Interpretation of ternary lithium batteries for automobiles: advantages outweigh disadvantages, and disadvantages will soon be overcome

There are two major types of power batteries for new energy vehicles, one is lithium iron phosphate battery, and the other is ternary lithium battery. Which of these two types of batteries is better?

Some people believe that lithium iron phosphate batteries are better because BYD cars, which have the highest sales, only use this type of power battery; however, this is not convincing at all. The sales of street fried rice must be higher than the set meals in big restaurants, but can we say that street fried rice is better than the meals made by chefs with great craftsmanship? Obviously, we cannot draw such a conclusion. The core advantage of lithium iron phosphate batteries is only one, that is, its low manufacturing cost. Compared with the main type of ternary lithium batteries, its manufacturing cost can be about two-thirds lower.

Another advantage is the high number of cycles, which means a long service life. However, after major car companies have successively provided lifetime warranty plans for battery packs, is the service life of batteries still a problem that car owners need to worry about? In the future, as long as battery swap stations are popularized, there is no need to worry about battery packs, because you can get a new set of batteries at a swap station.

On the contrary, the characteristics of ternary lithium batteries are opposite to those of lithium iron phosphate batteries.

In short, its manufacturing cost is high, and its energy density is high, but the number of cycles is slightly shorter; with the above interpretation, there is no need to worry about its service life. Therefore, the ternary lithium battery only has the advantage of high energy density. As long as its manufacturing cost can be reduced, Yan Ge does not need to use lithium iron phosphate batteries; of course, it is not realistic to make its cost equal to that of lithium iron phosphate batteries, but with the price of its main raw material lithium carbonate falling by more than 70%, mainstream cars also have the cost space to use this battery.

Looking back at BYD Auto, its sales of new energy vehicles are indeed high, but the sales pillar models seem to be Seagull, Dolphin, Qin PLUS , Song Pro /PLUS, Haibao DM-i and other cars. The sales of Han and Tang series are not bad now, but the proportion is not very high; the sales of cars such as Haibao EV and Frigate 07 have declined significantly. The Denza N7/N8 in the joint venture brand is a niche car, that is, the D9 MPV has become a hot-selling car with its first-mover advantage.

BYD's sales growth relies more on low-priced mainstream cars, so it is reasonable to use lithium iron phosphate batteries. As for ternary lithium batteries, these cars naturally cannot be considered.

Ternary lithium batteries are currently mainly used in mid- and high-end cars. Let's take a look at which brands of cars use ternary lithium batteries, and the price threshold is set at 300,000 yuan.

First, let’s look at the joint venture brand camp:

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2. Audi Q5 e-tron/e-tron, etc., SAIC Volkswagen/CATL and other brands' ternary lithium batteries

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4. BMW i3/i4, etc., ternary lithium batteries from CATL/EVE Energy/Samsung SDI and other brands

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6. Mercedes-Benz EQA/EQB, Farasis Energy and other brands of ternary lithium batteries

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8. Porsche Taycan, ternary lithium battery

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10. Cadillac IQ, SAIC/CATL's ternary lithium batteries, etc.

Let’s look at the independent brand camp:

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2. Avita 12, ternary lithium battery of CATL

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4. NIO EC6/ES/6/EC7, etc., ternary lithium batteries or solid-state batteries of Jiangsu Times/CATL/Zhongxinhang and other brands

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6. HiPhi X, CATL's ternary lithium battery

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8. Mengshi 917, CATL's ternary lithium battery

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10. Hongqi E-HS9, CATL's ternary lithium battery, etc.

Among new energy vehicles priced over RMB 300,000, only a handful of them use lithium iron phosphate batteries. Among the above-mentioned vehicles, the low-end version of NIO EC6 has lithium iron phosphate batteries. Note that the emphasis is on "having" rather than "using". Its low-end version battery pack uses ternary lithium plus lithium iron phosphate. Most other vehicles use high-density ternary lithium batteries, and the reason why these vehicles choose high-cost ternary lithium batteries is naturally because of their high density to improve the range and their support for high-voltage supercharging technology.

Some car enthusiasts are still worried about the safety of ternary lithium batteries. In fact, this is unnecessary worry. At present, the proportion of new energy vehicles using ternary lithium batteries is still very high, and they are mainly mid-to-high-end cars. Putting aside the topic of technology, let's think about another question: Do people with low car purchase budgets have richer car experience, or vice versa? Do these car owners with sufficient car purchase budgets not care about their lives as a starting point for the middle class? If you understand this point, you will no longer be entangled.

Ternary lithium batteries are also subject to puncture short-circuit tests, and high-level batteries can also prevent fire.

It is not difficult to find the source of the voice that still says that ternary lithium batteries are inferior to lithium iron phosphate batteries. It is nothing more than some lithium iron phosphate battery manufacturers; so there is no need to reject ternary lithium batteries, and ternary lithium is just a concept, which refers to ternary polymer materials, which have various types and different characteristics. It is irresponsible to generalize. The direction of technology research and development cannot be limited to a certain type, otherwise the technology will inevitably regress.