Where did lithium titanate battery technology come from? What are the prospects?

Gree Group terminated the acquisition of Zhuhai Yinlong, and Geli's plan for "cross-border car building" has now come to an end. At the beginning, Gree's proposed price for Yinlong was as high as 13 billion yuan. What exactly attracted Gree to this high price? According to sources, Dongmingzhu, chairman of Gree Electric, is focusing on Yinlong's core competitiveness-lithium titanate battery technology.

Where does lithium titanate battery technology come from? Can it become the mainstream of the market?

In 2010, Yinlong spent more than RMB 300 million to acquire a 53.6 % stake in the United States Titanium Nanotechnology Company and mastered the company's latest technology for lithium titanate materials; From 2012 to 2013, Yinlong successively acquired Zhuhai Guangtong Automobile and Shijiazhuang Zhongbo Automobile, thus possessing the qualifications for the production of complete vehicles.

At this point, there are only two companies that have lithium titanate materials and achieve power and industrial applications. Zhuhai Yinlong is one of them, and the other is Toshiba of Japan.

Lithium titanate batteries are still not the mainstream of battery technology. At present, domestic auto manufacturers use more lithium ion batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries. The three-part lithium battery is dominant in the global market. For example, the Panasonic 18650 battery used by Tesla belongs to the three-part lithium battery, and BYD is the representative. Dongfeng, Jianghuai and other commercial vehicle factories are mostly using iron phosphate at this stage. Lithium battery.

However, the safety of ternary lithium batteries was questioned. At the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had suspended the use of ternary lithium batteries for electric buses into the subsidy catalogue, causing many domestic auto manufacturers to turn to the use of lithium iron phosphate batteries. However, some unofficial information later revealed that it will relax the subsidy restrictions for new energy vehicles using three-way lithium batteries, so it is not known who will be the mainstream of the battery market in the future.

Why does lithium titanate battery fail to become mainstream? Energy density is the main cause.

Compared with three lithium batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries, lithium titanate batteries have several advantages: high temperature safety, good low temperature performance, long cycle life, and fast charging. Security is a more prominent feature, which is also a matter of concern in recent times. In the safety comparison between the two major batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries will be superior, but they are still inferior to lithium titanate batteries. Another feature is low temperature performance. Many users have already complained that electric vehicles have a significant discount in range at low temperatures, and lithium titanate batteries have an advantage in this area. It can work normally in a wide range of temperatures from -50 degrees to 60 degrees.

The disadvantage of lithium titanate batteries is the most important issue for automotive manufacturers and users-energy density. Energy density represents the power storage capacity of the battery, which directly affects the mileage of the vehicle. At present, the energy density of lithium titanate batteries is only about 1/2 of that of lithium ternary batteries without further technical improvement. However, Yinlong hopes to increase the energy density of the battery under the premise of the safety of lithium titanate batteries, rather than improving the safety on the basis of high energy density, which is also a technical choice for new energy companies.

In recent days, the Internet has circulated information on the latest version of the draft of the 2016 new energy vehicle financial subsidy, which shows that the new energy vehicle subsidy is subsidized by energy density and uses mileage as a necessary indicator. This seems to make the safety of the lithium-titanate battery technology step to an awkward situation.

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