Will lithium titanate materials become the key to the current obstacles to the development of new energy vehicles?

As a new force in the post-production position, Dongmingzhu and Yin Long have aroused widespread public concern. From the capital layout to national investment, from personal acquisitions to preparations for the IPO listing, Dongmingzhu's determination to "gamble" on the new energy industry is obvious to all. However,does lithium titanate battery really become Dongmingzhu's killer?

Recently, Miss Dong, who has been on the cusp of the wind, and her Zhuhai Yinlong have a lot of movements, and they seem to be "not quiet."

According to reports, Luoyang City and Zhuhai Yinlong New Energy held a project cooperation signing ceremony in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province. According to the agreement, Yinlong will build a new industrial park called Yinlong New Energy (Luoyang) in Luoyang with a total investment of 150 yuan. Prior to this, Yinlong also announced 11 production bases in Zhuhai, Handan, Shijiazhuang, Chengdu, Lanzhou, Tianjin and Nanjing. The total investment in the future will exceed 100 billion yuan.

As a new force in the post-development position, the expansion model of Dong Mingzhu and Yinlong has caused widespread public concern. Even compared to the LeTV super car, which is the most popular in 2016, Yinlong’s 100 billion yuan industrial layout is even worse. From capital layout to national investment, from individual acquisition to preparation for IPO listing, Dong Mingzhu's determination to “gamble” the new energy industry is obvious to all.

However, is the lithium titanate material widely concerned by the outside world really like Dong Mingzhu's wish to become the key to solving the obstacles to the development of new energy vehicles?

Three advantages to support "Yinlong’s Titanium"

Speaking of the core competitiveness of Yinlong New Energy, lithium titanate battery is definitely the core of the core. In fact, the negative electrode material of this power battery has never been widely known, and it has only been used for one year in the name of “Silver Titanium”. Regarding the development prospects of the company and its technology, Dong Mingzhu spoke highly of: "Lithium titanate battery and Yinlong are gold buried in the sand. If the whole country uses Yinlong new energy battery, the haze weather can Less than half."

To understand the advantages and characteristics of lithium titanate batteries, we need to understand the chemical principle of lithium battery charging and discharging process: during charging, lithium atoms in the positive electrode of the battery are ionized into lithium ions and electrons, and lithium ions move to the negative electrode and electrons. Lithium atoms are synthesized; during discharge, during discharge, lithium ions are further ionized from the surface of the negative electrode material into lithium ions and electrons, and lithium atoms are synthesized at the positive electrode.

Compared to graphite, alloys and silicon-carbon composites, lithium titanate has many advantages:

First, lithium titanate batteries have a longer life. During the process of charge and discharge, lithium ions have little effect on the mechanism of the lithium titanate material during the process of embedding and deembedding. This phenomenon is called "zero strain material". This feature greatly improves electrode performance and reduces the large attenuation of the specific capacity of the battery, thus extending battery life. According to research data, after the lithium titanate battery is charged and discharged 25,000 times, the remaining battery capacity is still over 80%, which is much higher than the current ternary battery and lithium iron phosphate battery.

Secondly, lithium titanate batteries are safer and more stable in low temperature environments. Due to the chemical properties of the material, it is difficult to form lithium crystals on the surface of the lithium titanate in the normal voltage range, thereby avoiding the possibility of lithium crystallization causing a short circuit inside the battery. This reduces the risk of thermal runaway of the battery, allowing the lithium titanate battery to have better resistance to high temperatures and does not explode easily. At the same time, this type of battery also has better performance in low temperature environments. Even in an environment of minus 40 degrees Celsius, lithium titanate batteries can release more than 60% of capacity.

Finally, lithium titanate batteries charge and discharge faster. The chemical diffusion coefficient of this material is an order of magnitude higher than that of the carbon negative electrode, so it has faster and more cycle charge and discharge capabilities. Today's Yinlong New Energy Bus can be filled with more than 90% capacity in 5 minutes after being connected to a large current fast charging pile.

