In 2015, the signing of the Paris Agreement clarified the goal of temperature control, and at the same time, countries are also in full swing to launch their own plans and strategies for energy conservation and emission reduction. In 2020, China put forward the goal of "carbon neutrality", aiming to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
During this period, the automotive industry has also started to explore its own green and low-carbon development path. Benefiting from various factors such as policy promotion, increased demand and declining costs year by year, the global production of new energy vehicles and the demand for power batteries have also increased sharply.
According to data from Yiou Think Tank, in 2020, the global production of new energy vehicles reached 3.12 million, and by 2022, the output has exceeded 10 million. Yiou Intelligence Tank predicts that in 2025, the global production of new energy vehicles will double compared with 2022 data, reaching 25.8 million units. Global installed capacity is also expected to grow from 147 GWh in 2020 to 1,485 GWh in 2025.
The market for new energy vehicles is expanding like a bamboo, and the importance of power batteries, as the "heart" of new energy vehicles, is self-evident. However, due to the constraints of "lack of cores" and "expensive electricity", China's new energy vehicles have been repeatedly blocked on the road to development, and more and more car companies are considering making their own batteries.
On December 14, 2023, ZEEKR officially released the 800V lithium iron phosphate ultra-fast rechargeable battery - Golden Brick Battery. At present, the product 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 ZEEKR 007 released at the end of the year.
Figure Quzhou Jidian production base.
"BRICS travels thousands of miles in a moment".
When it comes to new energy vehicles, battery life and energy replenishment are still the points that consumers have concerns when making decisions. The gold brick battery released this time directly hits the pain points of new energy vehicles, trying to bring users a more extreme battery life and energy replenishment experience.
Batteries are often composed of cathode materials, anode materials, electrolytes, separators and other materials, of which cathode materials account for 40% of the total. There are two common cathode materials: lithium iron phosphate and ternary lithium. Ternary lithium is often used in mid-to-high-end passenger cars due to its high energy density, high charging rate, good low-temperature performance, and high cost. Lithium iron phosphate is favored by some models because of its abundant resources, low quality, strong stability and long cycle life, and its market share has been increasing in recent years.
According to the official disclosure of ZEEKR, the gold brick battery broke the limitations of traditional lithium iron phosphate batteries, and the volume utilization rate was increased to 837%。
In order to be able to place more battery cells in the battery pack, the ZEEKR engineering team has completely transformed 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 battery cells to fully improve the volume utilization rate. 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 mass is also increased by more than 10%.
Figure Structural diagram of the BRICS battery.
In addition to strengthening its own endurance, ZEEKR also attaches great importance to the energy replenishment ability of the gold brick battery. Ordinary lithium iron phosphate batteries, in the fast charging range of 30%-80%, the charging time takes more than 30 minutes. ZEEKR data shows that the maximum charging power of the gold brick battery can reach 500kw, and the maximum charging rate reaches 45c；In the 10% and 80% fast charging range, the battery life can be increased by more than 500km in 15 minutes. Behind this is the support of ZEEKR's self-developed global 800V architecture and 800V extreme charging technology.
In addition to energy replenishment and endurance, the discharge performance and thermal management capabilities of BRICS batteries are also worth mentioning. Its 3-second pulse discharge rate can reach up to 16C, and the ZEEKR 007 equipped with a gold brick battery can achieve a 3-second 000 acceleration performance. At the same time, ZEEKR gold brick batteries can minimize the impact of low-temperature ultra-fast charging, even in a low temperature environment of minus 10, gold brick batteries are said to be able to achieve excellent charging speeds.
"Gold bricks are not afraid of fire".
ZEEKR has delivered more than 180,000 units in total, setting a record of zero spontaneous combustion of the world's only battery. ZEEKR CEO An Conghui announced at the press conference. ZEEKR has once again increased security, and the gold brick battery has upgraded the 6 major safety measures of the pole core battery pack to 8, and realizes the real-time protection of the global security of the battery pack with a cage structure.
It is reported that the gold brick battery is designed with an exclusive golden high-voltage 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%.
Striving for excellence, ZEEKR also designed three extreme safety tests from actual combat, and the BRICS battery successfully passed the test.
The first is the "overpressure acupuncture test", which comprehensively upgrades the traditional "acupuncture test", and the gold brick battery cells in a fully charged state are first used to the national standard 15 times the extrusion force, so that the extrusion deformation reaches more than 30%;After standing for 1 hour, use a 5mm steel needle to puncture and penetrate from the point with the greatest degree of bending, so that the battery cell is directly short-circuited, and the battery cell is not **, non-** in the whole process.
The second is the "external fire test", in the battery pack fire laboratory of the National Motor Vehicle Product Quality Inspection and Testing Center, the experimenters test the gold brick battery through the direct fire of the oil pan, the flame temperature of the contact battery pack is above 700, and the continuous fire time is up to 240 seconds, exceeding the national standard of 130 seconds of test time, and the gold brick battery is not **, non-**.
The third is the "6 extreme working conditions serial test" called "hell journey" by ZEEKR: the same gold brick battery is continuously immersed in water, burned, frozen, dragged, plus crushed, high fall 6 limit tests. It is reported that even after such a "hell journey", the gold brick battery is still not, no, and remains "unbroken".
Conclusion
While improving performance, cost has become the focus of enterprises in the production of batteries.
Yiou Automobile learned from the ZEEKR official that through the optimization of battery cell composition, battery pack structure optimization, and intelligent production line, the production efficiency of BRICS batteries has been increased by more than 40%, and the comprehensive cost per kilowatt-hour of electricity can be reduced by 14 compared with ternary lithium batteries with the same performance8%。
However, the actual capacity of the gold brick battery still needs to be verified by the actual road situation of ZEEKR 007. It is undeniable that the launch of the BRICS battery proves that Geely has achieved a phased victory in reducing its dependence on first-class merchants and building its own technological moat.