Energy density and mileage battle staged three-way power battery NCM battle NCA

In the past two years, a battle over "energy density and range" has been unfolding in China and the global market for new energy vehicles.

The latest hit is still Lingtouyangtesila in the new energy car industry.

Tesla has made a breakthrough in battery technology, increasing its energy density by 30 % and dramatically reducing its production costs, according to foreign media reports. Tesla's model can reach more than 640km in range. If the price of battery raw materials is stable, Ditesila can reduce the battery monomer cost to $100 / kWh in 2018.

At the investor meeting at the beginning of the year, Tesla announced that the new 21700 battery developed jointly with Panasonic began mass production, and emphasized that this is currently the most energy-dense and lowest-cost battery in the mass production battery, according to the information disclosed by Tesla. Under existing conditions, The energy density of the 21700 battery system produced by it is about 300 Wh/kg.

Raising the energy density by 30 % means that the energy density of the power cell used by Tesla is already 330 W/kg.

Tesla's use is precisely the three-part lithium NCA positive electrode material that domestic power battery companies are almost unable to mass-produce.

For domestic power battery companies or new energy car companies, with the arrival of the new subsidy policy on June 12, the battery energy density directly related to the range of mileage has once again attracted the attention of the industry, and the ternary power battery is becoming mainstream. Inside the ternary lithium, NCM622 and even NCM811 replaced the original NCM523.

The dispute between Sanyuan and Lithium Iron Phosphate

According to data from the Power Battery Application Branch of the China Chemical and Physical Power Supply Industry Association, according to different battery material types, the installed capacity of the lithium battery in January and December 2017 was 16.04 GW, accounting for 44.01 %; The installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries was 17.97 gigawatts, accounting for 49.29 %; Lithium manganate batteries have an installed capacity of 1.48 gigawatts, accounting for 4.06 % of the total.

From the data, it seems that lithium trioxide and lithium iron phosphate are currently evenly divided, and the share of lithium iron phosphate is even higher. However, judging from the situation in the first four months of 2018, lithium ternary has begun to surpass lithium iron phosphate and has greatly accelerated its growth.

According to industry sources, positive materials, negative materials, electrolytes and diaphragm are the four main materials of the power cell, of which positive materials account for 40 % of the total cost, and also directly determine the energy density of the core.

According to the positive material technical route, power cells can be mainly divided into three types: lithium iron phosphate, lithium ternary(NCA/NCM) and lithium manganese.

According to the composition of the positive electrode material, the ternary lithium battery is divided into NCA and NCM. NCM means that the positive electrode material is composed of three types of nickel cobalt manganese materials in a certain proportion, and the NCA positive electrode material is composed of nickel cobalt aluminum.

At present, the mainstream lithium in the domestic market is NCM. The mass production models are mainly NCM523 and NCM622. There are not many mass production in NCM811, but the reporter's survey has found that there is currently no large-scale NCM811 battery shipment.

In ternary materials, the main role of nickel is to provide capacity. The higher the content, the greater the energy density of the battery, so the proportion of nickel in ternary lithium is increasing, from 50 % to 60 % of 622 in 523 to 811 80 %.

"lithium iron phosphate is constrained by the characteristics of materials and it is difficult to meet the requirements of high energy density, especially in the passenger car field, where the advantage of ternary lithium is increasingly obvious. The industry says lithium iron phosphate is now more used in electric buses and electric vehicles and is safer.

In an interview, Yangxulai, vice president of the engineering research institute of Hefei Guoxuan Gaoke Power Energy Co., Ltd., also frankly stated that at the present stage, the development trend of Sanyuan lithium batteries has benefited from the National policy-oriented requirements for high-specific energy batteries, requiring high battery energy density and range.. Lithium ternary batteries have higher specific energy and specific power, which is more in line with passenger car requirements.

Data show that the total installed power of power batteries in January-May 2018 was about 12.67 GWh, an increase of 224 % year-on-year. Among them, the total installed power of the power battery in May was about 4.50 GWh, an increase of 213 % year-on-year.

Of the 4.50 GWh installed total power, lithium ternary reached 2.36 GWh, accounting for 52.44 %.

Three yuan NCM "infighting" 811 full of stamina

When the three-element lithium NCM power battery began to occupy an advantage, NCM's internal different models are competing with each other. From the current situation, NCM523 undoubtedly has an advantage. The NCM622 and NCM811 are catching up with their higher nickel content, the energy density killer.

It is reported that there are two main ways to increase the energy density of the power lithium battery: First, the mechanism performance of the lithium battery material system is improved to increase the specific energy of the core monomer. This method requires very high requirements for material development and matching. The second is to increase the capacity of large core specifications by controlling the production of models and processes. The common use of domestic ternary battery companies to enter the high nickel system is the first way.

