Since the implementation of the new national standard for electric vehicles, due to the overall weight of electric vehicles, the traditional bulky lead-acid batteries have gradually withdrawn from the stage.
Although lithium batteries have been attacking cities and grabbing land in recent years, because of their potential safety hazards, they have become a shortcoming that has been repeatedly criticized by people.
It is in such a context that graphene batteries appeared. But there are a lot of very different voices about this type of battery.
Electric bicycles are the first to occupy the market
Before the implementation of the new national standard, lead-acid batteries were the main products in the field of electric bicycles. Although it is bulky and heavy, it has safety advantages compared with the lithium batteries that became popular later.
It's just that due to the weight limit of electric bicycles in the new national standard, lead-acid batteries have basically withdrawn from the field of electric bicycles. Therefore, in order to regain the original advantages of lead-acid batteries, graphene has become the "king" in the field of electric bicycles.
Around 2020, there are more and more publicity about graphene batteries, and from the reality of public promotional materials, compared with other types of batteries, graphene batteries have stronger endurance due to their higher density and large energy reserves.
Specific to the field of electric bicycles, major brands have launched graphene battery types. Among the two new models launched by this front bell, it is said that the graphene cloud battery equipped with it belongs to the second generation of products.
The promotional selling point of the model after its launch is also "one charge, double mileage". And compared with the original lead-acid battery, the volume and weight of the graphene battery have also been reduced.
In addition to Tailing, car companies such as Xiaodao and Yadea have also launched new models based on graphene batteries. Car companies have said that their batteries are second- or third-generation products, and the charging and cruising range have been greatly improved.
For example, the product launched by Yadea in 2021 is said to have increased its capacity by 25% compared to the original battery. In terms of cruising range, it is officially claimed that it can reach 300 miles. There is also a higher endurance performance, according to the official claim, it can break through 480 miles, that is, 240 kilometers.
From the perspective of charging time, the previous lead-acid battery needs to be charged for about 6 to 8 hours to be fully charged, and the product launched by Yadea is said to be fully charged in 3 hours.
With shorter charging times, longer ranges, and lighter weight, this is a natural product that is considered a good product. However, please note that the above performance of graphene batteries is claimed by the electric bicycle companies themselves.
It is unknown whether their products have achieved such performance, especially whether they can run 480 miles on a single charge.
The only thing that is certain is that the three advantages of graphene batteries have become the selling points of car companies. With this, from 2021 to 2022, e-bikes of various brands have achieved big sales.
In about two years, the sales of new models of electric bicycles exceeded 50 million. Of course, because it is just in time for the implementation of the new national standard, the new models are also just in time for the peak of car replacement.
However, can you guarantee that the electric bike you buy is equipped with a graphene battery?
False advertising was fined 200,000 yuan
In December 2021, an e-commerce platform in Jiangsu Province was suspected of false advertising, and the Yadea electric vehicles sold on its platform claimed to be graphene batteries, but consumers found that they were lithium batteries after receiving the goods.
The consumer then reported the e-commerce platform, and the market supervision department of Wuxi City subsequently found that the electric bicycles sold on the platform were marked with graphene batteries in the publicity, but in fact, they were stolen and replaced, and what was really sold was lithium batteries.
The law enforcement officers verified that the advertised products were inconsistent with the actual shipped products, and finally the platform was fined 200,000 yuan by the market supervision department for false publicity.
This actually exposes a very key problem, that is, the merchant claims to be a graphene battery, and consumers actually have no ability or technology to confirm what the type of battery is after purchasing.
Of course, some people may think that small e-commerce platforms may talk nonsense for the sake of sales, but those electric bicycle companies, for the sake of their own reputation, should not come nonsense.
This idea is actually true, but the problem is that the graphene battery concept itself has an awkward positioning. Even strictly speaking, all the claimed graphene batteries on the market are actually changing the concept.
Now the graphene battery in the field of electric bicycles is also a kind of lead-acid battery. Compared with traditional lead-acid batteries, the new type of batteries has only improved performance and other aspects.
If you have to ask, why do you want to graft graphene with batteries, there is no other reason, it is nothing more than liking the heat of graphene, like a desperate rubbing.
What is graphene, it is a material stripped from graphite, this two-dimensional crystal composed of carbon atoms, its performance is better than graphite body, conductivity, strength, toughness and thermal conductivity are also very good.
However, the key problem is that the refining process of graphene is not yet mature, resulting in its extreme scarcity and high price. In this way, a truly complete graphene battery does exist, but now it is only used in the field of space satellites.
As for the graphene batteries in the field of electric bicycles, some are improved versions of some graphene materials, and some are upgrades of the original lead-acid batteries.
But no matter which one it is, it is made based on lead-acid batteries. So some technical people complained that all graphene batteries are fake, at least not graphene batteries in the real sense.
