Written by | Yin Taibai
Edit | Yang Bocheng
Caption | IC Photo
With the imminent mass production and delivery of the NIO ET7 equipped with solid-state batteries, a new change is brewing in the power battery industry.
On December 18, NIO held "NIO Day 2021" at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Center, in addition to announcing the official debut of ET5 and opening pre-sales, Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of NIO, also revealed the latest progress of ET7, "At present, THE PREPARATION FOR THE MASS PRODUCTION OF ET7 is smooth, and it will be locked on January 20, 2022 and delivered on March 28. ”
NIO ET7 | Source: Weilai official website
A year ago, ET7 was officially unveiled at the "NIO Day 2020", positioning a medium and large electric flagship sedan, but the most anticipated and concerned by the outside world is that ET7 is equipped with a solid-state battery with an energy density of up to 360Wh/kg, and the mileage of a single charge can reach more than 1000 kilometers.
The reason why solid-state batteries have aroused heated discussion, there is a view that solid-state batteries will become the ultimate form of new energy vehicle power batteries, but also an important watershed and technological commanding heights in the power battery industry, "the day when solid-state batteries are popularized, it is the time when fuel vehicles withdraw from the historical stage."
In fact, solid-state batteries are nothing new. As early as 2011, Toyota said that it would launch solid-state batteries from 2015 to 2020, believing that solid-state batteries would completely make up for the mileage problem of new energy vehicles, while also vigorously promoting the popularity of new energy vehicles. However, to this day, solid-state batteries have not yet been officially applied.
Are solid-state batteries a marketing gimmick or a disruptive technology? Whether ET7 can give an answer to this question remains to be seen.
The solid-state battery vent is coming
The power battery industry urgently needs a breakthrough
The traditional loading method of lithium batteries is to assemble the battery cells into modules, assemble the modules into battery packs, and then install them on the chassis of the car. The two recombinations not only increase the cost of materials, but also increase the total weight of the battery, which leads to the problem that the energy density of the battery pack is difficult to further increase.
However, an industry consensus is that the energy density of lithium-ion batteries is also close to the limit, it is difficult to break through 300Wh/kg, even if a silicon-based alloy is introduced to the negative electrode, it is difficult to break through the upper limit of 400Wh/kg. At present, the energy density of LG New Energy's ternary lithium battery is 161Wh/kg, while BYD's blade battery energy density is only 140Wh/kg.
Compared with lithium-ion batteries, solid-state batteries have three advantages. First of all, the core advantage of the solid-state battery lies in the high safety, the thermal decomposition temperature of the liquid electrolyte and the melting temperature of the diaphragm are below 160 ° C, while the thermal decomposition temperature of the solid electrolyte exceeds 500 ° C, and the solid electrolyte is used instead of the liquid electrolyte, and there is almost no safety hazard of fire and combustion; secondly, the electrochemical window of the solid electrolyte is above 5V. Much higher than the existing 4.3V, can adapt to higher activity of high specific energy positive and negative electrode materials, and significantly improve the energy density of the battery, in theory, the energy density of solid-state batteries is expected to exceed 500Wh /kg; finally, the solid-state battery in the process of charging and discharging almost no lithium-ion consumption, can make the capacity of the solid-state battery remain stable for a long time, greatly improving the cycle life.
Although solid-state batteries are superior to lithium-ion batteries in all aspects, the development of solid-state batteries is not achieved overnight.
According to the liquid electrolyte content, the development path of solid-state batteries can be divided into liquid, semi-solid, quasi-solid and all-solid. In short, it is a process of gradually replacing the liquid electrolyte of a lithium-ion battery with a solid electrolyte. At this stage, finding a solid-state electrolyte that can balance the cost and have high stability is still an industry problem, and it still takes time to mass-produce and load solid-state batteries that really use solid-state electrolytes.
