Written by | Zhao Zhefeng
Edit | Yang Bocheng
Time pulled back to January 2021, Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in public: "If someone tells you that this car can run 1000km, can be fully charged in a few minutes, is still very safe, the cost is still very low, this is impossible, don't believe it."
Briefly describing the background at that time, in early 2021, the electric vehicle industry suddenly blew up a wave of "1000km". First, Weilai released the ET7 and announced that the car's endurance can reach 1000km. Immediately after the release of the "black technology" graphene battery, the same said that it can make the vehicle endurance of 1000km.
It was this sudden appearance of "crooked wind and evil qi" that made Ouyang Minggao say what he had just said.
A year later, GAC Aean LX PLUS went public and really launched a 1000km endurance version; the Weilai ET5 released some time ago also launched the same solid-state battery version as ET7; at the just-opened 2022 CES American Electronics Show, Mercedes-Benz also brought a new concept car VISION EQXX, which is also known as 1000km.
For a time, "1000km" once again became a hot topic in the industry, because it sounded too good. But can this concept, which sounded very "magical" a year ago, really come true today?
Can you really run 1000km?
With more and more different endurance test standards, consumers have gradually become numb to the mileage advertised by car companies. NEDC, CLTC, WLTP, EPA, these are completely different test standards, the same model in different standards under the mileage will be very different. For example, after the BMW i3 switched from NEDC to WLTP, the mileage plummeted by 18%.
And in the early years, there are many car companies like to play word games on the mileage, directly after the model name to add a constant speed endurance number, such as BYD Tang EV600, Emgrand EV500, etc., resulting in the actual endurance of the vehicle directly 60% off, and even 50% off is not uncommon.
So what is the "gold content" of these models that claim to have a range of 1000km?
Through the query, it can be seen that the AION LX PLUS Thousand Mile Edition and the NIO ET7 solid-state battery version use the NEDC working condition, while the NIO ET5 uses the CLTC working condition. Mercedes-Benz VISION EQXX has not yet been tested because it is still in the concept car stage, and the officially declared mileage should be estimated.
Among them, NEDC is called "new standard European cycle test". It appeared as early as the 1970s, and the last update was in 1997, and it was based on European road conditions. This set of test standards brought to China will lead to a large moisture content for electric vehicles.
CLTC is "China's light vehicle driving conditions", although it is a test standard tailored to China's national conditions, but its "water content" is comparable to NEDC, and overall it is not very reliable.
However, in contrast, the reference value of NEDC/CLTC endurance is still higher than that of constant speed, and the real endurance achievement rate can basically reach more than 70% (non-winter). In addition, the most commonly used test standards for new energy vehicles in China are these two, and it is no problem to compare horizontally with other models.
So from this point of view, although the "1000km" of GAC Aean and Weilai has a large endurance, it is definitely a breakthrough compared to the existing pure electric vehicle models on the market.
In December last year, Autohome had measured the AION LX PLUS Thousand Mile Edition (outdoor temperature 24 ° C), its urban endurance and high-speed endurance were 694km and 807km, respectively, and the comprehensive actual endurance was about 750km, which can be called amazing.
How?
As we all know, the current mainstream vehicle power batteries are divided into ternary lithium and lithium iron phosphate, but no matter which one, it is very close to the upper limit of its energy density.
Among them, the cathode material of ternary lithium batteries is mainly composed of "nickel cobalt manganese". The nickel content directly determines its energy density, while the cobalt and manganese elements are responsible for the thermal stability of the battery, that is, safety.
At present, the high-nickel ternary lithium battery with the material ratio of "811" has been quite popular, including the Ningde era, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, BYD, etc. have mass-produced this kind of battery, and the NEDC battery life can generally reach 500km or even more than 600km. If you want to further improve the endurance performance, you can only increase the nickel content in the battery, but this will bring huge safety risks.
Although lithium iron phosphate batteries are safe, the "talent" of this battery is cost and safety, not energy density, and can only squeeze the last bit of potential through the new module process, a typical example is BYD blade batteries, but it still cannot reach the energy density of high-nickel ternary lithium batteries.
Therefore, in order to achieve a qualitative leap in the endurance of electric vehicles, it is no longer necessary to innovate the cathode material, but to start from the negative electrode material and the electrolyte part. The aforementioned 1000km models do exactly that.
For example, the newly listed AION LX PLUS 1000 Mile Edition, which is equipped with GAC's self-developed "sponge silicon anode sheet lithium battery" (which is different from the graphene battery released by GAC Group a year ago), is to achieve an increase in energy density through anode material innovation.
