The story of LG Sanyuan continues, and recently Stellantis is recalling 19,808 Pacifica Hybrids (PHEV models) due to potential fire risks.
From the currently limited scope, the recalled models are limited to the MY2017-18 model, and the recall was carried out after an internal investigation found that there were a total of 12 fires in the Pacifica Hybrid, all of which occurred when the vehicle was parked and turned off, of which 8 were charging. From the current logic, we can also see that models in the field of plug-in will also come to a wave of lithium iron.
We can understand that there are regulatory differences between china and overseas, including the difference in the tolerance rate of the car companies for fire accidents, and the losses caused by this recall may be included in the quality cost provisions of battery companies.
图1. Pacifica Recall
Note: At present, both SDI and LG have made mistakes on PHEV batteries, the former involving the manufacture of larger pots, and the latter has been completely confused.
01 Battery design for the Pacifica Hybrid
This battery system has a total of 16 kWh, as shown in the figure below, which is the standard cell P2.X series under the LG product series, and the main users include GM, Volvo, Stellantis (used in North America and Europe).
Figure 2. The battery system of this product
This is the basic situation of this module, I understand, this module is LG's own design of the CMA version, mainly used in Volvo and Stallantis, GM's PHEV / EREV series product design is not the same.
Figure 3. PHEV module
12 Whether the fire caused injury or accident to the owner, from the results of internal evaluation and treatment, Stellantis urged all car owners not to charge Pacificas after long-term use, and park their cars away from other vehicles or buildings – as with Bolt EV.
The recall includes 16,741 vehicles in the United States, 2,317 vehicles in Canada and 750 vehicles outside North America.
02 Overall situation of LG
In 2021, LG New Energy's full-year revenue was KRW 17.85 trillion, up 42% year-on-year, operating profit was KRW 768.5 billion, and operating margin was 4.3%. LG New Energy also provides a 2022 performance outlook. LG expects revenue to be KRW 19.2 trillion in 2022, up 8% year-on-year, and 14% year-on-year if the impact of one-time events on performance is not taken into account.
There is a big disagreement here, the original all the car companies are around the theme of high energy density and de-cobaltation, with the first wave of battery development of battery application batteries to try to do, quality and after-sales comrades to stand up, if so the first wave of attempts for the brand effect what to reduce.
Figure 4. LG customer structure for January-November 2021
That is to say, with the failure of the first round of soft package promotion, under the technical route of small cells, there is a certain fault tolerance rate to prevent the thermal runaway of Cell to the module, which is confirmed by the form of 2170 and deduced in the form of 4680.
The technical route of large batteries, whether it is a soft package of 20Ah or a soft package of 60Ah, and a soft package of 78Ah, may need to confirm long-term safety. Ternary large square shell, whether it can go through a complete life cycle, in 2017-2020 did not consider how to deal with the battery for thermal runaway protection, is it only through the OTA limit soC upper limit, limit the use of SOC window, at present, the domestic need to further explore.
Figure 5:There are differences between the theory of battery cell technology and the safety risks of large-scale promotion
That is to say, at present, everyone can go down with peace of mind, calculated to do high energy density of iron lithium, whether it is the statistics of the probability of fire, or the speed of fire to make the car company more secure.
Summary: I think there was a batch of 811 PHEV batteries, and how to deal with it in the future is a big problem. Under the strong safety supervision of overseas governments and the internal self-inspection of overseas car companies, overseas third-party power battery companies have indeed reached the point where they have to joint venture, handing over some technologies on the one hand, and realizing risk sharing on the other hand.