In 10 minutes and 800 li, "King Ning" wanted the life of the oil truck

CATL, the global leader in power batteries, has not held an offline conference for a long time. It has always liked to make a fortune in a muffled voice, but these days it has suddenly become high-profile.

On the afternoon of August 16, CATL officially released the world's first lithium iron phosphate 4C supercharged battery, Shenxing supercharged battery, the main function is one word: fast.

The so-called 4C charging means that the battery is fully charged in 1/4 hour (that is, within 15 minutes). Compared with 3C (the battery is fully charged in 20 minutes) and 2C (the battery is fully charged in 30 minutes), the efficiency is much improved. It is understood that the "Shenxing overcharged battery" can be charged for 10 minutes and travel 800 miles (endurance of about 400 kilometers).

What is the concept of 800 miles? It is equivalent to the driving distance between Beijing and Jinan, Shanghai and Hefei.

"At present, there are two obvious changes on the user side of new energy vehicles, one is the change of user group, which has begun to shift from pioneer users to mass users; Second, the change of demand, with the continuous breakthrough of battery energy density, the battery life problem has been basically solved, and now rapid replenishment has become a more concerned problem for consumers. Wu Kai, chief scientist of CATL, said at the press conference.

4C fast charging has become a must-compete track

In fact, Wu Kai revealed earlier that CATL will launch a new product in 2023 to completely solve the problem of user charging anxiety.

According to Gao Huan, CTO of the domestic passenger car division of CATL, the reason why the new product is called "Shenxing" is due to two reasons: one is to highlight the sense of "fast", and the other is to have affinity. CATL hopes to create value for ordinary people and let high-end technology fly into ordinary people's homes.

▲ (Wu Kai, chief scientist of CATL, spoke on the spot.) Source/CATL official WeChat)

As the world's first battery to achieve 4C supercharging on lithium iron phosphate, "Shenxing supercharged battery" can not only operate in a low temperature environment of minus 10 °C, but also charge to 80% within 30 minutes, realizing lightning fast charging in the full temperature range.

In terms of cathode materials, "Shenxing supercharged battery" uses superelectronic network cathode technology, fully nano-nanoized lithium iron phosphate cathode material, and builds a superelectronic network that extends in all directions to reduce the extrusion resistance of lithium ions and make the charging signal respond quickly.

In the anode material, the company's latest research and development of the second-generation fast ion ring technology is adopted to modify the surface of graphite, increase the intercalation channel of lithium ions, and shorten the distance of embedding. At the same time, the new product also uses a multi-gradient layered pole piece design to achieve a balance between battery life and fast charging.

In terms of electrolyte conduction, CATL has developed a new ultra-high conductive electrolyte formula, which effectively improves conductivity and reduces the viscosity of electrolyte, and increases the desolvation ability of lithium ions. The ultra-thin SEI film can also effectively reduce resistance.

In terms of safety, the "Shenxing Supercharged Battery" further improves the gene of the electrolyte, effectively reduces the reaction heat generation at the solid-liquid interface, and is equipped with a highly safe coated separator. At the battery management level, it uses intelligent algorithms to accurately calculate and control the temperature field inside the battery cell in real time.

CATL officially said that the "Shenxing supercharged battery" will achieve mass production by the end of this year, and in the first quarter of 2024, electric vehicles equipped with the battery will appear on the market.

▲ (Source/CATL official WeChat)

According to statistics, the proportion of fast charging in the current mainland public charging piles is only 40%, and the fast charging power is generally low, resulting in slow charging speed, long queuing time, low turnover efficiency and other problems.

4C charging speed is fast, but the cost is also high, and it is not popular in the market at present. In recent years, both vehicle companies and power battery companies, such as CATL, China Innovation Aviation, Hive Energy, EVE Lithium Energy, etc., are stepping up the research and development of products on this track.

Some time ago, CATL said in the conference call that the application scale of 4C fast charging technology is not only determined by the battery, but also depends on the model planning of car companies, etc., in the long run, car companies are more willing to launch differentiated competitive products, and it is expected that 4C fast charging technology will occupy a considerable market share.