"The higher the nickel content, the greater the battery energy density, which is why the current three-way NCM has evolved from the earliest 111 to the current 622, which is evolving in small batches of 811. Employees working in the R&D Department of a power battery company say the 622 has been mass-produced by domestic companies, with some 811 products having small capacity and others still in the pilot phase.

Market information shows that the current mainstream NCM523 energy density can reach 160-200 wh/kg, while NCM622 and NCM811 can reach 230 wh/kg and 280 wh/kg, respectively. Therefore, high nickel ternary materials must be accelerated to achieve high energy density requirements for power cells and extend the range of endurance.

Guo Xuan Gao Ke Dongmimaguifu said in the recent survey of the reception organization that the company's newly built three-yuan 622 upgraded battery production line is currently undergoing intensive installation and commissioning work, and is currently progressing smoothly. It is scheduled to be put into production in July. "At present, the energy density of the three-way 622 upgraded battery pack system can reach 140 WH / kg or more. At the same time, the research and development progress of the Sanyuan 811 battery is in line with expectations and is expected to achieve small batch production in 2019. "

On May 28th, Dangsheng Technology announced that the company had signed a cooperation agreement with the Jincheng Science and Technology Industrial Park Management Committee of Jintan District, Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, and plans to cooperate in the construction of a lithium electric new material industrial base at Jintan Jincheng Science and Technology Industrial Park. The first phase of the project plans annual production capacity of 50,000 tons and plans to invest 3 billion yuan in three phases. The overall plan of the project is about 1,600 acres of land, and it plans to build an annual output of 100,000 tons of lithium electric new materials industrial base.

When the company's secret office staff stated that the above project is mainly NCM811 high nickel ternary positive material.

LG Chemical CFO Chung Ho-Young said in an interview that batteries that mass-produce NCM 811 positive materials are used in electric buses, and soft-pack batteries are still used in most new energy vehicles.

SKI also plans to begin mass production of NCM811 batteries for electric vehicles in August. Kia's Niro electric vehicle may become the first electric vehicle to use this battery.

Tesla also claimed that the NCA battery energy density it uses is the highest in the market, and the cobalt content is lower than that of other companies 'NCM811 batteries.

NCA and NCM, who will win?

Tesla is already far ahead of other companies in the battery energy density and mileage competition. In addition to the high nickel competition, changing the size of the battery to increase the battery energy density is also caused by Tesla. Its 21700 battery energy density jointly developed with Panasonic is much higher than the 18650 battery monomer. The increase of energy density of the single core is much higher than the 20 % increase of the group. This also triggered the conversion of domestic power battery companies from 18650 to 21700 in 2017.

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Regulations on Investment Management of the Automobile Industry(Consultation Draft)"(hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions Draft") to relevant units. Among them, the draft opinion requires that the products to be produced by the new power cell project should not only meet national and industry-related standards, but also meet the energy ratio of the power cell monomer for energy vehicles should not be less than 300 watts/kg. The specific energy of the system should not be less than 220 watt/kg.

And this is a great challenge for domestic power battery companies that currently have a single energy density of about 240 on the market.

"The energy density of 300 is also claimed by many companies in China, but in fact it is basically laboratory data, and mass production is basically not achieved. Industry insiders said that the mainstream NCM523 and NCM622 are basically impossible to meet the standards, and NCM811 and NCA have become the hope of many companies.

"The performance of the NCA material is optimal. If applied in place, the performance of the NCA exceeds that of the NCM811. The CEO of Linnaeus New Energy said in an interview earlier in the Premier League that the company's production capacity is dominated by NCA, and there are also a small number of NCM811.

But the three-dollar NCA that Tesla loves is not everyone can love.

Zhou Bo, director of the Research Department of the Power Battery Application Branch of the China Chemical and Physical Power Industry Association, said that NCA's production process conditions are more stringent and the production process has a threshold.

It is understood that NCA materials are more sensitive to environmental humidity than NCM811, so the requirements for the battery production process are more stringent. The research and development and production capacity of domestic enterprises are facing a huge test.

However, the data shows that the three-yuan NCA, including Sugiyama, Lishen, and Australia Shunchang, has already started a small shipment.

"The company took the lead in successfully implementing the mass production of the NCA high nickel system and successfully passed the National compulsory inspection. " linwenhua,the Chairman's secretary of Aoyangshunchang said.

Thornton New Energy's NCA ternary material also has an annual output of 6,000 tons.

With Samsung SDI, LG Chemical, SK and other power battery giants 'joint ventures in China entering the white list, the policy subsidies will be reduced after the acceleration of the entry of foreign giants, the elimination of domestic power batteries will be more brutal.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.