Is the bottleneck in the development of electric vehicles related to automotive electronics?

According to the impact on the driving performance of the car, automotive electronic products can be divided into two categories: one is automotive electronic control devices, which are used in conjunction with the mechanical system on the car, that is, the so-called "mechanical and electrical combination" automotive electronic devices; they include engine, chassis, and body electronic control. For example, electronic fuel injection system, anti-lock braking control, anti-skid control, traction control, electronic control suspension, electronic control automatic transmission, electronic power steering, etc.

The other category is on-board automotive electronic devices, which are electronic devices that can be used independently in the automotive environment and have no direct relationship with the performance of the car itself. They include automotive information systems (on-board computers), navigation systems, car audio and TV entertainment systems, on-board communication systems, Internet access devices, etc.

Today I will talk about electric cars. The biggest bottleneck in the development of electric cars is that they can travel 500 kilometers with a 5-minute charge. They are the key to replacing fuel vehicles, but it is difficult to achieve from the current technical perspective. Why is this?

1. What is the biggest bottleneck of electric vehicles?

According to public information, the three major components of an electric vehicle are batteries, motors and electronic controls. Among them, the power battery is similar to a fuel tank, which determines the vitality and competitiveness of the entire vehicle. It also triggers four major anxieties: vehicle manufacturing cost, cruising range, charging convenience and spontaneous combustion and explosion, and has quietly become the biggest bottleneck in the development of electric vehicles.

2. 500 km range after 5 minutes of charging?

As we all know, compared with the indirect impact of vehicle manufacturing costs and spontaneous combustion and explosion on car purchasing decisions, cruising range and charging convenience have become direct needs for car purchases. This is because many families can only own one car currently, and they need to take into account the two major needs of urban commuting and long-distance self-driving. This makes charging for 5 minutes and achieving a range of 500 kilometers quietly becoming the key to electric vehicles replacing fuel vehicles.

It is reported that in order to increase the cruising range of electric vehicles, there are two main ways in theory. The first is to increase the overall capacity by increasing the number of battery packs, but it will increase the weight of the vehicle and increase power consumption, which is actually not very effective; the second is to increase the battery energy density and develop lighter and higher capacity batteries, which is the scientific and sustainable development technology route.

3. Why is it so difficult to achieve?

In fact, based on the current energy density of mass-produced power battery cells in my country at 230WH/kg, the "Made in China 2025" issued by the State Council proposed that the energy density of power batteries reach 300WH/kg in 2020, 400WH/kg in 2025, and 500WH/kg in 2030. my country's scientific and technological workers have formulated three step-by-step technology lines using quasi-solid-state high-nickel lithium batteries, all-solid-state lithium-rich batteries and lithium-air batteries to achieve the three stage goals respectively.

However, the current large-scale use of high-nickel lithium batteries, although greatly improving the energy storage density and solving the range anxiety, while also significantly reducing battery manufacturing costs, has led to unstable electrode materials, especially the reduction in thermal runaway temperature, which has laid the hidden dangers of spontaneous combustion and explosion, among which NIO and Tesla have been hit one after another.

The energy stored in the battery per unit weight is too small. Also, because the battery of electric vehicles is expensive and has not formed an economy of scale, the purchase price is expensive. As for the cost of use, some are more expensive than cars, and some are only 1/3 of the price of cars. This mainly depends on the life of the battery and the local oil and electricity prices. Electric vehicle technology is still immature, and charging technology, cruising range, reliability and other aspects still need to be improved. The treatment of scrapped batteries and the optimization of the power grid system are also key issues that need to be solved. Fast charging mainly has two technical routes: high voltage and high current. Among them, high voltage has been abandoned because it is too dangerous, and high current has become the current main technical route. In particular, car companies are desperately pursuing to shorten the charging time, from the initial 1 hour, to 30 minutes, then to 15 minutes, and finally approaching the limit of 5 minutes, which makes the heating problem of power batteries more and more serious, quietly becoming the fuse of spontaneous combustion and explosion.