Battery size. Who's in charge?

In 2016, the relevant policy departments issued an important regulatory document for the size of the power battery. This is the "Size of Power Battery Products for Electric Vehicles"(draft for comment), which was released in October 2016.

The relevant policy formulation department stated that the purpose of formulating the specification document is to further unify the size of the power battery, promote the rapid selection of battery cells, achieve large-scale manufacturing of battery manufacturers, and reduce the R&D and production costs of battery integrated enterprises and vehicle companies. And reduce the difficulty of battery recycling.

However, according to battery China Network understanding, this document intended to regulate the size of power battery specifications also brought a lot of confusion to power battery companies.

Standard-setting is unfair only to individual business insiders

In October 2016, the National Technical Committee for the Standardization of Automobile organized the revision of the "Specification Dimensions of Electric Vehicle Power Battery Products"(consultation draft), which divided the automotive power battery into three categories: cylindrical, Square and soft. The specification and size series of its monomer, module and system (battery box) are recommended. Among them, 2 cylindrical battery monomers, 8 square battery monomers, and 8 soft battery monomers are stipulated; Square battery module 9, soft pack battery module 8; Battery Standard Box 5. It is recommended that the battery module use a 12V multiple voltage level.

In December 2016, relevant government departments issued the Interim Measures for the Management of the Recovery and Utilization of New Energy Vehicle Power Battery (Draft for Consultation). According to industry sources, when communicating with companies, relevant government officials stated that according to the "Interim Measures for the Management of the Recovery and Utilization of New Energy Vehicle Power Battery"(Consultation Draft), considering the subsequent use of power batteries, Since then, the power battery box used on the new energy bus must meet the size requirements stipulated in the "Specification for Power Battery Products for Electric Vehicles"(consultation draft).

For the relevant government departments to limit the size of power battery specifications, some industry insiders said that they could not understand. Some people say bluntly: "Limiting the size of a battery is like limiting the appearance of a person. The problem is that what kind of person comes out of the mother's womb is what kind of, when the birth of a meter eight Shandong Han, still have to go back to grow back to become a meter six person can let others be born? Do all power cells in China have to look the same? "

More people in the industry point out from the reality that if production according to new specifications, many battery companies need to transform or even replace the original production line. Many enterprises introduced the production line put into production soon, the transformation or replacement of the production line will bring a lot of losses to the enterprise. Moreover, each battery company has its own know-how, such as some are good at making semi-winding, some are good at making whole winding, and the battery company's production line is designed according to its own process, if the production line is changed. It's like giving up the craft you're good at.

According to another person familiar with the matter, the size of the standard box specification listed in the "Size of Power Battery Products for Electric Vehicles"(consultation draft) is actually the size of the battery box being produced by individual large-scale companies in the industry. The standards are set for individual companies and are unfair to most power battery companies. The person suggested that power battery products may be more practical and executable if they standardized data such as SOC (charging state) and SOH (charging ratio).

How standards can be widely accepted

Our country power cell standardization problem has a long history. Over the years, domestic, including the government, automotive enterprises, battery companies, standard setters and other parties are trying to develop the relevant size of power batteries to improve the power battery industry in China, the existence of a complex battery model, production scattered disorder state.

However, in the light of the current industry response, it is not easy to develop a widely accepted standard. At present, most power battery enterprises in our country produce power battery products according to their own production conditions and downstream customers 'requirements. The products vary in shape, capacity, and materials, and most of them form their own groups. Everyone has their own position, which makes it very difficult to develop an acceptable battery size standard.

In this regard, industry insiders said that some foreign standard-setting experience is worth learning. For example, at the end of 2015, there were several consecutive balancing car fire accidents in the United States, and Amazon forced all balance car products under sale. Faced with the crisis in the emerging industry of balance vehicles, the UL Standards Development Organization of the United States responded quickly and spent nearly three months developing safety standards for balance vehicle circuit systems. The implementation of the standards in February 2016 has played a positive role in sorting out the chaos in the industry and promoting the healthy development of the balanced car industry.

According to Kathy Feig, the US embassy's standard affairs representative, China and the United States have completely different standard-setting systems. The Chinese standard-setting system is "top-down". It is mainly led by various government ministries, various think tanks, and various standardization committees. The United States, in contrast to China, is a "bottom-up" system. American standard setting is dominated by industry and markets. American companies and consumers play an active role in the development of consumer product safety and standards.

Battery China Network believes that the standardization of power cell manufacturing is the trend of industrial development. However, in terms of the way in which standards are formulated, the relevant government departments in China should consider drawing lessons from the United States 'system of standard-setting, which has a "mass base", and seek the opinions of a wide range of enterprises on the formulation of the size of power cell specifications, so as to obtain the approval of most enterprises. Avoid causing losses to enterprises and promote the healthy development of the entire industry.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.