new generation of power battery brings new changes

1. The first solid-state power cell rolled off the production line
2. Semi-solid battery vehicles will welcome the market tide
3. Outlook of new generation of power battery

With the progress in the research and development of the new generation of power batteries, the new energy vehicle industry chain may face a new change.

A few days ago, China’s lithium battery company Weilan New Energy announced that it has completed nearly 1.5 billion RMBD round of financing and that the car-grade solid-state power cells have been rolled off the assembly line, which has aroused great concern in the industry.

Guoxuan High-Tech, Funeng Technology, CATL and other Chinese power battery industry chain companies are all developing semi-solid batteries, which are expected to greatly improve the technical indicators such as energy density and cruising range of new energy vehicles. If you want to know which are main power battery manufacturers, you can read our article of top 10 power battery installations in China.

The first solid-state power cell rolled off the production line

Weilan New Energy’s vehicle-grade solid-state power cell has successfully rolled off the production line a few days ago. This brand-new battery is also the first solid-state power battery in Weilan Huzhou base.

Weilan New Energy was established in 2016, focusing on hybrid solid-liquid batteries and all-solid-state batteries. The company’s semi-solid battery adopts in-situ solid-state technology, through chemical and electrochemical reactions.

The liquid electrolyte is partially or completely converted into a solid electrolyte, which can solve the problem of how to maintain good contact between the solid electrolyte and the positive and negative materials during cycling, can comprehensively balance the requirements of charging the battery to a high voltage, safety, lithium dendrite precipitation, and volume expansion control.

According to the plan, Weilan New Energy’s products are mainly used in new energy vehicles, ships, large-scale energy storage and other fields, especially in the field of new energy vehicles. Automobile companies have reached a strategic cooperation.

Solid-state batteries will be the most noteworthy technology. Looking forward to the future development of new energy batteries, scientists predict that the mass production of next-generation batteries with an energy density of 500 Wh/kg will become a reality by 2035.

As a new generation of battery technology, solid-state batteries replace the liquid electrolyte currently used in lithium-ion batteries with solid substances, and their theoretical energy density is as high as 700Wh/kg.

The semi-solid battery, which is between the solid state and the liquid state, is not only less difficult to develop than the all-solid state, but also has an energy index of 400 Wh/kg or even 500 Wh/kg.

Among them, Japanese and Korean companies started earlier in the field of solid state battery, and Toyota, the leader, plans to install solid-state batteries on hybrid vehicles no later than 2025. In 2020, Toyota has taken the lead in manufacturing a prototype vehicle equipped with an all-solid-state battery.

Toyota has also established a joint venture with Panasonic to jointly develop solid-state battery technology. Nissan and Honda, the other two major Japanese carmakers, plan to launch electric vehicles using solid-state batteries in the future.

South Korea’s Hyundai plans to mass-produce solid-state batteries by 2027 and launch electric models equipped with self-produced solid-state batteries by 2030. The time nodes for mass production or commercialization of solid-state batteries given by major Korean power battery companies SK Innovation, LG Energy and Samsung SDI are 2025, 2026 and 2027, respectively.

A number of European and American car giants have also made plans by investing in solid-state battery start-ups. Volkswagen invested in QuantumScape, while BMW and Ford led the Series B funding round for battery startup Solid Power.

Solid Power has recently started operating a new pilot production line and is expected to deliver test cells to development partners by the end of the year.

Semi-solid battery vehicles will welcome the market tide

Guoxuan Hi-Tech’s new battery has a single energy density of 360Wh/kg, and the battery pack of supporting models has a power of 160KWh, with a cruising range of more than 1,000 kilometers.

In addition to Guoxuan High-Tech, there are also a number of upstream and downstream companies in the new energy vehicle industry chain cooperating to develop semi-solid batteries, and a variety of new energy vehicles will usher in a wave of listing.

Some experts pointed out that although semi-solid batteries are a transitional technology compared to solid-state batteries, the electrolyte content in semi-solid electrolytes has been greatly reduced, and the activity has weakened, so it can be adapted to material systems with stronger performance   .

New energy vehicles with semi-solid batteries have significantly improved technical indicators such as energy density and cruising range, and a cruising range of 1,000 kilometers will become a common level.

Among the upstream battery companies, the semi-solid battery developed by Qingtao Energy is expected to be applied in the new models of SAIC Motor in 2023. The solid-state battery joint laboratory established by the two parties will jointly develop long-range solid-state power batteries, with a target of more than 1,000 kilometers. .

According to Qingtao Energy, the energy density of the company’s first-generation semi-solid batteries is up to 420Wh/kg, and the cost can be comparable to that of liquid lithium batteries. Its second-generation product is in the small test stage, with an energy density of 400-500Wh/kg, and the cost is 20% lower than that of liquid lithium batteries.

CATL also stated that CATL has always maintained a high degree of attention and advanced layout for next-generation batteries such as solid-state batteries, cobalt-free batteries, and precious metal-free batteries, as well as emerging technologies in the industry, so as to ensure its position as a technology leader in the industry.

Outlook of new generation of power battery

Cost reduction and efficiency increase are the main driving forces for the development of a new generation of ternary cathode material. In the next stage, the safety solution of some materials, the breakthrough of preparation technology and the reduction of cost are still important directions for the development of the industry.

The demand for improving the energy density of power batteries drives the development of negative electrode materials from graphite-based materials to silicon-based materials.

In the next stage, the performance improvement of negative electrode materials, the improvement of preparation process, the layout of patents and the continuous cost reduction of products will become the focus of innovation and development.

Process innovation is the guarantee for the development of new-generation power battery technology. In order to meet the needs of battery performance improvement, the lamination process has become an important choice and has broad application potential.

Improving manufacturing efficiency, reducing costs, increasing the yield rate, and accelerating the introduction and verification of prismatic battery stacker equipment are the focus of the next stage of development.

Related post