In the power battery industry, the industry changes are looming, and players are trying to seize the next technological commanding heights.
A few days ago, according to foreign media reports, South Korean power battery manufacturer Samsung SDI announced that it has begun to build the industry's first solid-state battery trial production line. Samsung SDI said that the all-solid-state battery trial production line in Suwon City, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, has broken ground, planning to cover an area of 6,500 square meters, named "S-Line". However, Samsung SDI did not disclose specific information such as when the pilot line will be completed and the capacity.
It is reported that Samsung SDI is developing a solid-state battery based on sulfide electrolyte, and has obtained a design patent for sulfide electrolyte materials, which has now entered the stage of technical verification. In addition, Samsung SDI has already made one or two models in the lab. Some industry insiders have analyzed that the "S-Line" pilot production line may mean that Samsung SDI will take the lead in starting the mass production of solid-state batteries.
In addition to Samsung SDI, South Korea's POSCO Group also announced plans to invest in the construction of a new solid-state battery production facility. According to a STATEMENT BY POSCO GROUP, starting in the second half of 2022, the company's new production facility will produce 24 tons of solid electrolytes per year.
In the Chinese market, the latest news of the layout of the solid-state battery field has also recently been released. It is reported that the all-solid-state lithium battery company High Energy Era recently completed more than 50 million yuan of financing, and the domestic power battery "rookie" Sunwoda participated in the investment.
Under the background of the accelerated development of new energy vehicles, the industry has higher and higher requirements for the safety and endurance of power batteries. At present, the widely used ternary lithium battery and lithium iron phosphate battery are liquid lithium batteries, and liquid lithium batteries are considered to be unable to meet the future development needs of new energy vehicles. In addition to the most mentioned range anxiety and safety issues, an important reason why the development prospects of liquid lithium batteries are not optimistic is the low upper limit of energy density.
According to the "Energy-saving and New Energy Vehicle Technology Roadmap" released by the state in October 2020, the energy density target of power batteries in 2025 is 400Wh/kg, and the target for 2030 is 500Wh/kg. Public data shows that the energy density ceiling of liquid batteries may be 350 Wh/kg. In addition, the mainstream voice in the industry believes that the potential development of liquid batteries is close to the limit, and the power battery industry needs new technological breakthroughs.
In fact, this voice has not appeared in the past two years, and the layout of solid-state batteries by related companies in the industry has long been opened.
In terms of classification, solid-state batteries are divided into three routes of polymer, oxide and sulfide according to the different electrolytes, of which the sulfide route is favored by many head enterprises. Toyota Motor, Samsung SDI and CATL are all laying out sulfide solid-state batteries.
In this research and development route, Japanese Toyota is considered to be the fastest progress, with more than 1,000 solid-state battery patents. According to Toyota battery business executives, Toyota has manufactured solid-state batteries as planned and is expected to achieve mass production in 2025.
CATL announced its sulfide solid-state battery research and development route in 2016, and in May last year, CATL announced that the company has been able to make solid-state battery samples and is expected to achieve mass production by 2030.
In addition, BMW also released a plan to mass-produce solid-state batteries in 2030; LG New Energy's timeline is earlier, and is expected to be mass-produced in 2026; domestic car company SAIC Motor Group said that it will launch high-safety, high-energy density, and commercially-oriented solid-state lithium batteries in 2025.
Although many car companies and power battery manufacturers have vigorously laid out, due to the imperfect technical indicators of solid-state batteries, complex manufacturing processes and high manufacturing costs, solid-state battery mass production is considered difficult to achieve in the short term.
It is precisely for this reason that the news of the construction of the solid-state battery trial production line of Samsung SDI has attracted a lot of attention. However, whether it can take the lead in achieving mass production of solid-state batteries is not only urgent for Samsung SDI, but also the industry will be very concerned.