Controversial Electric Vehicle 1000 Km Endurance: Real Selling Point Or Fake Gimmick?

There are always new stories for new energy vehicles. The opening drama of 2021 is "1000 km endurance".

In the past week, Weilai, SAIC Zhiji and gac-ea'an successively announced that they would launch pure electric vehicles with a range of more than 1000 kilometers, and the high endurance mileage arms race was staged.

This has triggered a huge controversy in the industry, and there are hostages suspected of car companies over publicizing the battery technology level, and there is suspicion of speculation.

In fact, the innovation of battery materials is a process of accumulation and requires a long time of effort. At the same time, the technical innovation of power battery needs to balance the contradictory performance indexes such as specific energy, life, fast charging, safety and cost, which is extremely difficult.

"If someone says that his car can run 1000 kilometers and charge in a few minutes, it is particularly safe, and the cost is very low, then you don't have to believe it, because it is impossible to achieve it at the same time at present." On January 16, Ouyang Minggao, vice chairman of China electric vehicle 100 people's Association and academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, said at the forum of China electric vehicle hundred people's Association (2021).

In this regard, on January 17, Gu Huinan, general manager of gac-ea New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., replied at the Forum: "academician Ouyang Minggao means that it is unrealistic to have fast charging, long service life and low price. We can also charge 1000 kilometers in 8 minutes, but we should also provide the corresponding charging pile. This year, GAC will definitely launch its 1000 km endurance (model) and fast charging (model) as well. But technology and promotion are two logics. "

Electric vehicle mileage race again. IC photo

Leading technology or over hype?

At present, the three car companies that have announced that they will launch a 1000km endurance electric vehicle have adopted different routes to innovate on materials, including Weilai's "inorganic pre lithium carbon silicon negative electrode" semi-solid battery, Zhiji automobile's "silicon doped lithium filled" square shell battery and GAC's graphene based super fast charging battery.

However, these three routes are difficult to achieve commercial application.

On January 9, Weilai automobile released a 150kwh battery pack on Weilai day in 2020, and plans to launch it to the market in the fourth quarter of 2022. It is said that the new Weilai car et7 equipped with this battery pack can last more than 1000km.

According to Li Bin, chairman of Weilai Automobile Co., Ltd., the 150 degree battery pack adopts solid-liquid electrolyte with in-situ curing process, silicon carbon anode with inorganic pre lithium process, and ultra-high nickel cathode with nano coating technology, which can achieve 50% energy density improvement, reaching 360wh / kg.

In an interview with 21st century economic report, Li Bin said it was inconvenient to disclose supplier information, but said the supplier was a top company in the industry. "The 360wh / kg solid-state battery that can meet our performance requirements will definitely produce energy. At present, these samples meet the requirements." Li Bin said.

Weilai's new solid-state battery once released, has triggered a heated discussion in the industry. There are doubts that the solid-state battery technology is not mature, whether Weilai can be launched as scheduled is still unknown.

A week later, on January 13, Zhiji automobile, a joint venture of SAIC and Ali, announced that it would provide 93kwh and 115kwh silicon doped lithium-ion batteries as standard, with performance exceeding the industry leading level by 30% - 40%. Battery supplier is Ningde era.

SAIC has said that the battery has an ultra-high monomer energy density of 300wh / kg and the highest safety level of non spontaneous combustion. Relying on this battery, Zhiji automobile can support up to 1000 km of endurance in the full architecture bandwidth, and can achieve zero attenuation performance of ultra long 200000 km.

Two days later, on January 15, gac-ea released the slogan "80% graphene based super fast charging battery that can charge 80% in 8 minutes" and put out the slogan "NEDC can last 1000 km without waiting for next year".

On January 16, Zeng Qinghong, Secretary of the Party committee and chairman of Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd., revealed at the forum of 100 people's meeting of China electric vehicles (2021), that GAC's graphene based super fast charging battery has entered the real vehicle test stage, and the first vehicle model is aion V, which is currently undergoing winter test in Heihe, and it is initially planned that it can be mass produced in September this year.

