China's cumulative sales of power batteries reached 616.3 GWH, an increase of 32.4%; The cumulative loading capacity was 387.7 GWH, up 31.6% year-on-year; Cumulative exports reached 127.4 GWH, up 87.1 percent year on year. Among the top 10 power battery companies in the world by loading volume, Chinese companies occupy 6 seats... On January 11, 2023 power battery industry report card was released.

Thanks to continuous technological innovation, industrial structure innovation and business model innovation, the market size of China's power battery industry has led the world for seven consecutive years, and the industry leading position has continued to consolidate.

Henan Shangqiu Dingneng Jiyan Technology Co., LTD. Power battery automatic drying oven welding production line.

Photo by Xu Zeyuan

Workers operate equipment at a lithium battery production line at Shandong Jiili Xinwangda Power Battery Co., LTD.

Photo by Guo Xulei/Xinhua News Agency

Directly hit the endurance, make up the "pain point", and continue to force material system innovation and structural innovation

The battery volume utilization rate reached 83.7%, ranking first in the world; Charging 15 minutes, the battery life increased by more than 500 kilometers, is currently the world's fastest mass-produced lithium iron phosphate battery... The Polkrypton 007 pure electric coupe, launched at the end of 2023, is equipped with a Polkrypton self-developed gold bar battery with a maximum driving range of 688 kilometers for the first time. This battery not only makes the mass energy density of the lithium iron phosphate battery pack more than 10% higher than that of the traditional ternary lithium battery pack, but also truly realizes "a moment of charging thousands of miles".

From Shanghai at 6:30, arrived in Xiamen at 20:33, the whole journey without power 1044 kilometers...... In December 2023, Li Bin, founder, chairman and CEO of NIO, tested NIO's "150 degree battery pack", which took about 14 hours to successfully complete the 1,000 km endurance challenge.

After the mass production of power battery single energy density exceeded 300 watt-hours per kilogram, pure electric passenger car average driving range of more than 460 kilometers, 2023 China's power battery enterprises continue to force structural innovation and electrochemical system innovation, the technical level to a new level.

"In order to fit more cells into the expensive battery pack, the engineering team completely reinvented the battery pack structure." Xie Shibin, vice president of Krypton Intelligent technology, told reporters that compared with the traditional design, the total length of the BRICS battery sampling line is shortened by 157 meters, and the number of core components is reduced by 35%.

Polar Krypton through the extreme use of battery storage space, so that the power battery life is stronger. Zero-run cars have chosen battery chassis integration (CTC) technology. On January 10, 2024, Zero Run Car announced that the new model C10 launched in March will be equipped with Zero Run CTC2.0 technology. "The volume utilization rate can reach 79%, the number of parts is reduced by 28%, the cost of structural parts is reduced by 27%, the torsional stiffness of the vehicle is increased by 48%, the system lightweight level is increased by 15%, and it can also achieve no fire, no explosion, and 720 seconds no thermal diffusion." Song Yining, vice president of zero Run battery product line, said that from large modules to no modules, from battery plug-in to integrated, domestic enterprises adhere to differentiated innovation and stand on the forefront of global battery technology.

Compared with structural innovation, the disruptive innovation of the electrochemical system of power batteries represented by solid state batteries is expected to completely solve the life, replenishment and safety problems of power batteries. In July 2023, Toyota Motor announced a major breakthrough in solid-state battery research and development and will achieve mass production in 2027. Since then, SAIC Motor, GAC, Changan and other car companies have said that they will achieve mass production of solid-state batteries by 2027.

Into Qingtao (Kunshan) Energy Development Co., LTD., R & D personnel are working closely with engineers from SAIC General Institute of Innovation Research and Development to promote the mass production of the first generation of semi-solid batteries. "The first generation of semi-solid-state batteries, which we jointly developed with SAIC, will be mass-produced in the third quarter of this year and will be equipped with new models of the Zhiji brand." Li Zheng, general manager of Qingtao Energy, said that the new car equipped with this generation of semi-solid-state battery technology can have a maximum range of more than 1,000 kilometers, and a 10-minute charge can increase the range by 400 kilometers. Next, the second generation of semi-solid state batteries, under the premise of better performance, will reduce the cost of existing battery products by 10%-30%, and quickly complete the mass production of "100,000 vehicle scale".

"At present, we are steadily promoting the mass production of sodium batteries, ferromangan-aluminum phosphate batteries, and condensed matter batteries, while actively storing the next generation of battery technology for the future, in order to lead the new energy industry to reduce costs and increase efficiency." Ni Jun, chief manufacturing officer of Ningde Times and co-president of engineering manufacturing and research and development system, told reporters that in the face of new opportunities and new challenges in the industry, China's power battery companies have not stopped the pace of innovation.

Crack the "difficult points" of cost and efficiency, and promote the innovation of industrial structure and business model

The ground is spotless, the equipment is clean and tidy, and you should wear white dustproof clothing when entering... Into Zhejiang Quzhou Jidian New Energy Technology Co., LTD. Sandian intelligent manufacturing factory (hereinafter referred to as "Quzhou Jidian Factory") cell workshop, as if in a huge hospital operating room. The air cleaning system here ensures that there are fewer than 293 dust particles above 5 microns per cubic meter of air; The nearly "0 moisture" control system allows the workshop humidity to be only half the lowest humidity level in the Sahara Desert in a year, ensuring that the moisture content ratio of a single cell is less than 2 parts per 10,000.

The building area of 1.46 million square meters, the world's largest intelligent manufacturing base for three power and energy storage systems, was wholly built by Geely Holding, and it took only 14 months from construction to production. In 2023, Geely is not the only vehicle company involved in cell manufacturing and has achieved phased results.

