CATL’s “Shenxing Supercharged Battery” is about to be installed in cars, but BYD’s “Blade Battery” is lagging behind?

According to the latest data from the China Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, for the whole of 2023, the cumulative installed capacity of power batteries in China was 387.7GWh, a year-on-year increase of 32.6%. CATL ranks first with 167.1GWh of installed vehicles, with a market share of 43.1%; BYD ranks second with 105.48GWh of installed vehicles, with a market share of 27.2%.

Data source: China Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance

Although CATL has won the vast majority of customers in China’s electric vehicle industry, it is the well-deserved leader in power batteries. But in fact, the market environment has gradually changed in recent years. Anxiety about the range of new energy vehicles has been alleviated. Now the demand for batteries in the new energy vehicle market has changed from long battery life to ultra-fast charging.

Therefore, CATL launched the “Shenxing Supercharged Battery” after Kirin Battery. This is claimed to be the world's first 4C supercharged battery that uses lithium iron phosphate material and can be mass-produced.

Unlike Kirin batteries, which have long battery life and are expensive, Shenxing batteries focus on overcharging, which can achieve a battery life of 400 kilometers in 10 minutes. Even in a low temperature environment of -10 degrees, it can be charged to 80 in 30 minutes. %, targeting pure electric models ranging from 150,000 to 300,000. At present, it has confirmed cooperation with many car companies such as GAC, Chery, Avita, Nezha, Jihu, and Lantu, and is expected to start vehicle installation in the first half of this year.

BYD launched the blade battery in March 2020, which quickly became popular in the market through experiments such as "steel needle piercing". However, from the current perspective, BYD's first-generation blade battery seems to be a bit "outdated". It does not support fast charging and the energy density is only about 140Wh/kg. After all, the current blade battery is still the first-generation product 3-4 years ago.

However, it is reported that the second-generation blade battery will be released in 2024. According to sources, the second-generation blade battery will be based on the characteristics of lithium iron phosphate and use lithium iron manganese phosphate as a material. Compared with previous lithium iron phosphate batteries, its energy density is expected to reach 180Wh/kg. For reference, the energy density of CATL's Kirin battery is 255Wh/kg, while the energy density of Shenxing battery is between 140Wh/kg and 145Wh/kg. In addition, the new battery pack may further improve the charging speed.

Although it is only from these points that the second-generation blade battery may not significantly improve perception, blade batteries have never won by performance, but by technological advancement on the basis of controlling costs, ensuring safety and quality. upgrade. From this perspective, the second-generation blade battery is quite exciting.

In fact, in addition to Ningwang and BYD, various new products are emerging one after another: GAC Aian magazine battery, Lantu Amber, Dayu battery, Rubik's cube battery, honeycomb... a hundred flowers are blooming and prosperous. However, most of these innovations have been limited to battery structures rather than the materials themselves.

Solid-state batteries, considered the ultimate solution, can be gradually mass-produced through the efforts of global scientific researchers, but their biggest drawback is that they are expensive. At present, the combined cost of semi-solid and all-solid batteries is still two to three times that of lithium batteries. For example, the semi-solid-state battery used in NIO ET7 costs more than 250,000 yuan. In the current development process of new energy vehicles, batteries are both the core and the bottleneck. At present, each company has invested heavily in battery research and development. Who can occupy the technological high ground in the future?