Energy density and operating costs have become the biggest shortcomings

Although lithium titanate has obvious advantages over other negative electrode materials, its short board is also very prominent. Chen Qingquan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering, pointed out that lithium titanate has the lowest fat density and high cost.

In terms of material structure, the specific capacity of lithium titanate is only 170 mah / g, which is much lower than 300 mah / g of graphite negative electrode. Therefore, the new energy vehicle equipped with the same quality power battery uses lithium titanate as the negative electrode. The driving range is only about half of the other car.

The price factor has also become a roadblock for blocking the large-scale application of lithium titanate batteries. Compared to the price of graphite materials of 2 - 60,000 yuan per ton, the price of lithium titanate is as high as 13 - 150,000 yuan per ton.

Therefore, current lithium titanate batteries can only be used on high-priced buses. In fact, the main models of Yinlong New Energy are commercial buses of more than 6 meters.

However, from the perspective of business operations, the operating costs of Yinlong New Energy products are much higher than those of new energy buses equipped with ternary batteries or lithium iron phosphate batteries. Zhang Ming (a pseudonym), an expert in energy research at the State Grid, told Yiou Automobile that the main profit point of the current new energy bus is to use the peak-to-valley electricity price to charge the vehicle, and this is the lithium titanate battery. New energy buses as energy cannot be realized.

“The average electric mileage of ordinary electric buses in first- and second-tier cities will be around 200 kilometers per day. At present, most new energy buses can be satisfied.” Zhang Ming said, “But in order to reduce the price at the factory as much as possible, Yinlong New Energy products will reduce the power battery and reduce the driving range. In his view, although the passenger cars of Yinlong New Energy can use the driver's rest time to quickly charge the electricity, this also makes the team unable to enjoy the advantage of peak and valley electricity prices. "The electricity price difference between daytime and nighttime is about 5 cents, which is a big cost for bus companies with economies of scale."

25,000 cycles of life: the skills of killing the dragon?

In the past many publicity activities, lithium battery lithium battery up to 25,000 times of battery cycle life is considered to be the most deadly killer of Yinlong. More than once, Dong Mingzhu said that the ultra-high cycle number allows the owner to use the Yinlong car for retirement.

However, this performance is placed under the use of new energy buses, and it is suspected to be an over-design. Assuming that the bus of Yinlong New Energy has a daily charge and discharge frequency of 4 times, then the number of battery cycles in a year is just 1300, so the cycle life of 25,000 cycles is enough for 20 years. At present, the replacement cycle of buses is about 6-8 years. The lithium titanate battery of a Yinlong New Energy Bus cannot be used in the whole life cycle of the vehicle. It can only be disposed of separately after the vehicle is scrapped.

Is the owner of the car really needed to reach this level of cycle life?

Even in the field of energy storage, the market prospect of lithium titanate batteries is not optimistic. Zhang Ming told Yiou Automobile that the grid's peak-to-valley storage and storage requirements for batteries are not high, and conventional lithium batteries can meet the requirements. Lithium titanate batteries are more likely to meet the emergency storage requirements of the power grid. “The market share of this demand will not exceed 5%, and the total amount is very low.”

In addition, the energy storage battery has a lower number of replay cycles per unit time, and the cycle life of 25,000 cycles is sufficient for the battery to be used for several decades. However, Zhang Ming said that the life of the fittings such as the connecting parts between the energy storage units is not so long, and it needs to be replaced during the life cycle of the entire energy storage unit. The process is complicated and the cost is not low.

It can be seen that the unique advantages of Yinlong's lithium titanate technology are also the biggest obstacle to its commercialization. Dong Mingzhu’s good look at Yinlong and lithium titanate batteries may have reasonable factors behind it. However, from the perspective of the existing technology and operation mode, the prospect of this road is really not bright.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.