With the transformation of the automobile industry to the direction of new energy, our lives and the industrial situation in various places have undergone tremendous changes, not only in China, but also in the world's major car companies are seeking new energy methods, and hope not to be "stuck" in the supply of batteries. In fact, to put it bluntly, the new energy war of automobiles is the battery war!
In 2021, major brands released news to the outside world announced that they would cooperate with a battery company, Geely participated in battery manufacturing and research and development, Toyota and Panasonic set up a joint venture, Honda signed a cooperation agreement with SES, PSA and Saft established a joint venture, Changan and BYD cooperated, Volkswagen and Bosch set up a joint venture company, etc., indicating that a new round of battery war has begun.
But the problem is, Tesla and Panasonic's 4680 battery, another step forward!
4680？ revolution?
The Panasonic 4680 is also a cylindrical high-nickel ternary battery, the same principle as the 2170 and 1865 previously used by Tesla. As understood by name, the 4680 battery has a diameter of 46mm and a length of 80mm, the same is true for 2170 and 1865.
The advantage of the Panasonic 4680 is that the single cell capacity is 9000mAh, and because the 4680 battery adopts a non-polar ear (or called omnipolar ear) design, the cost, capacity, performance and heat dissipation are better, which is why Musk said that the new battery can be 56% cheaper, the peak performance is increased by 4 times, and the mileage is increased by 16%.
4680 is still essentially a cylindrical winding cell, the overall structure is consistent with 2170 and 1865, it can be simply understood as a "roll paper" type of battery cell, the outer metal of the cell and the middle part of the internal diaphragm, is the common ternary / LFP / graphite and other components for storing electrical energy. In the volume part, if the 2170 and 1865 batteries are similar to the No. 7 batteries and No. 5 batteries that we commonly see in our daily lives, then the 4680 is a "fat battery" that is one circle larger than the No. 1 battery!
In addition, many netizens are still very excited when discussing on the Internet, saying that 4680 is a new revolution in the current car-grade battery. In fact, whether from the structure or material, 4680 can only be regarded as a cylindrical high-nickel ternary battery modified version, and even the manufacturing materials have not changed much, as long as the yield rate of the ultra-long soft wrapped winding material is improved, coupled with the slight improvement of the production line, the production and manufacture of the 4680 will not be too difficult.
Moreover, similar technology has long been used on square batteries, as early as 10 years ago, domestic battery cell companies have obtained design patents for full-pole ears, and Guoxuan Hi-Tech also has similar technology, similar to the Panasonic 4680 battery cell electrodeless ear design.
The most important reason why Panasonic 4680 can succeed at this time is because of the opportunity, Tesla has demand, and Panasonic is its partner, Tesla is willing to provide convenience for the installation of 4680 battery cells, and the 4680 battery cell project can be successfully landed. Therefore, the 4680 that netizens talk about is a new revolution in the current battery industry, and the moisture of this sentence is too high.
Then, to change the way of thinking, Musk said that the range of the 4680 battery increased by 16%, which almost means that the energy density response of the battery pack has increased to about 16%, although it is not accurate enough, and the meaning is similar. But BYD's blade battery, by changing the stacking of materials inside the cell, the volume energy density of the battery pack has increased by 50%, or lithium iron phosphate as the main material, so is it not that the 4680 battery cell is not as god as the netizens "advocate"!
Better overall performance?
Musk said at the press conference that the energy of 4680 is increased by 5 times, and from the previous cognition, it is almost impossible to increase the energy density by 5 times in the case of unchanged materials. However, the advantage of 4680 is that compared with the previous 2170, 1865 and other batteries, there has been a huge increase in volume, and more energy can be stored in the monomer capacity, which is the same as simply increasing the number of batteries in the battery pack.
Although the overall material and structure of the 4680 have not changed, due to the use of the electrodeless ear design, the traditional polar ear structure is cancelled, and the copper foil that collects fluid is extended as the polar ear, which is why the electrodeless ear design of the 4680 can also be called the full polar ear.
