Reading guide: In person, there is no doubt that risks and opportunities coexist. But more importantly, it takes confidence to go out in person.
Text: Pan Yuchen, Editor: Zhang Guangkai) "Aren't we working for a battery manufacturer?."At the 2022 World Power Battery Conference, Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, once resonated with many peers. According to its estimates, 40% to 60% of the cost of electric vehicles at that time came from power batteries.
Coincidentally, at the 2022 China Auto Forum, Zhu Huarong, chairman of Changan Automobile, also said that "the lack of cores" and "expensive electricity" caused Changan Automobile to lose more than 600,000 units of production capacity last year.
Since the beginning of this year, the upstream raw materials of batteries led by lithium carbonate have plummeted. However, the uncertain market environment and the risk of being stuck by the top parts dealers are still the sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of automakers.
In order not to work for upstream companies, more and more automakers are choosing, or considering getting out of the market.
The self-developed batteries of car companies are to control profits and independently master the ** chain without external influences. In response to this phenomenon, Zhang Xiang, a visiting professor at Royalstar Shuangchuang University, interpreted the observer network like this.
In person, there is no doubt that risks and opportunities coexist. But more importantly, it takes confidence to go out in person. And this kind of confidence is not the premise that all car companies have.
Therefore, it seems to have become the "privilege" of the head of the industry.
On December 14, in the Quzhou Jidian production base that has just been put into operation, the ZEEKR Energy Day and the BRICS Battery Conference were officially launched.
According to ZEEKR CEO An Conghui announced at the press conference that the BRICS battery is the world's first mass-produced 800V ultra-fast charging lithium iron phosphate battery, with a volume utilization rate of 837%, which is currently the world's highest power battery, and is known as the world's safest power battery, will lead the 800V era in terms of safety, experience and cost.
It is worth mentioning that the BRICS battery has been mass-produced and rolled off the production line at the Quzhou Jidian production base wholly owned by Geely, and will be installed for the first time on the Zeekrypton 007, which will be launched at the end of the year.
Gold bricks are not afraid of fire".
Traditional lithium iron phosphate batteries represent high safety and high cost performance, but the key energy density is not comparable to ternary lithium batteries. At a time when it is difficult to break through the performance of battery raw materials, how to improve the volume utilization rate has become the general direction of current battery research and development.
In order to be able to place more battery cells in the battery pack, ZEEKR has modified the battery pack structure: an integrated liquid-cooled tray is used at the bottom of the battery to replace the traditional water pipe structure to reduce the squeeze of the cell space by structural partsThe "compact sandwich structure" of the cell, upper cover and bottom plate is adopted to release the longitudinal space of the cell compartmentAviation-grade ultra-thin thermal barrier materials are used between the cells to fully improve the volume utilization rate.
In addition, compared with the traditional design, the total length of the sampling line of the BRICS battery is also shortened by 157m, the number of core components is reduced by 35%, and the energy density of the battery quality is also increased by more than 10%.
However, users' anxiety about new energy vehicles is not limited to the battery life. Even if new energy vehicles can travel thousands of miles a day, if the energy replenishment experience is not convenient and fast, it is still the biggest disadvantage of new energy vehicles compared with fuel vehicles.
Compared with ternary lithium batteries, ordinary lithium iron phosphate batteries, even in the 30%-80% fast charging range, still need more than 30 minutes to charge.
In this regard, Xie Shibin, vice president of ZEEKR, said at the press conference that thanks to the self-developed global 800V architecture and 800V extreme charging technology of ZEEKR, the maximum charging power of the BRIC battery can reach 500kW, and the maximum charging rate reaches 45c；In the 10%-80% fast charging range, the battery life can be increased by more than 500km in 15 minutes, which is faster than most 800V models on the market.
At the same time, the 3-second pulse discharge rate of the gold brick battery can reach up to 16C, and the 0-100km h acceleration time of the ZEEKR 007 equipped with the gold brick battery can reach 3 seconds.
However, compared with power and endurance performance, safety is the core element of the power battery.
ZEEKR is quite confident in this. According to ZEEKR has repeatedly emphasized, ZEEKR has delivered a total of 180,000 new cars so far, and there has not been a single spontaneous battery combustion accident. In order to continue to ensure safety, BRICS Battery has upgraded the 6 major safety measures of the pole core battery pack to 8 items, and realizes the real-time protection of the whole battery pack safety with a cage structure. The gold brick battery is designed with an exclusive golden high-voltage resistant insulating film on the surface of the cell, which can withstand 4000V DC high voltage, and the high-voltage resistance capacity is increased by 27%.
At the same time, ZEEKR said that the gold brick battery has passed the overpressure acupuncture test, the external fire test and the serial test of 6 extreme working conditions (immersion, fire, freezing, dragging, rolling, and high fall), and the battery pack remains non-a-carbonated and non-aware.