It's like a bowl of beef ramen, there is definitely a difference between putting half a catty of meat and putting a few slices of meat, but in terms of publicity, merchants who put a few slices of meat will also say that they sell beef ramen.
Because of this, some people believe that although lithium batteries have safety shortcomings, as long as they are used normally, whether in fast charging, battery life and weight, lithium batteries are better than those improved lead-acid batteries.
And at the technical level, in recent years, there are companies trying to combine graphene and lithium batteries, so that the advantages of the two can be greatly realized.
The idea is really good, but it has not made a real breakthrough in the actual promotion, but the concept of constant hype has become another marketing gimmick.
Doped with a little graphene is called a graphene battery?
After combining with lithium batteries, the new graphene battery concept has entered the field of electric vehicles from the field of electric bicycles.
Still in 2021, GAC Group announced that their new model at that time was a graphene battery, which could reach 80% power in 8 minutes and have a range of up to 1,000 kilometers.
From the perspective of technology application, one is to use graphene as a conductive agent, and the other is to use it as a lithium intercalation material. In either case, graphene is not the main material of the battery, but only used as an auxiliary material to improve the performance of the battery.
Because of the high cost of graphene and the demanding manufacturing process, graphene batteries in the real sense are not mature. Industry insiders also said that if graphene is really used as the main material, the cost of an electric car will be quite expensive, and car companies simply cannot afford such a cost.
But if graphene is used as an additive, and then the concept of graphene batteries is promoted, the situation will change differently.
At the beginning of 2021, GAC Group said that it would launch graphene battery vehicles, and the real mass production it said was in September of that year. But this did not prevent the group's stock from rising sharply on the day the news was released.
Therefore, like the application of graphene in electric bicycles, this is also where merchants are very chicken thieves.
Moreover, in the eyes of professionals, graphene, as an additive material, can improve the performance of the battery as a whole, but in essence, the mechanism of battery power storage is still played by other materials, and the role of graphene is only an auxiliary.
Therefore, any lithium battery with graphene material added is essentially a lithium battery. On this point, whether it is Yang Quanhong, a professor at Tianjin University, or Yuan Guohui, a professor at Harbin Institute of Technology, they all believe that calling this type of battery graphene battery is actually neither scientific nor rigorous.
In other words, the so-called graphene batteries launched in the field of lead-acid batteries are actually not strict in terms of name and name.
However, because most of the graphene batteries in the real sense are still in the laboratory stage, and consumers have not yet experienced its superior endurance performance, so businesses will push the concept of graphene to the foreground.
In the eyes of professionals, the naming of a battery mainly depends on what material plays a role in charging and discharging. Lithium batteries, it is lithium ion that really plays the role of charge and discharge, so it is named after "lithium".
The current graphene is only an added material for batteries, and its main role is heat dissipation and conductivity. So strictly speaking, like a lithium battery with graphene, a more rigorous name should be a graphene-based lithium battery.
It will take time for the real application in the future
If you ask who is the leader of new materials in the 21st century, graphene will definitely be on the list. Although its performance is superior in all aspects, it is a pity that it cannot be mass-produced at all, and it is even more difficult to apply it commercially.
Therefore, in use, it can only be used as an auxiliary material for various types of batteries, but real graphene batteries have not yet appeared. In addition to applying it to the field of vehicle batteries, some businesses also want to apply it to the field of mobile phone batteries.
At present, graphene is also used in smartphones, but various manufacturers mainly use it as a heat dissipation material.
As for when real graphene batteries will appear, professionals can't give an accurate timeline at present.
Conclusion: The battery technology of the future
Previously, researchers in the United States said that the energy density of lithium batteries has reached its limit. In other words, the endurance performance of traditional lithium batteries can no longer be improved.
Because of this, whether it is to study the subdivided technology in the field of lithium batteries - solid-state batteries, or to completely abandon lithium batteries to study sodium-ion batteries, this is an attempt to break through the bottleneck from the technical level and make the battery mileage and other performance to a higher level.
In addition, researchers from various countries are also conducting research on magnesium batteries, air batteries, flow batteries, lithium-sulfur batteries and other types.
But up to now, almost all the research on new batteries is still in the theoretical and experimental stage. Although the public has long had great expectations for the next generation of batteries, the technical level is not something that can be realized overnight.
Because of this, businesses have the opportunity to create concepts and rub off on certain technical heat. Although the popularity of the concept is not a crime, it is not a climax after rubbing without technology, but only a "premature ejaculation" that makes people laugh.
Resources:
"Claiming that the graphene lead-acid battery is actually shipped as a lithium battery, Yadea electric vehicle was fined for suspected false publicity" CCTV March 23, 2022
"1000 kilometers of battery life in 8 minutes of charging?GAC graphene battery is hotly discussed" National Business Daily January 18, 2021
"Shouting Graphene Batteries Every Day is Actually Wrong" Science and Technology Daily, January 13, 2020