Zeng Qinghong said that the graphene fast charging battery has 6C fast charging capacity. Combined with high-power overcharge equipment, it can be charged to 80% in 8 minutes at most. Combined with silicon anode material, the energy density can be increased to about 280wh / kg, and the service life is longer than 1600 cycles. At the same time, the manufacturing and production costs are reduced by more than 90%, making the overall cell cost slightly higher than the conventional power battery cost on the market by 5% - 8%.

This time, GAC launched graphene battery, which caused heated discussion. Some people think that graphene can improve the charge discharge rate in theory, but the actual effect needs to be verified; some hold that there is no real graphene battery, which is just a "gimmick" made by GAC.

From Ouyang Minggao's point of view, 1000 km of endurance, fast charging, safety and low cost can not be satisfied at the same time under the existing technology. Whether it is the semi-solid battery of Weilai or the "silicon doped lithium" technology of Zhiji automobile, it is really unable to meet all the above conditions at the same time, and the cost is high. However, from the perspective of GAC's information and propaganda, graphene battery can be realized, so it has become the focus of controversy.

On January 18, GAC group (601238. SH) announced that graphene based super fast charging battery and long endurance silicon negative battery had been tested in real vehicles as planned, and were expected to be carried on existing aion V and aion LX models of GAC ea'an in this year.

GAC said that the popularization of graphene based super fast charging batteries depends on the release of relevant national standards for super fast charging and the construction progress of high-power overcharge equipment; the popularity of long-term silicon negative battery is affected by the total cost of the battery and consumer acceptance, and the market demand is uncertain.

In other words, according to the latest statement of GAC group, fast charging and long endurance are realized on two different products, and these two products are uncertain in practical application or commercialization prospect.

"The charging point is really a problem: if the battery capacity is 150kwh (so-called 1000km endurance), 80% is 120kwh, and it can be fully charged in 8 minutes without loss of energy, then the charging pile needs to charge 900kw per hour. Then, a charging point needs to be equipped with a 1250kva transformer, which is equivalent to the transformer of half a shopping mall. Where can I find such a charging point now? " Some people in the automobile industry told reporters of the 21st century economic report.

Why does endurance race rise?

In the past few years, China's power battery industry has grown rapidly, basically forming two mainstream technology lines, lithium ternary and lithium iron phosphate. At the same time, through the structural innovation of the battery system and the improvement of the battery monomer material, the battery energy density, endurance level and cost are further improved.

In recent years, the performance of battery cell has been improved mainly by adding lithium and silicon. In order to improve the specific energy of the battery system, more batteries can be installed in the limited space, and battery enterprises also innovate in the battery system structure. For example, CTP module free system of Ningde era, blade battery module free system of BYD, and J2M recently launched by GuoXuan High Tech Co., Ltd.

"China's battery material research is in the international advanced ranks. These are all done by Chinese enterprises, which is an important sign that China's battery industry leads the development of international battery technology. " Ouyang Minggao said.

From the perspective of automobile companies, the most important standard in battery technology is the level of battery life. Some car companies are also trying to drive the development of overall sales through the breakthrough in endurance.

For example, gac-ea new energy, a rising star in the field of new energy vehicles, boldly took the lead in using ncm811 ternary lithium battery in 2019, and launched aion s with a range of more than 600 km, which opened up the market rapidly. BYD launched the Han EV equipped with blade battery in 2020, which uses a lower cost lithium iron phosphate material, and can also meet the requirements of higher battery life. It also performs well in the market.

To a certain extent, the longer endurance of electric vehicles is indeed an important reason to attract consumers to buy. This also stimulates car companies to further pursue longer driving range, so as to further enhance product competitiveness and brand power.