Through the optimization of battery cell composition, battery pack structure, and intelligent production line, ZEEKR said that the production efficiency of BRICS batteries will be increased by more than 40%, and the comprehensive cost per kWh of electricity will be reduced by 14% compared with ternary lithium batteries with the same performance8%。
In addition, ZEEKR also announced the new achievements of its self-built charging and charging system at the press conference: as of November 30, ZEEKR has built a total of 401 pole charging stations, covering 100 cities across the country, and providing 2,261 pole charging piles (with a charging power of more than 360kW). In 2024, the total number of ZEEKR charging stations is expected to reach 1,000 stations, and the coverage rate of high-speed charging guns will increase to more than 95%.By 2026, the total number of pole-filled piles is expected to reach 10,000.
It is worth mentioning that ZEEKR's self-developed fully liquid-cooled charging pile pole V2 (600kW power) has been deployed a year ago. In September this year, the extreme charge V3 has also been officially released, with a peak output power of 800kW, a maximum output voltage of 1000V, and a maximum output current of 800A.
In addition, the ZEEKR smart charging mode will also be available through OS 51. Begin to push upgrades one after another, from the beginning of station finding to the end of charging, the whole process of charging such as battery preheating, intelligent pile finding, and intelligent lock reduction has been realizedOn the day of the press conference, the 20kw DC home charging pile was officially put on the shelves. As one of the home charging piles with the highest charging power at present, ZEEKR said that the 100kWh battery can be fully charged in as little as 5 hours through the new home charging pile.
Give the industry a small shock.
Of course, the hard power of the BRICS battery still needs to be verified for a long time through the upcoming ZEEKR 007 and other models under the Geely Group. However, Geely's decision to reduce the pressure on the battery chain, as well as the large amount of money and time invested in it, has become a pioneer in the industry.
Previously, it was generally believed in the industry that compared with professional battery manufacturers, the gold content of batteries developed by car companies is usually not high, and most car companies are purchased battery cells and do not have the ability to study battery formulas by themselves.
Therefore, before this wave of battery "self-development", only a very few car companies such as BYD had the whole industry process of independently producing battery cells to battery packs. More car companies are adopting the form of cooperation, such as SAIC, Changan and CATL to establish a joint venture to produce and sell their own products and supply them at designated points. The same is true for overseas companies such as Tesla, Volkswagen, and Porsche.
In Zhang Xiang's view, the main difficulty of self-developed batteries by car companies lies in the high threshold for battery research and development and large investmentIn addition, battery technology iterates rapidly, and technology upgrades mean new R&D investment, which in turn brings greater investment pressure to car companies.
For example, not long ago, NIO admitted that the mass production of self-developed batteries has been postponed. In November this year, NIO, which had lost 16.5 billion yuan during the year, admitted to laying off 10% of its workforce. Li Bin, founder of NIO, also announced that he would postpone and reduce investment in projects that could not improve the company's financial performance within three years.
In addition, the current industry-leading battery manufacturers, without exception, have at least 10 years of R&D investment and technical reserves, and have won a brand effect.
According to data from SNE Research, a South Korean power battery research institution, from January to November this year, the market share of the top ten battery manufacturers in the industry exceeded 93%, of which the market share of CATL, which was at the top of the list, exceeded one-third.
In the final analysis, battery technology research and development is both money-burning and long-termism. In response to the self-developed batteries of car companies, Zeng Yuqun, chairman of CATL, confidently said at the financial report meeting: any small-scale battery manufacturing, without disruptive technology, cannot change the current competitive landscape.
However, compared with new forces such as NIO, which lacks the ability of self-hematopoiesis, automobile companies such as Geely, which are leading in sales in the industry, have greater confidence with the original accumulation of nearly 30 years of car manufacturing, opening up more opportunities for the autonomy of batteries.
According to incomplete statistics, since 2019, Geely's investment in the battery field has exceeded 110 billion yuan, and the cumulative planned battery production capacity has exceeded 300GWh.
Previously, according to McKinsey's estimates, car companies can produce at least 500,000 new energy vehicles in a region, or the battery production scale reaches more than 15GWh, and self-produced battery cells may have a cost advantage. According to the data disclosed by Geely Automobile, from January to November this year, the cumulative production and sales of Geely new energy vehicles exceeded 400,000 units, and the critical point of 500,000 units was only one step away.
And the ZEEKR 007, which is about to be equipped with a gold brick battery, has previously passed 22990,000 yuan (time limit 22.)490,000 yuan) gave the industry a small shock. The emergence of the gold brick battery provides a credible answer to how the model can win the market pricing dominance.
Although it is not enough to compete with the leading battery manufacturers, Geely has achieved phased results in reducing its dependence on the upstream and gradually grasping the initiative of the first chain through full-stack self-research from battery cells to battery packs.
More importantly, the momentum of the BRICS battery provides a powerful technical foundation for the brand image of the technology company that ZEEKR dreams of. According to An Conghui, just 2 hours after the release of the BRICS battery, the order for ZEEKR 007 increased by 487 units.
At the end of the year, on December 27, the model will be officially announced, adding new accelerants to the increasingly fierce competition in China's new energy vehicle market in 2024.