Power battery super fast charging technology "accelerates running"

In 2023, China's new energy vehicles will enter a key node in the development of the industry.

Overall, the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles has gradually increased, and has been higher than 30% for seven consecutive months. In August, the domestic retail penetration rate of new energy vehicles reached 37.3%; in terms of growth rate, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles The growth rate is gradually slowing down, and the demand in the downstream market is weakening.

This means that for the entire industry, in order to further meet market demand and expand market share, it is necessary to improve vehicle performance and reduce costs.

Among them, the power battery is the most important system in the vehicle, accounting for 30% to 40% of the cost of the vehicle. Its innovations and breakthroughs in technology and products play a vital role in the vehicle.

Judging from the overall development history of the battery side, power batteries have basically solved safety performance issues, and their range has generally exceeded 600 kilometers, and can even exceed 1,000 kilometers, gradually resolving battery life anxiety.

Therefore, it can effectively break the terminal range anxiety and energy replenishment anxiety, and further shorten the charging time, which has become an important dimension to increase the penetration rate of electrification. Fast charging has become a technical scenario for many companies to increase their layout.

At present, electric vehicle fast charging technology has entered the stage of fierce market competition and infrastructure popularization. Mainstream battery companies such as Ningde Times, China New Aviation, Honeycomb Energy, Everview Lithium Energy, Sunwoda, Funeng Technology, and Juwan Technology have launched fast-charging battery solutions.

Gaogong Lithium Battery noted that the accelerated deployment of battery companies in the field of fast-charging batteries will drive the mass production and marketization process of fast-charging batteries; in addition, leading companies such as CATL, China New Aviation, and Honeycomb Energy have laid out iron-lithium fast charging technology routes It is expected to penetrate more fast-charging models.

"Three major trends" in fast-charging batteries

As fast charging technology has become one of the breakthroughs in solving the problem of convenient charging of electric vehicles, battery companies have increased their deployment, which has also promoted the continuous iterative updates of fast charging battery technology products. Gaogong Lithium Battery has observed that currently fast-charging batteries are showing three major trends in product performance, technical paths and market layout.

First, in order to solve the energy replenishment anxiety of terminal demand, many battery companies have increased the charging rate to reduce charging time. Judging from the product layout of battery companies, 4C+ fast charging may become the mainstream route in the future.

As 2021 begins, fast-charging batteries have entered a technological maturity stage, and battery companies are constantly increasing battery capacity ratios in order to seize market opportunities. Previously, CATL released the CTP3.0 Kirin battery in June 2022, which has 4C fast charging capabilities. Recently, CATL announced that it is equipped with the ideal MEGA model, which already has 5C charging capabilities.

In addition, China New Aviation, Honeycomb Energy, Juwan Technology Research, etc. have also announced that their products are moving from 4C to 6C. The "Phoenix Battery" released by Juwan Technology Research this year can even achieve the fastest 8C ultra-fast charging.

The increase in charging rate puts forward higher requirements on the internal resistance of the battery core and the thermal management system of the battery. On the one hand, the lower the internal resistance, the better, which can reduce battery core heating; on the other hand, the battery pack thermal management system must be particularly excellent to maximize heat dissipation capabilities.

Therefore, in order to increase the charging rate of fast-charging batteries while ensuring battery safety, various power battery companies are also "flexing their muscles" around material innovation and whole-pack thermal management.

For example, in terms of thermal management, CATL's Kirin battery integrates a liquid cooling system and a thermal insulation pad into a multi-functional elastic interlayer and places it between the cells. Compared with the traditional solution of a liquid cooling plate laid entirely above the cell, The heat exchange area has been expanded by 4 times, and the temperature control efficiency of the battery core has been increased by 50%.

Honeycomb Energy uses precision control technology of precursor directional growth on the positive electrode material to reduce the internal impedance of the battery core by more than 10%. The negative electrode material uses liquid phase coating technology to coat amorphous carbon on the graphite surface to further reduce the battery core impedance. to 20% negative pole.

Second, as battery companies continue to upgrade their technology and product iterations, fast-charging batteries will be available in more models of different types and prices.

