Guess how NIO achieved its 150kwh?

As NIO has previously communicated about a 150kwh battery system, the same battery size specification has gone from 70=>84=>100=>150kwh. This is a big change under the same volume, especially from 100kwh to 150kwh. Further information may be released at NIO Day. But we can try to explore how this is achieved over the weekend.

Note: The 100+kwh of Lucid we see now is made of cylinders, the 120kwh planned by BMW is not yet visible, and the 200kwh in BEV3 is two layers of 100kwh superimposed

01. Start from 100kwh

1) Upgrade based on C solution

According to the existing information, the previous upgrade from 32 modules (2.625kwh at 84kwh) to 12 modules (8.3kwh per module) has basically reached a certain limit in terms of layout. If the existing specifications remain unchanged, the energy density of the single cell needs to be greatly improved. In other words, if the specifications of C's 590 battery cells remain unchanged, then NCM 811+silicon-carbon negative electrode will be used on this basis, and a certain lithium supplementation process may also be used. On this basis, a 150kwh solution may be achieved.

Figure 1 The existing path is also a long-term high nickel + silicon carbon negative electrode solution

2) Honeycomb solution

There is another route, which is the last time at the Honeycomb Battery Day, I also saw the senior executives of Weilai visiting. That is, under the Honeycomb L6 battery cell, as shown in the figure below, if the long battery cell solution is used in this replacement 590 module developed for Great Wall, it may be further improved. As shown in the figure below, the size of this Honeycomb customized battery cell is 575 in length and 21.5mm in thickness, which is a bit like using a soft-pack 590 battery cell to package several batteries together. This Honeycomb Energy is with Great Wall Motors, and the NEDC range has been targeted at 880 kilometers, and it is expected to be launched on the market in the second half of 2021.

Figure 2 Design based on long square shell battery cells

That is to say, based on this size specification (574*21.5*118), after adjusting with high nickel + SI materials, it is hoped that the output can be further increased from 135kwh to 150kWh.

3) Overseas soft package solutions

According to reports from Korean media, LG Chem and SK have both started to increase the length of soft-pack batteries from 500mm to 1000mm. That is, after BYD started making blade batteries, soft-pack manufacturers that used to do lamination processes also started to develop batteries with larger capacity. They upgraded from the current 78Ah to around 120-130Ah, and if the capacity is above 2P, they can increase it.

Figure 3 Extra-long soft-pack battery

If we make the battery system into only two long modules as shown in the figure below, and use high energy density cells, we can further increase the capacity to around 150kwh.

Figure 4 In order to provide sufficient energy for super-large vehicles, the shape of battery cells and modules has changed significantly

Summary: I just wrote this at the weekend to make a guess. The competition from 100kwh to 150kwh is a bit like the height competition of skyscrapers for the next high-end models. It will not stop in the short term.