There are many big guys in the field of lithium batteries, which onion is SES? Come and go, let's review this article "Power Battery Ushers in Unicorns? Lithium metal batteries can make electric vehicles run farther and safer? 》。
Last November, at the inaugural SES Battery World event, SES founder and CEO Hu Qichao showed off a single lithium-metal battery with a capacity of 107 Ah, Apollo.
Apollo shape and the current blade battery is very similar to the long strip, is conducive to the integration of battery pack pack pack, its single cell capacity of 107 Ah, weight 0.982 Kg, energy density of 417 Wh / kg, 935 Wh / L, is currently the world's largest single capacity of lithium metal batteries.
At that time, founded in 2012, SES had completed five rounds of financing, with a Series D financing of $139 million and a cumulative financing of nearly $270 million.
In July last year, SES announced a merger with Ivanhoe Capital Acquisition, which will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange through SPAC, and now SES has officially completed its listing on the New York Stock Exchange.
On February 3 of this year, SES completed a private private placement of common shares at an issue price of $10.00 per share, raising a total of approximately $275 million; subsequently, the combined company SESAI Corporates began trading on the New York Stock Exchange with the new stock codes "SES" and "SESWS".
Hybrid lithium metal battery
However, the market has been completed, and SES's products have not yet achieved mass production.
In the final analysis, the reason why SES has attracted much attention is that SES is currently the only company in the world that mixes lithium metal battery samples, and it is also the only mixed lithium metal battery company that has been verified by a third party.
Compared with the current lithium-ion battery technology route, SES is different in that it has developed a hybrid lithium metal battery with different materials for the negative electrode and electrolyte, and the material used on the positive electrode and separator is the same as the current lithium-ion battery, which is neither a solid-state battery nor a traditional lithium battery, but combines solid and liquid components, which is a class of products between the two.
We know that at present, for traditional lithium batteries, car companies and power battery cars have proposed "silicon-doped lithium supplement technology", mainly focusing on the negative electrode of lithium batteries, the process of charging and discharging lithium-ion batteries is the process of positive and negative electrode de-embedding lithium ions, lithium ions from the positive electrode to the negative electrode or from the negative electrode to the positive electrode to the positive electrode movement process.
The so-called "silicon-doped lithium supplement technology" is to avoid the silicon of the negative electrode by incorporating a certain proportion of the silicon anode material in the charging lithium reaction, due to the collapse of the structure of the volume expansion material, resulting in a shortened cycle life of the battery and a decrease in energy density.
Lithium supplement because when the lithium-ion battery is charged for the first time, it will cause a lot of lithium loss, and irreversible, through lithium supplement can ensure the capacity of the battery, lithium supplementation technology has two kinds, positive lithium supplement and negative lithium supplement, the same is often the use of negative lithium technology more, such as the Ningde era.
But the problem is that whether it is silicon or lithium supplementation, it is focused on the negative electrode material, and it is only based on the optimization of the existing material technology route.
The technical route of mixed lithium metal batteries is different in that the anode material and electrolyte of the traditional lithium battery are directly replaced, and the anode material of the mixed lithium metal battery is not used to graphite and silicon, and the same is lithium metal and a special electrolyte material, making it a mixed metal lithium ion battery or semi-solid lithium battery category, compared to the traditional lithium battery is a technical iteration.
Compared to the current lithium-ion battery, what is better?
What are the technical advantages of this battery? According to SES, the technical route of hybrid lithium metal batteries has the advantage of both increasing energy density and safety compared to lithium-ion batteries.
The energy density of hybrid lithium metal batteries can generally reach 400Wh/kg, far exceeding the current lithium-ion batteries, and the cruising range can be increased to more than 50% of conventional lithium-ion batteries.
In terms of safety, the special electrolyte used in mixed lithium metal batteries can slow down the growth of "lithium dendrites". At the same time, compared with traditional lithium batteries, the fast charging performance and life of mixed lithium metal batteries will not be inferior, so while ensuring high energy density and safety, other characteristics will not be weakened, and mixed lithium metal batteries have better compatibility with existing production equipment.
Previously, at the SES Battery World event, a single lithium metal battery with a capacity of 107 Ah - Apollo was displayed, which focused on the single energy density of 417 Wh/kg, compared with the current 811 battery cell energy density in the Ningde era is about 270-280Wh/kg, and the energy density of hybrid lithium metal batteries is almost double that of the former.
It can be said that the energy density of hybrid lithium metal batteries has been greatly improved, if it is in the case that other characteristics of the battery are not affected, then there is indeed a full opportunity to become a replacement for the current power battery, the only drawback that the current hybrid lithium metal battery can know, it seems that only the amount of lithium metal is larger, and the future may need to be recycled for the negative electrode lithium metal.
There are many shareholders, but mass production in 2025?
However, this does not seem to be a big problem, because on the other hand, Tianqi Lithium, which currently has one of the four major lithium mines in the world, is currently one of the shareholders of SES, Tianqi Lithium holds 9.34% of the shares, and this list of shareholders also includes Vertex Investment, SAIC, South Korea's SK Group, Temasek Corporation, Application Venture Capital, Geely SAIC and other investment institutions.
In addition to direct investment, on the eve of the official listing of SES in January this year, Honda reached an agreement with SES to jointly develop A samples of lithium metal batteries for SES and plans to purchase about 2% of its listed company SES AI Corporation. In addition, GM and Hyundai have also reached an agreement with SES to jointly develop lithium metal batteries.
At present, SES's Shanghai gigafactory for the production of Apollo batteries is under construction, and it is expected to be completed in 2023, and the initial production capacity after completion will reach 1GWh, and Shanghai will also be the world's largest lithium metal battery factory. At the same time, SES will first launch a class A sample of automotive-grade lithium metal batteries, and will officially open the commercial mass production of lithium metal batteries until 2025.
Although it has not yet been officially mass-produced, many companies have bet on SES's hybrid lithium metal batteries, but the SES lithium metal battery mass production in 2025 feels a little slow at this point in time, and now the change of the technical route of the power battery is not slow, and the final point of the power battery in 2025 is not necessarily to replace the lithium-ion battery with lithium metal battery.
However, standing at the moment, as the first stock of the global hybrid lithium metal battery, the only company in the world to mix lithium metal battery samples, and the only mixed lithium metal battery company that has been verified by a third party, SES is also a unicorn company.
Although the total market value of 1.986 billion US dollars, the volume is not enough compared to the trillion level of the Ningde era, and one battery has not yet been mass-produced, and the other is the king of the world's largest power battery company for five consecutive years, but SES may have a promising future.