Although many companies are currently promoting super fast charging batteries, under cost pressure, super fast charging is suitable for mid-to-high-end vehicles priced above 250,000 yuan. As iron-lithium fast-charging batteries are gradually "rising" and battery costs are reduced, this will enable fast-charging batteries to be used in lower-priced models.

In August, CATL released the world's first lithium iron phosphate 4C superchargeable battery - Shenxing battery, which can achieve "10 minutes of charging and a range of 400 kilometers", breaking through the low-temperature fast charging limit and achieving fast charging in the entire temperature range, and The cruising range is more than 700 kilometers.

It is worth mentioning that Shenxing Battery is different from the Kirin battery (overcharge) previously released by CATL. Shenxing Battery focuses on the economic market and will mainly cover pure electric models with RMB 150,000-300,000 in the future. This may lead to the price of fast-charging models "dropping".

In addition to CATL, China Innovation Aviation, Honeycomb Energy, and Guoxuan High-tech have also launched fast-charging batteries that include iron-lithium technology.

The fast-charging batteries previously supplied by China New Aviation to Xpeng G6 are a new generation of iron-lithium batteries and medium-nickel high-voltage ternary lithium batteries developed based on the 800V high-voltage platform. The 10%-80% energy recharge is as fast as 19 minutes, enabling 10 minutes of charging and battery life. 300km.

Honeycomb Energy’s Dragon Scale Battery is compatible with full chemical system solutions such as iron-lithium, ternary, and cobalt-free, with a cruising range of up to 1000+KM, covering 1.6C-6C fast charging systems.

Guoxuan Hi-Tech L600 Qichen battery cell adopts the lithium iron manganese phosphate technology route with a capacity of 223Ah, which can achieve a mass energy density of 240Wh/kg and achieve fast charging in 18 minutes.

Third, as the new energy vehicle market and the power battery market have both entered a stage of intense competition, fast-charging batteries have accelerated their mass production and vehicle installation.

Since 2023, the super fast charging solution of "charging in 5 minutes and driving range of 200km" has been intensively installed in vehicles. On the one hand, new car manufacturers led by "Wei Xiaoli" have introduced fast charging as standard equipment in their models.

For example, NIO's ES6 800V model only takes 12 minutes to charge 10%-80% SOC and will be delivered on May 25; MEGA will also be officially released in December this year, and will start showing cars in stores in January next year, and will start delivering them to users in February next year.

On the other hand, some companies’ fast-charging batteries are about to enter mass production. For example, CATL's Shenxing super-chargeable battery and Honeycomb Energy's Honeycomb Energy will complete mass production by the end of this year;

Yiwei Lithium Energy's 4695 large cylindrical battery will be mass-produced and delivered in the third quarter of this year. It uses 3-4C fast charging core and large-area liquid cooling technology to support ultra-fast charging.

How far is it to make fast charging "universal"?

Even though battery-side technology has matured, the promotion and application of fast-charging batteries still requires the cooperation of vehicles, batteries, and charging piles . As a highly complex systematic project, fast charging requires new adjustments from the three electricity levels to the charging pile and power grid levels.

From the perspective of car companies, many car companies have successively launched 800V high-voltage electrical architecture and super fast charging of more than 450kW. The fast-charging battery under this solution is regarded as one of the best solutions for energy replenishment.

At present, many domestic mainstream car companies such as Tesla , Xpeng, NIO, Ideal, BAIC Jihu, Changan Avita, and BYD have launched or plan to launch 800V high-voltage platforms and equipped models.

Among the battery solution providers that match the 800V high-voltage platform, CATL, China New Aviation, BYD, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, etc. all provide corresponding products.

However, the 800V high-voltage platform solution requires automobile companies and electrical and electronics companies to systematically upgrade the battery cells and systems, the insulation and voltage resistance levels of various high-voltage components, and the current-carrying and high-temperature resistance capabilities of the copper bars. Limited by technology, cost and overcharging network construction and other difficulties, the large-scale popularization of 800V high-voltage fast charging will still take a long time.