At present, the mainstream lithium battery anode material is graphite, and the so-called "sponge silicon anode sheet" is to add silicon elements to the negative electrode material. Since the ability of silicon to store lithium ions is much higher than that of graphite, it can greatly improve the energy density of the battery.
But the silicon element is not perfect, its biggest drawback is the form of instability, after multiple charge and discharge cycles can easily lead to the expansion or even rupture of the negative electrode material, resulting in battery energy density attenuation, simply put, it is not durable.
GAC Aeon's solution is to control the silicon material in a nanoscale form and cover the surface with a protective layer to avoid expansion and rupture to the greatest extent, while improving the pole plate adhesive so that the cracked silicon material can be repaired by itself.
Nio starts from the electrolyte material, replacing the common electrolyte and diaphragm with a solid electrolyte, which greatly reduces the volume and weight of the battery, thereby effectively improving the energy density. At the same time, because the solid-state electrolyte has better insulation, the battery cathode material can also be further optimized, that is, the proportion of nickel can be increased, and the effect of increasing energy density can also be achieved.
▲ The battery pack of the Mercedes-Benz VISION EQXX
The battery pack of Mercedes-Benz VISION EQXX is provided by CATL, and its technical route is similar to that of GAC Aeon, which uses anode material containing silicon elements. But the difference is that it also adopts a new module technology, replacing the traditional liquid cooling system with a heat dissipation plate, and realizing the ultimate thinness and lightness of the battery pack.
It is reported that the battery pack capacity of Mercedes-Benz VISION EQXX is similar to that of Mercedes-Benz EQS, about 110 degrees, but its battery weight is 30% lighter than the latter, and the power consumption of 100 kilometers is only about 10kWh, which is equivalent to compact cars such as Xiaopeng P5. Under the combined efforts of the above two technologies, this car has achieved an endurance performance of about 1000km.
Still "Futures"
Previously, Li Bin had publicly announced that WEI's solid-state battery was expected to be officially launched in the fourth quarter of 2022. That is to say, although there are models that support solid-state batteries (ET5/ET7), their 1000km endurance version is "futures".
On the Weilai App booking page, it is indeed impossible to select a 150-degree solid-state battery pack at present, and only 75 degrees and 100 degrees of ordinary battery packs are available.
What about GAC Aeon?
At the launch conference of GAC Aegean LX PLUS on January 5, the official said that this is "the first mass-produced 1000km pure electric vehicle".
Such a statement can't help but arouse people's imagination, as if tomorrow we can drive a pure electric car with a longer battery life than a fuel car. Is this really the case?
Do News learned after consulting with a number of GAC Aean sales staff that the 1,000km-long 1000km version of the model can now be ordered, but the delivery time will be in May or mid-year.
At the same time, Do News also learned from a number of Weilai sales staff that the mass production time of its solid-state battery at the end of this year or the beginning of next year is basically consistent with li Bin's previous "fourth quarter of 2022".
From this point of view, the mass production time of the AION LX PLUS Thousand Mile Edition is indeed earlier than weilai's solid-state battery, so its title of "the first mass-produced 1000km pure electric vehicle" is also worthy of the name, but consumers still need to wait for at least half a year, which is essentially "futures".
The "HexagonAl Warrior" has not yet appeared
In the power battery industry, there is a "hexagon theory". That is, a battery needs to meet the basic evaluation criteria of the six dimensions of "energy density, safety, cost, service life, temperature resistance, and energy replenishment speed" at the same time, so that there is a possibility of large-scale mass production and popularization. Even if you can't become a "hexagonal warrior", at least there can be no obvious shortcomings or hard wounds.
If you look at the batteries of these 1000km endurance models from this perspective, you will find that they are unlikely to be rapidly popularized at this stage.
One of the biggest obstacles is cost. For example, the price of the AION LX PLUS 1000 Mile Edition is as high as 459,600 yuan, which is close to mercedes-Benz EQC, Audi e-tron, Cadillac LYRIQ and other luxury brand pure electric vehicles of the same level.
And as the top of the car series, its overall configuration level is much lower than the entry-level model priced at only 286,600 yuan, especially in terms of assisted driving, in addition to the cruise control, there is almost no configuration, the only more abundant is the seat configuration.
It can be seen that this sponge silicon anode plate battery costs at least nearly 200,000 yuan higher than the mainstream ternary lithium battery.
In addition, although the Thousand Mile version of the model can use the battery rental solution, the price is also very high.
