The world's first solid-state battery is mass-produced and put on the car! SAIC's self-developed!

Solid-state batteries are mass-produced and put into the car, and SAIC Zhiji takes the lead.

On March 25, 2024, SAIC's Zhiji brand officially announced that the industry's first quasi-900V high-voltage ultra-fast charging solid-state battery will be mass-produced and launched in April 2024. The battery, which was jointly developed by SAIC and its subsidiary Qingtao Energy, is based on a self-developed patented solid-state electrolyte material and will be equipped with the Zhiji L6 for the first time. With this, the Zhiji L6 will also become the industry's first new energy model equipped with a mass-produced solid-state battery.

As soon as the news was released, it sparked a heated discussion on social media. The general manager of BYD's Denza brand sales division posted directly on Weibo, saying: "At this time, the promotion of semi-solid-state vehicle batteries is playing word games!" (the blog post has been deleted)

Liu Tao, co-CEO of SAIC Zhiji, also directly responded on Weibo: "Word games are not what we are good at, only technological innovation and iteration can promote the progress of the times, and Zhiji must practice it with practical actions." ”

On March 26, Zhiji officially opened a live broadcast "to prove its innocence", Qingtao Energy's solid-state battery Kunshan factory was unveiled, and the industry's first solid-state battery mass production laboratory was officially released. From a technical point of view, is Zhiji's battery a solid-state battery? What are the development problems of the battery industry reflected in the dispute over solid-state batteries?

Fangde Automotive Analysis Report.

The 130kWh battery pack has an all-electric range of more than 1,000 km

Judging from the current official release of Zhiji, the battery is fully charged to more than 130kWh, and the CLTC comprehensive range of the Zhiji L6 four-wheel drive model equipped with the battery has exceeded 1,000 kilometers.

At present, a pure electric large SUV equipped with about 100 kWh of traditional lithium iron phosphate has a range of between 600 km and 700 km. Judging from the actual results, the solid-state battery equipped with the Zhiji L6 does not increase the battery life by an order of magnitude, but about 15%.

However, the range upgrade is only one of the advantages of solid-state batteries, and battery safety is the core problem solved by solid-state batteries. In the official announcement, the solid-state battery equipped with Zhiji L6 claims to achieve no thermal spread and no fire, and there is no risk of electrolyte leakage after battery damage, and the possibility of puncture short circuit is greatly reduced at the same time, achieving a qualitative leap in the field of battery safety, and at the same time, matching the quasi-900V high-voltage platform, the charging efficiency of Zhiji L6 will also be greatly improved.

However, Zhiji officials did not further announce the specific technical details, and there will be a more detailed interpretation at the technical conference held in April. In the live broadcast on the evening of March 26, the relevant person in charge of Qingtao Energy unveiled a corner of this achievement.

Mass production of semi-solid, energy density sprint 500Wh/KG

According to relevant personnel, the solid-state battery equipped with the Zhiji L6 has achieved all-round mass production of materials, processes and other processes, but it is still a semi-solid-state battery, and it is the first stage of the semi-solid-state battery (separator is retained). The second-stage semi-solid-state battery (separator removed) is also in the experimental stage and is close to mass production, and will be released together with SAIC next year, while the third-stage all-solid-state battery is still under development.

SAIC Zhiji L6 semi-solid-state battery (second from right)

In the industry standard system, semi-solid-state batteries refer to batteries with a liquid electrolyte content of between 5% and 15%, which is the "intermediate stage" of liquid batteries and all-solid-state batteries. At present, there is no mass-produced semi-solid-state battery in the industry, and SAIC Zhiji is still the first car company brand to achieve mass production of semi-solid-state batteries.

According to the technical staff, the semi-solid-state battery adopts a new positive and negative electrode material and electrolyte material, and at the same time changes the modeling structure and production process of the traditional liquid battery, and achieves a new self-development.

Among them, the battery cathode is ultra-high nickel cathode and negative electrode has high specific energy composite silicon carbon, and the degree of density is much higher than that of traditional liquid batteries (10% The electrolyte material is a nano-scale (10 micron) dry integrated high-temperature resistant solid electrolyte, in the battery structure, the thermal stability of the battery is qualitatively changed by the solid electrolyte wrapped in the cathode material and a series of battery protection designs, and in the internal structure, the cathode and anode materials of Qingtao Energy are constructed with a lithium-ion transmission network (composite cathode).

Qingtao Energy Solid-State Battery Laboratory

With the advancement of such materials, processes and technologies, the semi-solid-state battery to be equipped with the Zhiji L6 will achieve stronger ion conductivity, higher energy density, smaller volume and weight than traditional liquid batteries (detailed data not published), and with the advancement of materials and processes, it will develop rapidly in the direction of all-solid-state batteries, with the goal of promoting the energy density of solid-state batteries to reach 500Wh/KG.

The cost is controllable!

From the perspective of technical paths, many car companies and battery suppliers around the world are tackling solid-state batteries. Toyota, FAW, Dongfeng, Changan, BYD, GAC, Geely, Great Wall, NIO and other car companies, as well as leading battery suppliers such as CATL, Panasonic, LG, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, and Ganfeng Lithium Battery all have layouts in the field of solid-state batteries.

However, there is a general consensus in the industry that solid-state batteries are still in the stage of technical breakthrough, and there is no accurate time for large-scale mass production, and the general plan is expected to be between 2027 and 2030.

In July 2023, Toyota released the latest progress of its solid-state batteries, and the estimated time for large-scale mass production is 2027;

This also exposes another core problem of solid-state batteries, which is not only technically difficult, but also has uncontrollable costs.

The launch of SAIC's semi-solid-state battery is still far from an all-solid-state battery, but it is also a crucial step. Previously, Li Bin, CEO of Weilai, introduced in the live broadcast that Weilai's semi-solid-state battery will also be officially launched within the year. But SAIC has already set a high starting point for this.

Among the costs of semi-solid-state batteries previously announced by NIO, the cost of a semi-solid-state battery is expected to be between 200,000 and 300,000 yuan (the price of an ET5). The person in charge of Qingtao Energy said that the semi-solid-state battery that SAIC Zhiji L6 will be equipped with is very "affordable", and it has begun large-scale commercial use in other fields such as digital, and the cost can be stable and controllable.

In addition, more news about the Zhiji L6 and solid-state battery will be fully announced in April. At that time, starting from SAIC, the track of solid-state batteries will be officially opened in 2024.

As a leading enterprise of solid-state lithium batteries in China, Qingtao Energy has gone through 10 years of research and development, and there is still a distance from the first stage of semi-solid-state batteries to all-solid-state batteries, but the landing of solid-state batteries has become a reality.

What will the future of solid-state batteries ultimately look like?

Fangde Auto will continue to pay attention.