As an important trend of future travel, one of the core components of new energy vehicles is the power battery. At present, the mainstream power batteries on the market have two types: lithium iron phosphate batteries and ternary lithium batteries, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. In recent years, another type of power battery, lithium titanate battery, has also attracted attention.
Lithium titanate battery is a kind of lithium-ion battery that uses lithium titanate as the anode material. Its biggest features are high safety, long service life, fast charging and discharging speed, and good low temperature performance. It is reported that lithium titanate batteries can be fully charged with 80% in 6 minutes and can be recycled more than 30,000 times.
So, can lithium titanate batteries really lead the new energy market? One of the key factors is the optimism and investment of Dong Mingzhu, chairman of Gree Group.
Dong Mingzhu once invested 1 billion yuan in Yinlong New Energy (now renamed Gree Titanium) in his own name, and invested an additional 1.6 billion yuan by mortgaging his equity in Gree Group2. She also invited well-known entrepreneurs such as Wang Jianlin and Liu Qiangdong to take a stake in the company.
Dong Mingzhu believes that lithium titanate batteries have huge market potential and commercial value, and have absolute advantages in communication base stations, rail transit, heavy trucks, hybrid buses and other fields. She also said, "I believe that in the next ten years, we will become the world's largest new energy enterprise."
However, not everyone is so optimistic about lithium titanate batteries. Industry insiders pointed out that lithium titanate batteries are not a new technology, which was born more than 20 years ago and has been eliminated in the field of new energy passenger vehicles.
They believe that the most fatal disadvantage of lithium titanate batteries is low energy density, large size, high cost, etc. In contrast, other types of power batteries such as lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium are more suitable for the needs of the family car market.
In addition, lithium titanate batteries also have the problem of flatulence, which will produce gas during use and cause capacity drops and safety hazards.
Therefore, at the current level of technology, it is not easy for lithium titanate batteries to be ahead of other competitors. Lithium titanate batteries also need to carry out more technological innovation and breakthroughs in improving energy density, reducing costs, and solving flatulence.
However, lithium titanate batteries also have their unique advantages and application scenarios. In terms of safety, life, charge and discharge speed, low temperature performance, etc., lithium titanate batteries have excellent performance, suitable for communication base stations, rail transit, heavy trucks, hybrid buses and other applications that require high safety, high stability and long cycle.
Moreover, with technological progress and industrial scale, the cost of lithium titanate batteries is expected to gradually decrease. It is reported that the current cost of lithium titanate batteries has dropped from about 100,000 yuan per kWh a few years ago to about 30,000 yuan, and is expected to approach 10,000 yuan in the next few years.
As the chairman of Gree Group, Dong Mingzhu has made brilliant achievements in the field of air conditioning. Her investment and optimism about lithium titanate batteries is not impulsive or blindly following the trend, but based on deep insight and judgment of the development trend and potential of the new energy market.
She once said, "I don't do things that have no future." She believes that lithium titanate batteries have huge market potential and commercial value, have absolute advantages in new energy vehicles, energy storage systems and other fields, and are in line with the national strategic direction.
She also said, "I believe that in the next ten years, we will become the world's largest new energy enterprise." This sentence is full of confidence and ambition, and also reflects Dong Mingzhu's spirit of daring to challenge himself, pursue excellence, and pioneer and innovate.
Of course, Dong Mingzhu also clearly knows that achieving this goal in the field of new energy is not easy. She has to face pressure and difficulties from various competitors and challengers at home and abroad. She needs to invest more money, talent and resources to strengthen technology research and development, product production and marketing. She needs to establish good cooperative relations with government departments, industry associations, scientific research institutions, etc., and actively participate in the formulation of industry standards.
However, as Dong Mingzhu said, "as long as you dare to think and dare to do, there is nothing impossible". With her keen business acumen and courage to innovate, she hopes to build a new energy industry group with lithium titanate batteries as the core through the acquisition of Yinlong New Energy (now renamed Gree Titanium New Energy), covering energy storage, new energy vehicles, renewable resources and other fields.
Dong Mingzhu said she wants to do something subversive rather than follow the steps of others. She believes that lithium titanate batteries have the advantages of safety, efficiency and environmental protection, and will become mainstream battery technology in the future. She also revealed that Gree Titanium has been developing new technologies of "photovoltaic + energy storage + air conditioning", committed to making air conditioning a small power station, and has been applied in customized customer services.