When batteries become a key factor in the competition for energy security in the era of low-carbon energy, this is a thorny issue that cannot be ignored, but it is also an investment with long-term benefits.
Looking at China's auto market, sales will exceed 30 million units for the first time in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 12%, of which 949 new energy vehicles will be sold50,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 379% is the main sales driver.
Driven by new energy, China's automobile exports have also reached a new high, with exports of 4.91 million units in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 579%, becoming the world's No. 1 exporter of automobiles. But under the prosperity, there is also a secret crisis, such as the first of new energy power batteries.
Under the eco-friendly coat
One of the legitimacy of the development of new energy vehicles is "environmental protection", but if the power battery is improper, it is a great harm to the environment.
Lithium-ion batteries have become a unified solution for the promotion of new energy vehicles with all-roundability, but in the process of becoming a "hexagonal warrior", in order to integrate energy density, cycle times, fast charging, safety and cost and other capabilities, lithium-ion batteries also integrate heavy metals such as nickel, manganese, and cobalt at the cathode.
If damaged and exposed to air, lithium hexafluorophosphate in the electrolyte of the power battery is also very easy to hydrolyze to produce harmful substances such as phosphorus pentafluoride and hydrogen fluoride. 1 fast 20 grams of mobile phone battery can pollute 1 square kilometer of land for 50 years, when replaced by a power battery of several hundred kilograms, its impact on the environment can be imagined.
Once heavy metals such as nickel, manganese, and cobalt that have been buried deep in the ground in the form of minerals are exposed to the atmosphere and soil through the medium of scrapped power batteries, human beings at the back end of the food chain are naturally their ultimate storage carriers under the effect of transmission and aggregation.
In order for new energy vehicles to continue to develop, the power battery must be put on the agenda, and the three major economies in China, Europe and the United States are also introducing relevant laws and regulations.
As for environmental protection, Europe, which is seriously "fighting left and right", is naturally at the forefront, and the latest EU Batteries Regulation (hereinafter referred to as the "New EU Battery Law") will officially come into effect on August 17, 2023.
The legislative process of the new EU Battery Law is three years long, covering 3 chapters, 96 agreements and 15 annexes, and 143 regulations can be described as comprehensive, but its core content can be summarized as: power batteries, who produces and imports, and who is responsible**.
In order to implement the "who brings, who" criterion, the new EU Battery Law divides all batteries sold in the EU into 5 categories: portable batteries, industrial batteries, electric vehicle power batteries, SLI batteries (small batteries carried by automobiles, etc.) and LMT batteries (batteries for electric bicycles), and gives clear requirements for different stages.
Among them, the first rate of power batteries is naturally the focus, and the rate will reach 50% in 2027 and 80% in 2031.
Clearly recognizable, non-erasable carbon footprint declarations and labels" is an important means of implementation, and all batteries with a capacity of more than 2kWh must have this carbon footprint label, including the entire process of battery manufacturing and import introduction.
Through the management method of "carbon footprint labeling", the EU has responded to the main theme of environmental protection on the face, and picked up another policy weapon on the inside.
Shortly after the passage of the new EU Battery Law, France** released a new list of subsidies for electric vehicles, after the three most popular electric vehicles in the French market, the Dacia Spring, Tesla Model 3 and MG MG4, were all excluded.
The biggest commonality of these three cars is that they are all manufactured in China and then exported to the French market. The reason for the "rejection" of these three cars in France is that they emit too much carbon dioxide during manufacturing and transportation.
France's environmental protection brand is undoubtedly pouring cold water on China's hot new energy industry. The new energy transformation is not only an environmental protection movement, but also a big country business, shopping malls are the battlefield, if there is no long-term strategy, there will be near-term worries.
Ongoing Tense
In the embodiment of the battery, the cascade utilization is the first to be thought of, if the power battery itself is still in good condition after being retired from the electric vehicle, then it can be circulated downward to the energy storage equipment for use, or repaired, decomposed to low-speed electric travel tools for use.
This is very in line with our wisdom of life, just like the "four-wheel drive" when I was a child, after the battery discharge capacity is reduced, it can also be installed on the remote control of the TV and air conditioner to squeeze out its residual value, but the complexity of the power battery is far beyond our imagination.