The benefits of the electrodeless ear are also obvious, previously it was necessary to weld the polar ear separately for the flow of electrical energy, and now the polar ear design is cancelled, and the entire side of the battery cell is used as the polar ear, the electrical energy transmission is smoother, the transmission path is shortened, the internal resistance is reduced, the current density and heat generation at the polar ear are reduced, and the (full polar ear) can withstand a greater current. It is precisely because the size of the polar ear is larger and the heat dissipation is more uniform, which indirectly improves the charge and discharge performance of the 4680 battery cell.
To take a simple example, we drive a vehicle on a high speed, whether it is a two-way 6 lanes or a two-way 8 lanes, all the vehicles are driving on their own roads, and the roads are naturally smooth. However, when passing through the tunnel, due to the complexity of building the tunnel and the huge amount of engineering, a small number of tunnels are only designed for two-way 4 lanes, and when all vehicles pass here, it is natural to slow down the speed and safely change lanes to the traffic lanes, and it is not surprising that congestion occurs.
The 4680's electrodeless ear or omnipolar ear design, the strong point is to increase the lane inside the tunnel, keep the road inside the tunnel and the road outside the tunnel the same, the efficiency of the current through is high and fast, and the heat and performance are naturally more excellent.
In terms of capacity, it is better to understand that due to the larger size of the single cell, the capacity of internal storage is naturally larger. The 4680 single cell has a capacity of 9000mAh, and the previous 2170 has only 5000mAh energy increase is naturally more obvious. Taking Tesla's best-selling Model 3 as an example, the 2170 battery cell currently used in the M3 P needs 4416 to fill the entire battery pack, and the battery capacity is about 78.3kWh. These more than 4,000 cells are densely packed into the battery pack, and the small size of the cells leads to smaller voids, and each cell requires more time and materials to assemble.
In contrast, the battery pack filled with M3 P only needs 960 4680 cells, which translates to a total capacity of 130kWh, an increase of 75%. In addition, due to the larger size of the 4680 single cell, the number of packaging materials is reduced, and the cost of the housing used for packaging cells is reduced, and the weight will be reduced. At the same time, another benefit brought by the large size of the battery cell is that the gap between the cells becomes larger, making it easier to arrange the heat dissipation device. The electrodeless ear design makes charge-discharge and peak performance outstanding, with uniform heat generation and easier heat evacuation, higher battery pack efficiency, and slower performance attenuation.
In the management of battery control systems, the cost will also be reduced. Continuing to take the Model 3P as an example, more than 4,000 2170 batteries need to be packaged as "Bank" and "brick", multiple batteries will be packaged as a "brick", multiple "bricks" are controlled by a "Bank", and each "Bank" needs to be loaded with its own control module, and these microcomputers are costs. If the use of 4680 battery is more simple, due to the size and capacity of the cell, the number of cells is reduced, only a control module can be unified management, control is more simple and efficient.
From these data, the 4680 is indeed excellent compared to the upgraded and improved versions of 2170 and 1865. At the same time, compared with BYD's blade battery, the high-nickel ternary 4680 is indeed better than lithium iron phosphate in terms of energy density, charge and discharge efficiency, and winter endurance performance. For now, the comprehensive advantage of the 4680 is still relatively good.
From the perspective of material cost, with the gradual increase in the installed capacity of high nickel ternary, the procurement and manufacturing process is further refined, and the low-cost advantage of lithium iron phosphate will be gradually smoothed out in the next few years. But from the perspective of future development direction, these two batteries will be favored by the market. Lithium iron phosphate is favored in the civilian terminal with its high cost performance, and high nickel ternary/quad yuan will continue to play an advantage in the high-end automotive market.
Why prioritize Tesla?
Tesla's self-produced batteries can not be made?
As for why Panasonic gives priority to Tesla, in addition to the supply and demand benefits under the main cooperative relationship, it is also related to the "difficulties" encountered by Panasonic's enterprise development that year, and it can be said that Tesla has the grace of knowing panasonic.
