The longer the mileage of new energy vehicles, the stronger the strength? On this issue, BYD chose Tesla to stand together.
In January 2022, GAC launched a model with a range of 1,008 kilometers and a price of 459,600 yuan. Just when many people complained that other electric vehicle giants were not technically superior, Tesla CEO Elon Musk sang the opposite.
In early March, Musk commented online that Tesla had long been able to produce a model with a range of 960 kilometers, but it did not make sense.
Curiously, as the leader of domestic new energy vehicles, BYD seems to have reached a certain degree of tacit understanding with Tesla and has not launched a new energy model with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers.
Is IT's not technically good, or does BYD also feel that blindly pursuing endurance is meaningless?
First, several factors affecting the endurance
Many people buy new energy vehicles, the most concerned indicator is its mileage, and even some people regard it as the only reference index for buying a car. Generally speaking, for new energy vehicles with ternary lithium and lithium iron phosphate as power batteries, the theoretical endurance parameters mainly depend on the capacity of the power battery, the larger the battery capacity, the longer the mileage of the car, and the shorter it is.
But in fact, in fact, in the actual situation, there are many factors that affect the mileage.
1. Weather factors
Just as fuel vehicles are not easy to catch fire in winter, lithium-ion batteries are also quite sensitive to temperature.
Cold weather can drastically reduce the range of the power battery. As the temperature drops, the activity of lithium ions in the battery pack decreases, which in turn leads to lower discharge. Scientists have found in the laboratory that under the freezing point temperature, the electric vehicle will lose 25% of the rated cruising range, and the fast charging efficiency will also be reduced by 35%.
And in winter, because new energy vehicles do not have the heat energy generated by the engine can be directly utilized, so turning on air conditioning will directly consume the electric energy of electric vehicles.
2. Hardware factors
To put it simply, if you want to improve the endurance of new energy vehicles, you only need to stack batteries to achieve it. However, stacking batteries makes battery management more difficult than linear.
Due to the overcharging or discharging of a single battery pack, it will increase the aging and unsafe of the entire battery pack, so it is necessary to monitor the battery pack in real time to accurately understand the charge and discharge status of each battery, as well as its voltage, current, temperature and other information. This also means that the more batteries in the battery pack, the more difficult to manage will increase significantly until the bottleneck point of the technology is reached.
At the same time, the increase of the battery pack also requires the redesign and upgrading of the car's internal wiring and body chassis, which is not as simple as simply adding a few batteries.
3. Chip factor
In addition to the different power modes of new energy vehicles and fuel vehicles, new energy vehicles also need to be equipped with more intelligent software and hardware systems, and these systems rely most on the chips in the car. The higher the battery life requirements, the higher the requirements for the chip process.
According to statistics, since the car entered the era of electrification, because the car has higher requirements for intelligence and networking, a car must install at least 40 kinds of chips, and high-end cars must install at least 150 kinds. However, not every chip can be produced in China, such as vehicle-grade MCUs and IGBT chips.
Some time ago, the official stated that domestic semiconductor companies should establish a vehicle-grade chip industry cluster to reduce the phenomenon of "lack of core and less soul", referring to MCU and IGBT chips. At present, only a few companies such as BYD can produce in China, but almost 90% of the market for high-end chips depends on Infineon in Germany and some companies in Japan and the United States. Demand has increased, supply has not changed, and the price of chips is now high in sesame blossoms.
Second, why does BYD not increase vehicle endurance?
"The wool is out of the sheep", and the extra cost will eventually be spread equally on the price of the vehicle. Therefore, for the sake of battery life, this is not a "cost-effective" thing for most car companies and consumers.
Although BYD, which "can do anything", already has its own IGBT production line and a blade battery for housekeepers, but now in the face of consumers' demand for high battery life, BYD's response is three words: unnecessary.
1. Safety factors
Although solving the short endurance of new energy vehicles is the current market demand, it can also solve the pain points of consumers. The simplest and most rude way is to stack the battery and increase its capacity, but with the current technology, it is difficult to solve the safety problems that arise after the battery increases.
The high-energy, multi-quantity battery is not easy to dissipate heat in the process of charging and discharging, which will reduce the stability of lithium ions, resulting in spontaneous combustion, explosion and other phenomena.
2. The comprehensive cost of car manufacturing
China's consumer base is very large, there are models that need long battery life, and naturally there are also models that do not need. For each car company, the development of a model requires the redesign of the architecture, interior, wiring, etc., and it needs to continuously carry out impact tests. If it is only a niche demand, it is completely unnecessary to develop a model alone.
At present, new energy vehicles are mainly for the purpose of urban transportation, and the cruising range of 600 to 700 kilometers and convenient charging methods are enough to meet the needs of the vast majority of car owners. Car owners who run more than 1,000 kilometers for a long time can give priority to hybrid or fuel vehicles.
3, the technology is not yet mature
As the second largest power battery manufacturer in China, BYD's blade battery has undergone rigorous tests such as acupuncture experiments and has been recognized by the market. In the case of the same volume and no need to change the model, the battery capacity is greatly increased, which is believed to be the direction of bydirection and automotive battery manufacturers.
But Moore's Law also needs to be within the framework of time, after all, more important than the mileage, is the safety of a car. Do not be blinded by the gimmicks of some car companies in order to promote sales. You know, endurance is a theoretical parameter, and it is really unsafe.
III. Conclusion
In the manufacturing concept of The Japanese car company Toyota, there is a concept of "quality excess", which means that the quality benchmark of a car or a part is far beyond the necessary level, which will lead to waste of quality. Musk's statement that it is "meaningless" to excessively increase the mileage is also based on this.
However, human pursuit of science and technology is endless, perhaps in the near future, new energy vehicles can achieve a breakthrough of more than 1,000 or even 10,000 cruising ranges under the premise of unchanged volume, but at least should not rush now.