CITIC Securities Research Report said that at present, fast charging functions are increasingly becoming the standard equipment of new energy high-end models, and fast charging technology is becoming the focus of a new round of competition for power battery manufacturers. At the same time, according to the planning of relevant car companies, the penetration rate of batteries with 4C fast charging capacity is expected to further increase in the future, which will help promote the upgrading and growth of related materials, and is expected to bring investment opportunities to conductive carbon black, negative electrode coating materials, aerogels, composite current collectors, aramid coatings, thermally conductive ball aluminum, polyurethane, insulation materials, etc.

Play the role of supplier

Although it has taken the top position in the industry, CATL has not dared to relax in the past two years, busy completing the diversified layout of products.

In June 2022, CATL released the CTP3.0 Kirin battery, with an energy density of up to 255Wh/kg, under the same battery pack size, the power of the Kirin battery pack is increased by 13% compared with the 4680 system, which can achieve a range of 1000km.

At this year's Shanghai Auto Show, CATL first launched a condensed matter battery, with an energy density of up to 500Wh/kg, according to the official disclosure, the automotive-grade version of the condensed matter battery will have mass production capacity within this year. In addition, CATL is also promoting the industrialization of sodium-ion batteries and announced the debut of sodium batteries in Chery models.

▲ (2023 Shanghai Auto Show CATL condensed matter battery debut.) Source/Visual China)

While the innovative technologies landed one by one, in the first half of this year, CATL also handed over a good report card.

According to the financial report, in the first half of 2023, the company's revenue was 189.246 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 67.52%. The net profit reached 20.717 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 153.64%. Due to the sharp drop in the price of raw materials such as lithium carbonate in the first half of the year, the gross profit margin of CATL power battery system and energy storage battery system products also rose from 17.17% and 17.01% in 2022 to a level of more than 20%.

At the same time, from the global power battery installation data released by global information agency SNE research from January to June 2023, it can be seen that the installed volume of CATL is 112GWH, an increase of 56.2% over the same period last year, and its market share has increased by 1.4 percentage points year-on-year, making it the only supplier in the global power battery industry that occupies more than 30.0% of the market share, and this is the sixth consecutive year that it has won the first place in the world.

However, from the perspective of the growth rate of battery installations, the growth rate of battery installations in the first half of CATL was 56.2%, almost half of the growth rate of 111% in the same period last year.

In contrast, BYD, which ranked second with 47.7GWH installed volume, increased its installed capacity by 102.4% year-on-year, and its market share also increased by 4.1 percentage points to 15.7%, further narrowing the gap with the Ningde era.

▲(2023 Shanghai Auto Show CATL sodium-ion battery. Source/Visual China)

It is undeniable that the current power battery market competition has intensified. In the first half of this year, with a market share of 33.5% in the new energy automobile industry, BYD's installed power battery capacity has reached 45.41GWh, and its market share has increased from 23.45% in 2022 to 29.85%.

Although CATL still ranks in the top 1 of the domestic power battery industry with an installed volume of 66.03GWh, its market share has fallen to 43.4%. Compared with the previous two years, the figure was 48.2% in 2022 and 52.1% in 2021.

Behind the subtle change in market share is the game between CATL and downstream vehicle enterprises in the supply chain. For CATL, the relationship with cooperative car companies is a relationship of both prosperity and loss. The strong posture of the past is not conducive to long-term development, and it should play a good role as a supplier to help car companies reduce costs.

At the beginning of the year, CATL proposed the "lithium mine rebate" plan, which aims to reduce costs for car companies and lock in long-term orders. However, as the price of lithium carbonate continues to fall, the beneficial nature of the plan has been greatly discounted, so that some leading car companies have rejected the "lithium mine rebate" plan.

The pressure of car companies to reduce costs has also been transmitted to the Ningde era. At the beginning of this year, it was reported that CATL required upstream suppliers to reduce prices by 10%, which is currently implemented quarterly. On July 20, it was reported that CATL required the cathode material factory to settle the lithium carbonate price at a discount of 9-9.5 percent of the market price.

At the "Shenxing Supercharged Battery" press conference, CATL repeatedly mentioned the words "Volkswagen" and "Inclusive", and it is not difficult to see that CATL has the idea of working with car companies to reduce costs. After all, everyone is in the same boat, and only by making a hole can we withstand the storm.

Author | Liu Dongxue

Edit | Tian Yanlin

Operations | Liu Shan