Interpreting Huawei’s new solid-state battery patent, will it challenge CATL in 2030?

Recently, Huawei announced a new patent for solid-state batteries. Huawei has finally extended its tentacles to power batteries. How valuable is the patent?

Just last week, Huawei announced a technical patent - "Doped sulfide materials and their preparation methods, and lithium-ion batteries."

A not-so-cold piece of knowledge is that solid-state batteries can solve many bugs of current liquid batteries, such as almost no power loss in winter, less likely to explode after collision deformation, and higher energy density. These cannot be achieved by either CATL's main ternary lithium battery or BYD's main lithium iron phosphate battery.

However, there are still many unresolved technical issues with solid-state batteries. One is the high cost, which is tolerable. What is intolerable is that they have a short lifespan.

Huawei's patent aims to solve the lifespan problem of solid-state batteries.

The liquid and solid states we usually refer to actually refer to the material form of the electrolyte in the battery. The electrolyte is between the positive and negative electrodes of the battery, and its function is to isolate and transmit. Now, basically mainstream battery manufacturers, such as BYD, CATL, Xinwangda, etc., have reached a consensus that sulfide is the most suitable solid electrolyte.

But this faces a big problem. Sulfide is a very unstable chemical element, which is very easy to react with the outside world, such as oxygen and water. These can basically be isolated through better sealing. The trouble is that sulfur (S) is also very easy to react with lithium (Li), but the most suitable material for the negative electrode of the battery is metallic lithium.

When sulfide meets metallic lithium, a film will form between the electrolyte and the negative electrode, and this film will become thicker and thicker. First, it will affect the conductivity, and then gradually reduce the battery's storage capacity.

When it comes to a solid-state battery, this is equivalent to choosing between the material that is most suitable for conduction and the material that is most suitable for energy storage. Before this contradiction is resolved, there is basically no hope for the large-scale use of solid-state batteries.

Let's take a look back at the patent published by Huawei.

Huawei doped groups containing nitrogen into the crystal cells of sulfide. In this way, the nitrogen in the doped sulfide and metallic lithium will generate new chemical substances, thus isolating the reaction between sulfide and metallic lithium.

This method should be within an acceptable range. It sacrifices a certain degree of conductivity, but in return, Huawei has found a way to resolve the contradiction between the two materials of solid-state batteries.

After 2027, solid-state batteries will be gradually applied to some high-end new energy vehicles in the entire industry. Toyota, BYD, and Chery all have this plan.

We all know that Huawei's current "four realms" of products are mainly concentrated in the high-end market of 200,000 to 500,000 yuan. The research on key technologies of solid-state batteries may be Huawei's way of continuing to empower high-end product lines in addition to smart cockpits and smart driving. If Huawei develops solid-state battery technology in order to continue to empower high-end products in the "four realms", it does not conflict with CATL's battery business.

However, as large-scale production brings about cost reduction, the industry expects that solid-state batteries will gradually be released to the mass market after 2030. If Huawei really enters the battery field, by then, Huawei and CATL may really become rivals.