"The solid-state batteries produced in 2022 are semi-solid-state batteries to be precise, or liquid." Li Bin explained the day after the official debut of ET7, he said that the mass production of all-solid-state batteries is still far away, because the current market demand for solid-state batteries is very low, such as sacrificing costs for endurance, and users and car companies will not pay in the case of other technologies.
Although the mass production and loading of solid-state batteries seems far away, the horn of the card battle has actually sounded. A new energy industry source told DoNews (ID: ilovedonews) that globally, many power battery companies and car companies have laid out solid-state battery tracks, "who can preempt the commercialization of solid-state battery technology, who can seize the opportunity for the development of the new energy industry in the next 5-10 years." ”
It is worth mentioning that Japan attaches the greatest importance to the research and development and commercialization of solid-state batteries. As early as 2018, Japan's new energy industry technology comprehensive development agency began research and development of all-solid-state batteries, involving 23 companies and 15 universities in the fields of automobiles, batteries and materials. The agency expects that by 2025, commercialized solid-state batteries will account for 1% of the market share.
Start a card slot battle
Solid-state batteries become the core of competition
Solid-state batteries have become internationally recognized as the technical direction of the next generation of new energy vehicle power batteries.
According to the above-mentioned industry sources, the current players on the solid-state battery track are mainly divided into two categories: one is the automobile enterprises represented by Toyota, SAIC, etc.; the other is the power battery enterprises represented by the Ningde era and Samsung SDI.
Image source: Sohu
Unsatisfactory mileage is one of the shortcomings of the current new energy vehicles, but also seriously restricts the penetration and replacement of new energy vehicles for fuel vehicles, in order to solve this problem, many automobile companies have taken the lead in increasing the research and development of solid-state batteries.
As early as June 2018, the Volkswagen Group invested $100 million in Quantum Scape, a solid-state battery company in the United States, and sent personnel to participate in the development, and in June 2020, Volkswagen again invested an additional $200 million, with the common goal of achieving mass production of all-solid-state batteries by 2025.
In 2016, GM participated in the Series B financing of SolidEnergy Systems, a US battery starter, and in April 2021, SolidEnergy Systems completed a $139 million Series D financing, led by GM, followed by SAIC, Geely group, hyundai motor and others. Subsequently, GM announced plans to launch a sample of automotive-grade solid-state batteries next year and officially open commercial mass production in 2025, while Hyundai motor said on the earnings call that the company has been developing solid-state batteries and plans to mass-produce new energy vehicles using solid-state batteries in 2030.
In addition to participating in the investment in SolidEnergy Systems, Hyundai motor also invested $20 million in Solid Power, a SOLID-STATE battery company in the United States, in April 2018, Solid Power announced that it had received Series B financing jointly led by Ford Motor and Samsung SDI, and in October 2021, Solid Power again received $30 million invested by South Korean battery manufacturer SKI. It is used for joint production of automotive grade solid-state batteries.
A more obvious trend is that after entering 2021, major auto companies will invest more intensively in the field of solid-state batteries.
In May 2021, the BMW Group announced that it will invest USD 139 million in Solid Power and will launch a prototype with solid-state batteries by 2025 and mass production of new energy vehicles with solid-state batteries by 2030.
In November 2021, Mercedes-Benz announced that it will invest tens of millions of dollars in Us battery technology company Factorial Energy, aiming to accelerate its research and development in the field of solid-state batteries in order to achieve more breakthroughs in the future.
At the same time, Nissan Motor also released the "Nissan Motor 2030 Vision", planning to invest 2 trillion yen in the next five years to accelerate the layout of electric drive products and technological innovation, of which a pilot plant will be built in Yokohama, Japan in fiscal 2024, and a new energy model equipped with an original all-solid-state battery will be launched in fiscal year 2028.
Domestic auto companies and power battery companies are also investing in the field of solid-state batteries. In 2020, BAIC BJEV released the "2029 Plan", which includes building a diversified energy system with a "trinity" of lithium-ion batteries, solid-state batteries, and fuel cells. Six months later, BAIC BJEV announced the completion of commissioning of the first prototype vehicle equipped with a solid-state battery system.