The high capacity storage demand of energy storage facilities determines that if the power battery is used as the energy storage unit, it often requires the cooperation of multiple batteries, and the battery in the scrapped car will generally be very old, although the number of power battery cycles should meet the service life of 10 or 15 years, but the battery attenuation is not completely linear.
Tesla's co-founder, Jb.Straubel said that when the cycle comes to the later stage, the battery capacity and efficiency will decrease, and the attenuation of each battery will be different, and it will be extremely difficult to deploy these batteries as energy storage carriers to the power grid.
And even after completing the mission of echelon utilization, the battery will eventually usher in the fate of being disposed of, so compared with echelon utilization, Jb.Straubel prefers dismantling at the raw material level**, which is an efficient way to "move the world towards sustainability".
j.b.Straubel is also practicing this concept, and after building the Model 3 into a global hit, he chose to leave Tesla, establish Redwood Materials, and devote himself to the battery industry.
In January 2022, Panasonic announced that it would begin working with Redwood Materials to begin supplying copper foil to the Giga Nevada battery production plant in Nevada, which is partnering with Tesla, and that the copper foil comes from old batteries.
As traditional automaker Volkswagen transitions to electrification, it also plans a battery** strategy at its inaugural Power Day, with Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt as a key partner.
Recently, Northvolt has built Europe's largest battery plant through Hydrovolt, a joint venture with Norsk Hydro. In the words of Andreas Frydensvang, Chief Commercial Officer at Hydrovolt, "We are actually going to build an above-ground mine as an alternative to the traditional mining industry. ”
At present, the largest power battery company in China is Guangdong Brunp, and behind it is the global power battery giant CATL.
Therefore, Brunp's biggest advantage is naturally that it can get a large number of retired power batteries at a low cost, which is naturally conducive to obtaining healthy commercial returns. On the other hand, large-scale processing can also bring technology iteration and production line optimization to Brunp, so that the enterprise can enter a positive cycle of rapid development.
Perfect closed loop
For example, in 2018, seven ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Interim Measures for the Management of the Utilization of Power Batteries for New Energy Vehicles", emphasizing that "power batteries are subject to extended producer responsibility", making it clear that car companies are the main body responsible for batteries.
However, the dismantling of batteries with different technical specifications and routes is still a problem, and the form of the battery is varied, including VDA, CTP, and CTC batteries, and the cells inside the battery are also very different.
At the same time, the main flow of domestic old batteries is still second-hand traders and small workshops, behind the non-standard dismantling, there are potential production safety and environmental protection issues, and the risk is still superimposed with the successive retirement of power batteries.
Obviously, the power battery is far from being on the right track. However, the power battery should be paid attention to and acted, which is not only a potential huge problem, but also a treasure to be developed.
Regarding the collaboration with Redwood Materials to give copper foil made from **materials to Tesla's Gigafactory in Nevada, Panasonic said, "This will be the first time that batteries will be **, remanufactured and returned to the same factory in a closed-loop manner."
Redwood Materials' plan is to purchase a 100-acre plot of land near the Gigafactory, Nevada, and plans to build a $2 billion plant that will produce 100GWh of cathode active material and anode foil per year for 1 million electric vehicles by 2025.
Tesla says that by raw materials for 1000kWh batteries, a new battery of 921kWh can be made, which means that the efficiency can reach 92%.
So in addition to environmental protection, if Tesla achieves its metal ** goal, it will significantly reduce the cost of battery production and make its electric vehicles more affordable. In addition to Tesla, Ford Motor Co., Ltd. has reached a ** agreement with Redwood Materials.
Volkswagen's raw material efficiency is expected to be 80%, which obviously does not meet Volkswagen's expectations, and Volkswagen's plan is to achieve 95% of the efficiency of raw materials by strengthening cooperation with ** suppliers.
Because this is not only about the EU "Critical Raw Materials Act" in the "20% of raw materials must come from the EU's internal ** utilization" requirements, but also related to the manufacturing cost of its future electric vehicles, which determines the competitiveness of its models.
For China's automotive industry, which aims to achieve new energy transformation, the battery is also related to the sustainability of its own competitiveness, as well as the good expectation of promoting going overseas and getting rid of involution, which is a potential risk and a precious treasure to be mined.
The author of this article is Sun Xiaoshu, a kicking car gang.