Battery is the new energy vehicle development roadblock?

Batteries are non-environmentally friendly, insecure and expensive, and have always been seen as a "roadblock" to the development of new energy vehicles. However, if the battery is rationally applied to new energy vehicles, this "roadblock" will no longer hinder the development of new energy vehicles.

When it comes to new energy vehicles, the topic is always around the battery. Whether it is a pure electric car, plug-in hybrid or programmable electric vehicles, will use the battery, the battery is an essential source of power.

At present, what are the problems with the batteries carried by new energy vehicles? From the perspective of batteries, in which direction should new energy vehicles develop? Recently, a reporter from China Government Procurement News interviewed relevant industry insiders.

◆ The battery itself is not environmentally friendly and unsafe

At present, there are three main types of batteries used in new energy vehicles: lead-acid batteries, lithium batteries and nickel-metal hydride batteries. In addition to these three types, there are different kinds of fuel cells.

Lead-acid battery is a kind of battery with electrodes mainly made of lead and its oxides, and electrolyte is sulfuric acid solution.

Lithium batteries are batteries with lithium metal or lithium alloy as the anode material, using a non-aqueous electrolyte solution. Because lithium batteries are better than lead-acid batteries in terms of environmental protection and relatively smaller in size, more new energy vehicles are equipped with lithium batteries.

Nickel-metal hydride batteries are synthesized from hydrogen ions and nickel metal, and are now mainly used in hybrid electric vehicles.

Yang Yusheng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that all batteries are chemicals, in the extraction and processing of raw materials, battery production, waste battery disposal, if the system is not strict, poor management, backward technology, may pollute the environment. For example, we all say that lithium-ion batteries are more environmentally friendly, but lithium batteries in the production and processing of pollution is worthy of attention. In addition to the environmental issues of the battery itself, the use of electrical energy may not be able to reduce pollution. "New energy vehicles consume the equivalent of 5.5-6.5 kilograms of standard coal per 100 kilometers of electricity, and emit carbon dioxide equivalent to 7.5-9 liters of oil. If it is not using clean power generation, but generating electricity through traditional coal burning, it is just that the pollution has moved to a different place." Yang Yusheng said.

And the safety of the batteries also deserves attention. "From October 1 last year to February 14 this year, five Teslas [microblogging] burned up due to battery fires." Yang Yusheng said there have also been many cases of new energy vehicles catching fire or even exploding in China.

◆ Battery weight and price can not come down

New energy vehicles equipped with batteries, the weight and cost of the new energy vehicle as if this "snail" on the back of a heavy "shell".

Reporters learned that the U.S. Tesla electric car battery pack weight of 800 kilograms, BYD (47.66, -1.25, -2.56%) pure electric car E6 equipped with batteries also amounted to 600 kilograms. The battery weight of pure electric buses is even more amazing. A bus manufacturer responsible person revealed that their companies developed a pure electric large bus, range up to 300 kilometers, but the battery weight of 1 ton. "A large amount of electrical energy is used to carry the battery." Xu Zheng, a professor at Beijing Jiaotong University's School of Science, said.

The BYD E6 consumes 19.5 degrees per 100 kilometers and costs CNY 360,000, while the Tesla's consumes 15-18 degrees per 100 kilometers and costs CNY 730,000. The price of the battery accounts for almost half of the price of the car, or even more. Yantai Hyde Special Purpose Vehicle Co., Ltd. said that they produce pure electric garbage trucks priced at about 1.5 million yuan per unit, while non-pure electric ordinary fuel vehicles only need 500,000 yuan per unit, more than half of the cost of the extra 1 million yuan is used in the purchase of batteries.

So, the weight of the battery and the price can not come down? Ltd. Vice President Xu Guorong told reporters that the more energy storage battery, the heavier the weight is bound to be heavier, the higher the price, the range can be improved. For the price, battery manufacturers are also subject to the limitations of the upstream material manufacturers, such as the price of the basic chemical materials of the battery, the price of positive and negative electrode materials and so on. Only after the entire industrial chain is perfect, the price of the battery can come down. "However, the current development of the entire industry, there is no benign interaction, the battery price is still difficult to come down."

◆ End-of-life battery problems

In addition to the environmental issues of the battery, safety issues, as well as self-weight and price issues, the recycling of end-of-life batteries is also problematic.

According to the relevant plan for the development of new energy vehicles, it is expected that by 2015, the cumulative production and sales volume of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles will be more than 500,000; by 2020, the production capacity of pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid vehicles will reach 2 million, and the cumulative production and sales volume will be more than 5 million. Under the huge incremental space, as the core component of electric vehicles is power battery, with the end of the service life of the power battery, the power battery scrapped from electric vehicles will exist in large quantities. Xu Guorong told reporters that the battery life for new energy vehicles is generally not more than 8 years, and at this stage of the promotion of new energy vehicles has been a few years, and then a few years will usher in the peak of new energy vehicle battery scrapping, the future of this market has great potential. However, at this stage, the country has not introduced the recycling of end-of-life automotive battery recycling standards and regulations.

In addition, these end-of-life power battery manufacturing process is advanced, even after the end of life still maintains a high level of safety and electrical performance, it is necessary to recycle and reuse. Due to the large volume of automotive end-of-life batteries, if improperly disposed of will have a very large impact on the environment.

It is understood that the relevant state departments are also brewing to introduce measures to support automotive power battery laddering utilization, which marks the national support policy for new energy vehicles began to pay attention to the "after-market" aspect.

Programmable Electric Vehicles or Direction

There are so many problems with batteries, the key component of new energy vehicles, so how can batteries and new energy vehicles achieve harmonious development?

Recently, Yang Yusheng proposed in a meeting that great importance should be attached to the development of programmable electric vehicles. Because this type of electric vehicle from the design principle to reduce the use of batteries.

What is a programmable electric vehicle? The reporter found a programmable electric vehicle professionals - Beijing Keling Electric Vehicle Co. He said: "Programmable electric vehicle is in the traditional fuel car added a variable fuel consumption electric vehicle power system, so that the vehicle is known in the shorter mileage driving pure electric drive, in more than the rated battery pack charge can be initiated on-line charging, in a timely manner to the battery to replenish electrical energy, a complete solution to the limitations of the range of purely electric vehicles, and also to make the battery life This completely solves the limitation of driving range of pure electric vehicles and extends the service life of the battery. If long-distance driving, the vehicle can also start the fuel system, but the sedan's 100 kilometers of fuel consumption is only 2 liters. Greatly reduce fuel consumption, and ultimately realize the purpose of energy saving and emission reduction."

Du Torch believes that the pure electric vehicle range is limited, and is prone to battery overheating, loss of liquid, leakage and even fire and explosion and other problems. General electric vehicle manufacturers will take lithium power batteries, fuel cells and other ways to increase battery capacity to solve the above problems. Not only can this not solve the problem fundamentally, but also appear expensive, relying on charging stations and other barriers to market promotion. Therefore, under the current technology level, the promotion of pure electric vehicles is not favored. And the add-on EV solves these problems. He said, "Taking the programmable electric bus produced by Keeling as an example, the cost of the batteries carried only accounts for 15% of the cost of the whole vehicle, and the self-weight of the batteries has also been reduced significantly, which will improve the market competitiveness of this type of vehicle."

It is understood that the programmable technology has been applied to both buses and sedans. It is this technology that is used in the pure electric sedan of GAC Chuanqi. As the main leader of the technology, Du Torch has always emphasized: "The battery is only a component of new energy vehicles, new energy vehicles can not be kidnapped by the battery. Scientific and effective use of batteries in new energy vehicles is the most important."