In April 2021, Great Wall Motor's Honeycomb Energy announced plans to apply solid-state batteries with a demonstration energy density of 350-500Wh/kg in mass production vehicles in 2025.
In May 2021, after many years of deep cultivation in the research and development of solid-state batteries in the ningde era, the company has been able to make solid-state battery samples, but there is still a long way to go before the commercialization of solid-state batteries.
In June 2021, SAIC Motor, which has invested in Quantum Scape and SolidEnergy Systems, announced that it will produce a new generation of power batteries with zero thermal runaway, high cost performance, fast charging, quick change and upgradeability by the end of 2021, and solid-state batteries in 2025.
In September 2021, Xu Xingyuan, senior vice president of Guoxuan Hi-Tech, said at the "Global New Energy Vehicle Supply Chain Innovation Conference" that solid-state battery technology will be introduced in 2020-2022, and iterative upgrading of solid-state battery technology will begin in 2022 to produce high-security solid-state batteries, and after 2025, all-solid-state batteries with energy density of more than 400Wh/kg and 800 cycles will be produced.
According to the "Global Solid-State Battery Market 2017-2021" released by market research institute Orbis Orbis Reseach, the global solid-state battery market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 72.33% from 2017 to 2021. It is obvious that the solid-state battery is already on the cusp, whether it is for automobile companies or power battery companies, who can master the core technology one step at a time, who has the opportunity to formulate industry rules, so as to maximize benefits.
Shortcomings cannot be ignored
Solid-state batteries still face shackles
The advantages of solid-state batteries are prominent and far-reaching, but their shortcomings and practical problems are also obvious.
A difficult problem to break through is that the charge and discharge efficiency of solid batteries is very low. Because the conductivity of the solid electrolyte is more than 10 times lower than that of the liquid electrolyte, the solid-state battery cannot achieve fast charging, and the discharge performance is also extremely poor, which means that when the car needs high power output, the battery pack will have insufficient power supply, and due to the poor conductivity, the efficiency of the actual conversion of electricity into usable electricity will be very low.
In addition, the solid electrolyte is difficult to thin, the cost of some rare metal raw materials applied to it is high, and the highly active positive and negative electrode materials used to superimpose to reach high energy density are not yet mature, resulting in its cost being significantly higher than that of existing lithium-ion batteries.
"The time it will take for solid-state batteries to really be put into large-scale commercial applications will be between 2025 and 2030. In fact, the Chinese market now exists, but it is used in small electronic products such as drones and flexible electronics. It will take 5-10 years to really use it on the power battery of the car." Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that the first problem to be solved is to get the solid electrolyte done, which requires a lot of research and development investment.
However, even if the problems of charge-discharge efficiency and solid-state electrolyte materials are solved, there are still many challenges from truly realizing the mass production of solid-state batteries.
In the view of the above-mentioned industry insiders, the current production process of solid-state batteries is not mature, the procedure is complicated, and the overall production cost is too high. Overall, solid-state battery technology is still in the transition stage from technological maturity to industrialization, requiring material price reductions, process improvement and a more stable supply chain system.
It is worth mentioning that in July 2021, CATL released the first generation of sodium-ion batteries, whose energy density reached 160Wh/kg. Charging at room temperature for 15 minutes, the power can reach 80%, even in the low temperature environment of -20 ° C, it still has a discharge retention rate of more than 90%, which greatly solves the "electric daddy" problem in the winter in cold areas.
According to the planning of the Ningde era, the next generation of sodium-ion battery energy density research and development goals are more than 200Wh/kg, Ningde era will build a high-throughput material integrated computing platform, with the help of advanced algorithms and powerful computing power, to find the combination point of various material genes, develop a more suitable for sodium-ion batteries of various materials, promote their entry into the fast channel of industrialization.
It is foreseeable that whether it is a solid-state battery or a sodium-ion battery, for the entire power battery industry, a new round of battery technology revolution is coming.