On November 24, 2023, the first standard battery cell produced by Times Changan Power Battery Co., Ltd. went offline in Sanjiang New District, Yibin, Sichuan. According to the plan, Changan Automobile will launch eight types of battery cells such as liquid, semi-solid and solid state in 2030, forming a battery capacity of not less than 150 GWH; The first CTC technology with a group efficiency of 86% will be mass-produced this year.

More than half a month later, GAC Aian's Inpai battery intelligent ecological factory was completed. With an investment of 10.9 billion yuan, the plant plans to build 36 gigawatt hours of power battery and energy storage battery capacity, which can meet the loading needs of 600,000 new energy vehicles. It is reported that GAC independent research and development, cell energy density of up to 400 watt-hours per kilogram of solid-state batteries, planned to be mass-produced in 2026.

"New energy vehicle competition into the second half, the focus in addition to intelligence, as well as energy supplies." Vehicle companies should be able to provide more convenient, cheaper and greener energy to meet consumer demand for green travel." Feng Xingya, general manager of GAC Group, said that GAC's energy ecological sector aims to enhance the soft competitiveness of hard products.

An Conghui, president of Geely Holding Group and CEO of Polkrypton Intelligent Technology, said that the power battery is one of the most core and expensive parts of new energy vehicles, which is related to cost, but also to the direct user experience such as safety, battery life and charging efficiency. The full-stack self-developed battery is a key part of improving technical strength, digging the brand "moat" and grasping the competitive initiative.

"Regardless of the use of outsourced cells or self-developed cells, for vehicle companies, it is necessary to achieve the perfect combination of electricity and cars." An Conghui said that the difference in user experience between platform, generic, standardized outsourced cells and tailor-made cells for the car may be 98 points and 100 points, "the two-point gap is the differentiated competitive advantage of Krypton."

"Vehicle enterprises layout the whole industry chain of power batteries, and made substantial progress in the self-research and production of battery cells, changed the existing industrial division of labor and industrial structure of power batteries, and promoted technological progress and product iteration." Wang Yao, assistant secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and deputy secretary general of the power battery Industry Innovation Alliance, said that in 2023, China's power battery business model innovation has also made breakthrough progress, and its landmark event is that NiO has cooperated with Changan and Geely in the power replacement business.

According to reports, the power change model and the resulting pure electric vehicle "vehicle electric separation" sales model is one of the major achievements of China's new energy vehicle business model innovation. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has repeatedly made it clear that it supports the development of new energy vehicle power replacement models and has launched application pilots. However, due to the inconsistent battery pack specifications of various car companies and battery companies, the changing power station is not compatible, so that this model cannot give full play to its advantages.

"The sharing of the power change mode helps break through the key obstacles of the whole life cycle management of the power battery." Wang Yao believes that under the traditional model, the ownership and disposal of the body and battery are in the hands of consumers, which brings certain difficulties to standardized and large-scale recycling, "the car and electricity separation mode is expected to give birth to professional battery banks and battery management companies, which rent, sell and host batteries with scale, easy standardization and complete data." It is conducive to improving the cascade utilization and dismantling recycling efficiency of batteries after scrap."

Focusing on the "focus" of safety and carbon reduction, we will fully implement intelligent and green transformation

18 key processes, 100% automatic operation of the whole process production line; More than 200 intelligent handling robots can realize automatic transportation in multiple scenarios such as automatic on-line and linear material circulation distribution; The industry's first pole plate "double pump coupling technology" and "beta ray and laser dual light control monitoring feedback system", online real-time error correction...... Stepping into Quzhou Pole electric Factory, the high efficiency and high quality brought by high automation and intelligence are eye-opening.

"As the first tri-power 'future factory' pilot enterprise in Zhejiang Province, Quzhou Electrode Factory takes' 5G+ Industrial Internet 'as the carrier, deeply integrating advanced technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence and digital twins." Today, the cell factory has achieved the industry-leading level of one cell per line every 2.5 seconds, and the battery factory has achieved the industry high efficiency of processing 46 cells per line in one minute." Xie Shibin said.

Comprehensively promote intelligent manufacturing, so that China's power battery enterprises continue to lead the world in cost, efficiency, product yield and other core indicators, laying a solid foundation for products to "go out". At the same time, China's power battery companies actively respond to the EU battery bill, and implement green transformation by building zero-carbon factories and establishing an internationally recognized carbon footprint accounting system.

Open the electronic Kanban of the plant facility management system, and the real-time energy consumption of the five major factories of Sichuan Times New Energy Technology Co., LTD., a subsidiary of Ningde Times, is clear.

Xubin, head of the four-chuan era plant, told reporters that system testing and analysis found that 63% of the energy consumption of the plant is generated by equipment, and 37% of the energy consumption comes from production gas and refrigeration equipment. The enterprise will then focus on energy saving and consumption reduction from the use of gas refrigeration to the equipment end. In March 2023, Sichuan Times developed a new set of digital energy consumption management system for the whole process of production, so that the equipment can be turned on on demand, and can also enter standby mode like a smart phone.

At present, more than 80% of the energy in Sichuan Times comes from hydropower, which can reduce carbon emissions by 400,000 tons per year. The green energy solution of "all hydropower + zero carbon natural gas" helps the company become the world's first battery zero carbon factory in March 2022. "Next, we will fully promote the extension of energy conservation and carbon reduction to upstream tier 1 and tier 2 suppliers." Zhu Yunfeng, general manager of Sichuan Times New Energy Technology Co., LTD.

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