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1000km range causes controversy, power 6F22 battery technology dispute re-emerges

Recently, topics related to GAC Group's graphene battery technology have continued to heat up, not only triggering widespread heated discussions in the market, but also appearing on hot searches many times.

The cause of the incident can be traced back to a poster released by GAC Aion on January 15.

Academician questions new battery technology

GAC Aion said on the poster that the company's graphene-based super-fast charging battery can charge 80% of its power in just 8 minutes, and under the NEDC test, the range can reach 1000 kilometers.

But on January 16, the day after the announcement of this new battery technology, Ouyang Minggao, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in a speech at the my country Electric Vehicle Hundred People Forum that if someone says that it can run 1000 kilometers, can be fully charged in a few minutes, and is also very safe and has a very low cost, then don't believe it, because this is impossible at present. It should be said that there have been no particularly big breakthroughs in these aspects in recent years.

Regarding Ouyang Minggao's doubts, on January 17, Gu Huinan, general manager of GAC Aion, responded that technical issues should not be confused with promotion and operation issues. He then said that cars with a range of 1,000 kilometers will definitely be released this year, and fast charging will definitely be released. It is theoretically possible to fully charge 1,000 kilometers in 8 minutes.

On the evening of January 18, GAC Group announced that the graphene-based super-fast charging battery and long-range silicon negative electrode battery have been tested on the actual vehicle as planned, and are expected to be installed on GAC Aion's existing AIONV and AIONLX models respectively this year; however, the popularization of graphene-based super-fast charging batteries depends on the announcement of relevant national super-fast charging standards and the progress of the construction of high-power supercharging equipment; the popularization of long-range silicon negative electrode batteries is affected by cost and consumer acceptance, and the impact on operating performance is uncertain.

Many car companies will launch electric vehicles with a range of 1,000 km

In fact, not only GAC Group, but also NIO and Zhiji Auto have stated that they will launch electric vehicles with a range of 1,000 km.

On January 9, NIO announced a 150kWh battery pack at the 2020 NIO Day. The range of NIO's new sedan ET7 equipped with this battery pack can exceed 1,000km. The product will be launched in the fourth quarter of 2022.

According to Li Bin, chairman of NIO, the 150-degree battery pack uses a solid-liquid electrolyte with an in-situ curing process, a silicon-carbon negative electrode with an inorganic pre-lithiation process, and an ultra-high nickel positive electrode with a nano-level coating process, achieving a 50% increase in energy density to 360Wh/kg.

On January 13, Zhiji Auto, a joint venture between SAIC and Alibaba, announced that it will equip all models with 93kWh and high-end 115kWh silicon-doped lithium batteries, with performance exceeding the industry's leading level by 30%-40%. The battery supplier is CATL.

SAIC Zhiji said that the battery has an ultra-high single-cell energy density of 300Wh/kg and the highest safety level of never spontaneous combustion. Relying on this battery, Zhiji Auto can support a maximum range of nearly 1,000 km within the full architecture bandwidth, and can achieve an ultra-long 200,000 km zero-attenuation performance.

It can be seen that GAC, NIO, and Zhiji Auto have adopted three technical routes: graphene-based batteries, semi-solid-state batteries, and silicon-doped lithium batteries.

Debate on several battery technology routes

Among these three technical routes, solid-state batteries are considered to be the most innovative technical route, which can achieve a significant improvement in energy density, durability, and safety, but experts believe that solid-state batteries may not be commercially available within 5 years.

In terms of graphene-based batteries, according to Zeng Qinghong, secretary of the Party Committee and chairman of GAC, GAC's graphene-based super-fast charging battery has entered the actual vehicle testing stage. The first model equipped with it is AIONV, which is currently undergoing winter testing in Heihe, and is scheduled to be mass-produced in September this year.

The battery has a 6C fast charging capability, combined with a 600A high-power supercharging device, and can be charged to 80% in as fast as 8 minutes; the overall cell cost is 5-8% higher than the cost of conventional power lithium batteries in the current market.

However, some experts believe that the so-called graphene battery is currently just a 6F22 battery with graphene material added as a conductive agent, which can increase the charging speed and enable the 6F22 battery to be charged quickly. It is conditional to fully charge within a few minutes, requiring the charging pile to charge at high power, which will have a greater impact on the power grid and is not suitable for promotion.

The essence of silicon-carbon negative electrode battery is to increase the silicon content in the negative electrode and increase the lithium content at the same time to compensate for the increase in lithium loss during the charging and discharging process of the battery caused by the increase in silicon content. The silicon-doped lithium supplementation technology launched by Zhiji Automobile under SAIC Group and the inorganic pre-lithiation carbon silicon negative electrode used in Weilai solid-state batteries are both similar technologies.

However, the popularization of silicon-carbon negative electrode batteries is restricted by many factors. For example, the high price of silicon-carbon negative electrode materials will increase the cost of power lithium batteries; the power 6F22 battery market is the mainstream demand market for silicon-carbon negative electrodes, but the technical bottleneck of power lithium batteries limits its performance, etc.

Is 1,000 kilometers of endurance reliable?

So, how do experts view 1,000 kilometers of endurance?

Ouyang Minggao believes that 1,000 km range, fast charging, safety and low cost cannot be met at the same time with existing technology. Whether it is Weilai's semi-solid-state battery or Zhiji Auto's silicon-doped lithium supplementation technology, it is indeed impossible to meet all the above conditions at the same time, and the cost is relatively high. But judging from the information and publicity conveyed by GAC, graphene batteries can achieve all of them.

Shen Hui, founder, chairman and CEO of WM Motor, said that some car companies launched models with a range of more than 1,000 kilometers this year, but it is not very meaningful at present. He said that although some car companies have proposed electric vehicles with a range of 1,000km, the delivery time is two to three years later, which is actually not very meaningful.

Perhaps in two years, charging piles will be able to cover more comprehensively, so a large number of electric vehicles with a range of 1,000 kilometers on the road will be a huge waste of resources. Shen Hui said.

Zhang Yanfeng, Secretary General of Shanghai Fuel Cell Vehicle Commercialization Promotion Center, said that lithium batteries are like a water-storing sponge. Long battery life requires a large sponge to absorb water, but the problem now is that the amount of water in the tap is not enough, which adds to the cost of infrastructure such as charging piles. From this perspective, the current 1,000-kilometer long battery life lacks scientificity.

In any case, battery technology is always moving forward, and things that conform to market laws will definitely stay. I look forward to the emergence of batteries with a battery life of 1,000 kilometers!

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