China's new energy vehicle market is expected to further grow rapidly in the next few years, which will bring great opportunities to automobile enterprises. However, due to Tesla's large-scale entry into China's electric vehicle market and the acceleration of electric transformation of joint venture brands, local enterprises need to form their own competitiveness as soon as possible. Many enterprises put their tentacles on the power battery.

It is worth noting that both Weilai and SAIC Zhiji regard themselves as high-end electric vehicles. Therefore, the sales price of their models is relatively high, which can bear the cost increase under the leap forward of battery technology to a certain extent. However, the product price of gac-ea'an is mainly around 100000 yuan, which is highly sensitive to cost.

In addition, it is believed that one of the important purposes behind the promotion of difficult technologies released by automobile enterprises is to raise the valuation.

"Pure electric 1000km mileage is used to tell the capital market. Car companies will not really make it, and users won't really buy it. " Some insiders told reporters of the 21st century economic report.

Does the market really need 1000 km of endurance?

At present, if the electric vehicle wants to reach 1000 km of endurance, it is possible to achieve it technically, but at the same time, it will also bring about other problems such as rising costs.

In terms of practical use, many industry insiders told the 21st century economic report that consumers do not really need an electric vehicle with a range of 1000 km.

"At the current level of technology, the cost of long range is vehicle weight, cost and energy consumption. A small number of vehicles can meet their needs, but the current technical level of 1000 km may not be reasonable, and most vehicles do not need to increase the mileage and adopt fast charging mode. Automobile enterprises and public opinion should correctly guide consumption. " On January 17, Wang Binggang, leader of the national new energy vehicle innovation project expert group, told reporters of the 21st century economic report.

Wang Binggang believes that one of the characteristics of electric vehicles is that they can be recharged at home, which is very convenient. According to continuous statistics in recent years, 68% of private consumers have their own charging piles. These consumers don't have to pursue long-range mileage if they don't have to run long distances. It's like we're used to charging our phones every day. The demand scenarios of long endurance mileage and fast charging mainly include private vehicles that need to travel far away and have no convenient charging pile, and the operating vehicles with long driving mileage and working hours. "At the beginning of the last century, one of the reasons for the rapid popularity of fuel vehicles was that the oil giants represented by the United States built gas stations all over the country in the United States, making the use of fuel vehicles very convenient. Therefore, 1000 km or 500 km range is not the key, the key is to be able to charge quickly and conveniently. If you can quickly and easily charge, the range of 500 km is enough. " On January 17, Xu Xiangyang, Professor of automotive engineering at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, told reporters of the 21st century economic report.

Taking Tesla as an example, the highest sales volume of Tesla Model 3 lithium iron phosphate version in China has a service life of only more than 400 km. However, one important advantage of Tesla is the industry-leading fast charging technology. In the past year, Tesla has rapidly deployed super charging stations in China to solve the problem of battery life for consumers.

However, Wang Binggang believes that the construction of charging infrastructure should be based on slow charging of parking spaces and supplemented by fast charging of public charging stations.

"We do not want to guide most electric vehicle consumers to go to gas stations for gas like fuel vehicles. This will not only lose the benefits of peak load shifting and valley filling that electric vehicles can bring to the power grid, but also bring the impact of electric load." Wang Binggang said.

From the perspective of car companies, in addition to improving the mileage, there is also a lot of room for optimization in technology.

Ouyang Minggao said that although the 1000 kilometer range is not our main goal, the energy demand of electric vehicles will definitely increase. For example, the recent problem of low-temperature range reduction in winter is actually an energy problem. If there is a long-range car, discount is not afraid. But it is more important to improve the technical level of vehicle integration, that is, the energy saving level of electric vehicles.

"There is an urgent need for environmental adaptability technology of electric vehicles in China." Ouyang Minggao believes that the problem of battery shrinkage can be solved by optimizing the performance of battery thermal management system, comprehensive utilization of power system energy for winter conditions, thermal insulation and pulse heating of battery in charging scenario.