Wait for the wind! Car companies wait for graphene prices to "dive"

On April 12, 2018, the 5th China(Nanjing) International Energy Conservation and New Energy Automobile Exhibition opened, creating a "meeting" of new materials and new energy automotive industry. The friendly "embrace" between them will open the next outlet for the new-energy car industry.

Car enterprise status quo: new energy logistics vehicles, special vehicles sales soaring

"In 2017, we sold 99.9 cars that were electric. Sales of electric logistics vehicles exceeded 2000 last year, a fivefold increase from the year before. "At the exhibition, Nanjing Yiweike company told reporters.

At the Iveco booth, three electric logistics vehicles are lined up. At present, Iveco's electric logistics vehicles have formed partnerships with major customers such as SF Express and Jingdong, and are running in first- and second-tier cities in China. This year, the company aims to sprint the sales of 5,000 electric logistics vehicles.

Nanqi Special Vehicle Co. Ltd. has brought pure electric sealed barrel garbage truck products. Company sources said such new energy vehicles last year sales increased by 200. The general sanitation car runs 100 kilometers a day, and the electric sanitation car can run 200 kilometers at a time.

China Electric Automobile Industry Association, the head of the new energy vehicles to replace the traditional fuel vehicles are becoming the mainstream of the times. Internationally, from 2015 to 2016, European countries have announced the timetable for the sale of fuel vehicles. Fiat Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Lincoln, Jaguar Land Rover and other automotive brand giants have announced that they will stop production of fuel vehicles. In addition, domestic cars such as BAIC and changan have announced in the second half of 2017 that they will stop the production and sale of traditional fuel vehicles from 2020 to 2025. Geely Volvo announced that it will completely stop selling discontinued fuel vehicles in 2019.

According to data, in 2017, China's auto market sold 28.879 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 3 %. Among them, 777,000 new energy vehicles were sold, a year-on-year increase of 53 <UNK>. In 2017, sales of new energy passenger vehicles in non-restricted areas rose, from 41 in 2015 to 56 in 2017.

Manufacturing exploration: electric car short plate, graphene to fill

Although the growth rate of new energy vehicles is relatively fast, many bottlenecks have not completely broken through. Lithium batteries, for example, have a much lower energy density than gasoline, and can only carry more batteries than gasoline in order to achieve higher range. How to reduce the load of new energy vehicles? A wonder material called graphene is in the eye of manufacturers.

The car company Briggs has released a car made of graphene called BACMono at the National Graphite Institute in the United Kingdom. This is the world's first car body made of graphene. Because of the use of graphene materials, the weight of the body was reduced by 20 inches, but the strength was 200 times that of ordinary steel.

Graphenano of Spain and the University of Corvado in Spain have jointly developed graphene batteries. Laboratory data have proved that the battery power is about five times that of lithium batteries. It takes only 8 minutes for a charge time to travel 1,000 kilometers and its service life is twice that of lithium batteries.. Superpower, which has been actively developing graphene batteries, concluded yesterday: "graphene is making batteries run farther and live longer, and batteries are stronger in winter! "

“Graphene can be used not only for new energy vehicle batteries, but also for many places in automobiles.” At the show, Xianfeng Nano Company added to reporters. For example, for automotive circuits, electrons move less in graphene and consume less energy than silicon. When used in automotive anti-corrosion coatings, it is sprayed on the steel surface with graphene. The body is immersed in seawater for one month without rust, while ordinary high performance coatings can only last for several days. The electric heating seat is one of the necessary devices for luxury cars. By adding graphene as a reinforcing material to polystyrene, a composite material with high strength, good electrical and thermal conductivity and light weight can be obtained.

When the wind blows, car companies wait for graphene prices to "dive"

Although graphene is hailed as the next outlet for the new energy car upgrade, the reporter found that there are very few graphene materials for cars at the exhibition. Iveco and other manufacturers frankly because of "expensive."

Wang Xu, chief engineer of Beijing Beiqi Deben Automobile Technology Center, analyzed: "Graphene is currently in a quiet period, but I think this is the same situation as when carbon fiber first entered the manufacturing industry. Carbon fiber materials were silenced for several years due to costs and other reasons, but the outbreak will eventually erupt. "

The industry believes that through technological improvements, graphene prices will eventually fall to an acceptable range. From the perspective of trends, graphene was priced at 5,000 yuan/gram when it first came out. Today, the price of graphene powder 1 gram has dropped to 300 yuan, and there is still a lot of room for price reduction.

In addition, Wang Xu said that graphene from the depot laboratory to the market still takes time, which is determined by the characteristics of automotive development. "Many car companies are already experimenting with graphene materials, but a new car usually has a development cycle of 36 months. Even if graphene is only used to improve the car chassis, control experiments alone will take two or three years, and consumers will have to wait. "

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