In addition to Tesla, what is unexpected is that the second company to announce the release of CTC technology is neither a battery giant such as the Ningde era, nor a traditional car company with considerable strength, but an independent new force brand - zero run.
On April 25, Zero Run released the intelligent power CTC battery chassis integration technology. At the same time, Zhu Jiangming, chairman of Zero-Run Automobile, also announced that the technology will be free and open to share, and the latest achievements of global self-research will be shared with the whole industry.
For now, CTC is currently only tesla to achieve mass production, and zero-run CTC technology will be installed on the new zero-run C01, which is expected to be unveiled in May.
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How to slim down the power battery
To solve the problem of mileage that everyone cares about, the idea at the power battery level is to let the battery load more electrical energy. To put it simply, in the short term, there will be no breakthrough progress in battery materials, and energy density cannot be greatly improved, so engineering optimization has become the simplest way to "free up" more space and put more batteries.
The current power battery design can be roughly divided into three major stages, namely the 1.0 era of standardized modules, the CTP 2.0 era of large modules, and the current highest level of CTC 3.0 stages.
In the 1.0 era, the power battery is called a standardized module, which first assembles the battery cell into a module, and then assembles several modules together with the shell to become a battery pack, and finally the battery is packaged on the body. The existence of the module makes the battery pack simple in terms of overall technical requirements and assembly, and its obvious disadvantage is that the module and the shell occupy more volume and the space utilization rate is not high, which leads to a reduction in the space ratio of the battery cell.
The existence of the module makes the battery pack simple in terms of overall technical requirements and assembly, and its obvious disadvantage is that the module and shell occupy more volume and the space utilization rate is not high. So the development of 2.0 CTP (Cell To Pack) technology, also known as moduleless technology, that is, the battery cell is directly integrated into the battery pack, reducing or omitting the battery module, and integrating the battery pack into the body floor as part of the vehicle structural parts. The most representative is the CTP technology of the Ningde era and BYD's blade battery.
3.0 is the world of CTC technology, CTC is the abbreviation of Cell To Chassis technology, refers to the battery and chassis fusion design, to further simplify the product design and production process technology. By reducing the redundant structural design, effectively reducing the number of parts, while improving the space utilization rate and system specific energy, the body and battery structure complement each other, so that the battery impact resistance and body torsional stiffness have been greatly improved. At the same time, there must be a smarter BMS (Battery Management System) to monitor, manage and optimize the use of batteries more intelligently.
But this means that CTC technology is highly dependent on body chassis development. Compared with standard modules and CTPs, it requires more R&D capabilities of vehicle companies and more involvement in battery pack design.
CTC technology is difficult to tackle
As the industry's top technology, there are many technical problems that need to be overcome to truly achieve CTC.
The first is the fundamental of CTC, how to make the chassis and battery integrated? Zero run adopts an "integrated pallet structure". The design idea is to install the battery into a battery tray, and then install this tray under the chassis, like an inverted dinner plate. In order to improve the firmness of the battery, the top and bottom of the battery are also fixed to the tray and chassis. The entire integrated design is both a body structure and a battery structure.
Another point is the sealing of the battery, compared with the traditional tram, the battery pack is integrated inside the chassis under the zero-run CTC technology, which has extremely high requirements for the rigidity around the chassis. In order to solve this problem, Zero Run adopts a special process to improve the welding quality, accuracy control and welding consistency, and also proposes a new airtightness detection method and a return-to-factory maintenance program. At the junction of the chassis and the tray, a combination of "rivets + sealing strips" is used to ensure waterproof performance.
In addition, Zero Run also combines BMS and cloud platform into an AI BMS big data intelligent battery management system, AI BMS can monitor the battery's indicators in real time, and send the data to the cloud for AI data modeling, get the current state of the battery, and feedback to the owner through the APP. Based on big data, AI BMS can learn from historical data, provide more efficient charging strategies and battery monitoring, and can perform software updates throughout the life cycle through OTAs to make batteries safer.
CTC technology is currently battery companies and car companies are studying the technology, Tesla has achieved mass production loading, and zero run also officially released this technology. At present, battery companies such as Ningde Times are also making efforts in this regard, and with the joint efforts of car companies and battery companies, CTC technology will accelerate on the car.
Some insiders said that the CTC scheme is an important development direction for the future of electric vehicle battery group technology. The CTC solution will also be the first to be applied to the zero-run medium and large sedan C01, and the zero-run C01, can it become a weapon for zero-run to break through again?