CTC – The Ultimate Future of Electric Vehicle Batteries?

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General view: The future is bright

Electric vehicles are always dissatisfied with the battery and have been moving towards the goal of higher density, safer, greater capacity and so on. Although the goals are all the same, the way to achieve the goals is not necessarily the same, and the slimming plan of new energy vehicles has two breakthrough directions. On the one hand, from the material route, mainly through the study of different cathode materials, such as a variety of lithium iron phosphate batteries, ternary lithium batteries, etc., to bring about the improvement of energy density and endurance. On the other hand, starting from the engineering and technical route, it is necessary to improve the battery size and the lightweight design of the battery pack to achieve the improvement of battery life. CTP and CTC are one of the latter.

01

CTP

First, let's talk about the current installation method of new energy vehicle batteries. The battery cell is first integrated into the module, the module is collected into a battery pack, and finally the battery pack is installed on the chassis. Cell Module Pack Chassis Vehicle.

Every time the above links are omitted, it can save the space for the whole vehicle to install batteries, reduce the weight of the vehicle, and improve the endurance of the whole vehicle.

CTP Cell To Pack, which integrates the battery cell directly into the battery pack. Due to the elimination of module assembly, the space utilization rate of CTP battery packs has increased, the weight of battery packs has been reduced, the energy density has been increased and the cost has decreased, which is also an important direction for power batteries to explore structural innovation. In 2019, the world's first CTP battery pack mass production in the Ningde era rolled off the production line, followed by BYD's blade battery and the short knife battery of Hive Energy, all of which were matched in the form of CTP, as well as the building block battery of Jiewei Power, and the clap CTP of Vision Power.

CTP technology and lithium iron phosphate batteries combined to achieve an excellent combination of cost, safety and energy density, the two major battery players represented by the Ningde era and BYD CTP technology has penetrated 40% in the top 10 new energy sales in 2021. Chinese battery companies have moved from leading the development of global CTP technology to the global output of CTP technology.

02

CTC

CTC battery chassis integration technology, or "Cell-To-Chassis", refers to the inheritance of batteries and chassis design to improve vehicle performance. The technology blends batteries and chassis together to better optimize vehicle space and structural strength. CTC technology, the battery cell is directly mounted on the chassis, the battery skeleton structure and the chassis body structure into one. More generally speaking, the body, battery and chassis form a fusion. Compared with CTP abandoning the module, even the whole package is not used, and it is more thorough.

The integration of CTC can effectively reduce the number of parts, improve the space utilization rate and thus improve the bulk density of the battery pack, while complementing the body and battery structure, so that the battery impact resistance and body torsional stiffness have been greatly improved. According to the data of related industries and companies, it can increase the battery layout space by 14.5%, the vertical space of the body by 10mm, the utilization rate of battery space, the body lightweight coefficient increased by 20% compared with the traditional solution, and the torsional stiffness of the body increased by 25%; and the winter thermal insulation performance is better, and the vehicle's comprehensive endurance is increased by 10%.

The technology first attracted the attention of the public is Tesla in 2020 battery day, at the end of April 2022, zero-run car officially released the "CTC battery chassis integration" technology, becoming the first domestic "crab-eating" car company, but also the world's first CTC chassis technology mass production landing brand. CATL will officially launch highly integrated CTC battery technology in 2025. In addition, BYD, Volvo, etc. have related layouts in CTC technology.

The same is CTC, from the method of realizing the battery sealing structure, there are two large technical routes, one is "bottomless body + sealed battery", the battery itself is a whole, the car has no bottom plate. The other is the "complete body + battery tray", the battery pack does not have a lid, and the occupant compartment is considered with emphasis.

03

Technology Outlook

The zero-run CTC is not pure enough, integrating the battery module instead of the battery into the chassis. It is not that zero running does not want to, but the technology still has many difficulties, to ensure the air tightness of the battery pack, the chassis collision safety after CTC, effectively prevent the spread of heat, and the subsequent maintenance problems need to be overcome.

To the entire industry chain, CTP/CTC technology as a whole is the battery as the core, supplemented by the integrated design of matching components, battery companies have more development advantages, the fact is that the battery enterprises as a whole are forced and applied earlier than the main engine factory, and constantly promote the integrated battery pack and integrated chassis of the whole industry chain layout. The main engine factory will change from the original purchase of batteries and modules, and the way of assembling battery packs by themselves to directly purchasing battery packs from battery companies as a whole.

In the manufacturing process, compared with the traditional battery pack, the CTP battery pack removes the module, and in the process of simplifying the PACK structure, the increase or decrease of the use of different structures and materials and the traditional structural parts will also undergo great changes in the pattern of production and supply. For example, the battery pack design reduces the intermediate module and increases the application of thermal conductive adhesive and structural adhesive. Structural parts have also changed from new materials such as steel aluminum alloy magnesium aluminum alloy/plastic and carbon fiber composite materials.

04

A few points of view

1. As far as the battery itself is concerned, new materials such as solid-state batteries and carbon-silicon anodes are still a certain distance from large-scale applications. Material innovation around ternary lithium batteries also seems to fall into the impossible triangle of safety, energy density and economy. In recent years, battery innovation has appeared more in the optimization and iteration of structures. CTP and CTC will inevitably have more attention.

2. After CTP, everyone will inevitably choose a more "extreme" CTC technology route, especially car companies. Because this is not only technological innovation, but more importantly, it will change the vehicle design and industrial chain, and the main engine factory with CTC technology will control more dominance, so whether it is Tesla or Volkswagen, Volvo or even Bosch and Benteler are engaged.

3. As mentioned earlier, with the change of the combination of batteries and vehicles, the changes in the entire industrial chain have been brought about, and there are new opportunities in the field of structural parts and materials, and those companies that originally made battery shells will inevitably usher in new challenges.

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