GAC Aeon sales staff told Do News that the price of the battery pack of the Qianli version of the model is 120,000 yuan, and the body price is 339,600 yuan. The monthly rental fee of the battery is 1826 yuan, and the battery property rights can be obtained after 7 years of rent, and the annualized interest rate is about 4%. It also provides a ten-year unlimited mileage battery warranty for the first owner.
For reference, the monthly rental cost of weilai's 100-degree battery is 1480 yuan (between 580km-700km according to different models), so the monthly rental cost of GAC Aean's 150-degree battery is not high.
But in fact, the manufacturer has played a "careful machine" here.
First of all, the body price of the Thousand Mile version model is 339,600 yuan, which is 53,000 yuan more expensive than the vehicle price of the higher entry-level model, which is obviously unreasonable. Moreover, it should be known that the price of the mainstream ternary lithium battery of about 100 degrees on the market is also more than 100,000, for example, the price of the 100-degree battery pack of Weilai is 128,000 yuan. GAC Aean's 150-degree ultra-large capacity battery, which uses many new technologies, cannot be sold at such a low price.
Therefore, GAC Aean's battery rental program is essentially a battery loan scheme with a down payment, but the manufacturer did not put the down payment of the battery on the surface, but quietly Mimi was hidden in the body down payment, which will give consumers an illusion that the battery rental scheme is more cost-effective.
If it is according to the normal battery rental scheme, then the body price of this car should be between 150,000-200,000 (refer to the configuration level of the entry-level model, and then subtract the battery cost), then the battery cost should be between 250,000 and 300,000.
In this way, its battery rent should at least double, or even double, or even double, that is, about 3500-4500 yuan per month. This month's rent, for most consumers, is obviously unacceptable. And GAC Aean does not support a flexible battery upgrade service similar to Weilai, and if you choose this car, you can only use this battery.
Therefore, the manufacturer changed the "battery lease" to "battery loan", but on the surface it was also said to be "battery leasing".
But what's the problem? If it is a long-term lease, after 7 years of rent, the battery property rights belong to the owner, then this program is indeed more cost-effective.
The problem is that the essence of leasing is to save costs for short-term users. So there must be some people who choose rental options who only want to use it for a short time. For this part of the user, GAC Aeon's so-called "leasing" scheme is very "unreal".
For example, some consumers may only want to rent for a short time, with a car cycle of about 3-5 years, and change the car before buying out the battery property. If so, then it is equivalent to the owner paying the "down payment" of the battery in advance, and finally has not yet obtained the property rights of the battery, which is obviously very uneconomical.
For the manufacturer's "misleading" words, the terminal sales staff of GAC Aeon did not truthfully inform consumers, but continued to convey the wrong concept of "zero battery down payment". At least the author believes that terminal sales are impossible not to know the "catty" in it.
It can be seen that the cost of GAC Aean silicon anode battery is still ridiculously high. Moreover, this problem cannot be solved in the short term.
In order to avoid the problem of performance attenuation of silicon anode batteries, they can only use nanotechnology with complex processes and high costs. If the cost cannot be reduced, the product cannot be moved, and the amount that cannot be taken means that the scale effect cannot be formed.
Nio's solid-state batteries face similar problems. Although the solid-state battery is large and safe, because the solid-state electrolyte does not have the fluidity of the liquid electrolyte, this will reduce the activity of lithium ions in the battery, resulting in a significant reduction in its charge and discharge efficiency. To put it bluntly, although the mileage anxiety is solved, the supplementary energy anxiety is more serious.
In this regard, Zeng Yuqun, the founder of the Ningde era, also said that the ion diffusion rate of all-solid-state batteries is only one-tenth of that of liquid batteries, and if you want to improve, you can only nanoscale solid particles.
In this way, the end of the thousand-mile endurance is all nanotechnology.
Lithium battery industry service agency True Lithium Research Chief Analyst Mo Ke previously said that solid-state batteries will be applied in the field of consumer electronics first, and will be used in cars when the cost is reduced.
epilogue
There is no doubt that the emergence of pure electric models with a range of nearly 1000km represents the advancement of battery technology, and manufacturers such as GAC E-An and Weilai have not used "constant speed endurance" to mislead consumers. In this sense, it is not a "big fool".
But to say how disruptive these technologies are is, it's far from it. In the case of battery costs of more than 200,000 yuan alone, "thousand miles of endurance" is destined to be only a small number of people can enjoy the convenience of science and technology in advance.