As a Multinational Japanese Company, panasonic Group has more than 230 companies in the world, with a total of nearly 300,000 employees worldwide, and its business involves military industry, household appliances, communications industry, residential facilities, and battery manufacturing related to this article.
Panasonic battery business development was not smooth, in 2009 Panasonic began to cooperate with Tesla, and signed an agreement to supply Tesla with 1865 model batteries, and laid the foundation for the subsequent 2170 model batteries and today's 4680 model batteries, but Panasonic did not achieve real profitability in these years. In 2018, Panasonic's battery business unit reported a loss of more than 20 billion yen; in 2019, the loss was as high as 46.6 billion yen, until 2020 Tesla production and sales were on the right track, Panasonic began to achieve profitability, which is also related to the positive net profit of Panasonic and Tesla-related businesses.
Of course, this does not explain how "iron" the relationship between Tesla and Panasonic is, Musk has repeatedly publicly said that Panasonic's production capacity supply is insufficient, resulting in Tesla product sales can not go up. If Panasonic, as Tesla's exclusive battery supplier, believes and is a partner, then Tesla's suppliers now have Ningde Times and LG Chem, which is the business.
In addition, since Musk hyped up the 4680 battery at the press conference, the major domestic battery suppliers are also spoiled, in addition to the existing Ningde era and LG Chem, Ewell Lithium Energy has also begun to contact Tesla. According to the available information, Ewell Lithium Energy also has the manufacturing capacity of 4680 batteries, and at the same time announced the manufacturing capacity of larger models of 4695.
As Tesla's main supplier in China, CATL's layout in the new large cylindrical battery is also very fast, and began to plan to build a super battery factory in the south of the Tesla factory in Lingang for fast and timely supply to Tesla. The Japanese and Korean parts, LG Chem and Samsung SDI have earlier layouts, and have completed the sample development of 4680 batteries, and it is believed that the problem of low yield of ultra-long materials has been overcome. The successive catch-up of a number of midstream battery manufacturers is bound to bring the 4680 battery to the market more quickly. Even if some companies cannot obtain Tesla's orders, the technical reserves are still there, which will also promote other new energy vehicle companies in China to adopt such batteries and form healthy competition, ultimately benefiting consumers.
For Tesla's own production of batteries, Musk also has a very strong determination. In February 2020, Tesla launched the "Roadrunner" power battery self-production plan, after Tesla acquired the Canadian battery manufacturer Hibar, and another capacitor technology research and development company MAXwell, showing Tesla's decision to build its own battery, but as a technology company, although so powerful, but still do not have the ability to produce batteries, after all, in terms of the current development trend of China's major car manufacturers and traditional car companies, The market doesn't give Tesla too many trial and error opportunities.
Although Musk has also repeatedly revealed that Tesla needs its own batteries, which can reduce costs and will not be controlled by people, and has said that it will use its own batteries in 2022. As far as the current situation is concerned, this battery should be the Panasonic 4680 that Tesla participated in manufacturing, so it cannot be regarded as Tesla's own production and manufacturing. As far as the current news is concerned, Tesla very much wants to produce and manufacture its own batteries, but after all, whether Tesla's own battery manufacturing project can be landed is still unknown.
Summary
Having said all this, in general, the Wuji Ear 4680 battery cell can be regarded as a breeze blown by the current battery technology when it encounters a bottleneck. The new ideas for anxious car dealers have once again improved the comprehensive performance of pure electric vehicles. Compared with the solid-state battery, which can bring double the range and charging and discharging efficiency, the 4680 battery cell is not as powerful as imagined.
Having said that, the improvement and upgrading of the 4680 battery cell still makes enterprises in various industrial chains see new hope. In general, 4680 is not a qualitative change, but it has enhanced its competitiveness in the industry, and also made the battlefield of new energy vehicles that has gradually returned to calm tense again. At the same time, as the core component of pure electric vehicles, the research and development competition of car companies in the field of batteries will become more intense.