Power battery is the core component of new energy vehicles, accounting for about 40% of the cost of new energy vehicles, so the technological progress and cost reduction of power batteries play a decisive role in the promotion of new energy vehicles.
Since 2021, the market demand for new energy vehicles has entered an explosive period, and the demand for power batteries has also grown rapidly. In 2011, the global power battery shipments were only 1.08GWh, and by 2022, the global power battery shipments had reached 518GWh, an increase of 480 times in ten years, and the annual compound growth was as high as 85%. As the demand for new energy vehicles continues to grow, it can be expected that the demand for power batteries will continue to grow at a high speed.
automotive power batteries have gradually developed from the earliest lead-acid batteries to lithium-ion batteries accounting for more than 90% of the current stage. The main driving force is the improvement of battery energy density to obtain longer cruising range. As the energy density of lithium-ion batteries is getting closer and closer to the theoretical limit, the development direction of batteries in the next stage will give more consideration to the improvement of safety and reliability, the reduction of costs, the shortening of charging time and other needs. From the perspective of battery structure, the development of lithium-ion-based solid-state batteries is the main direction, and sodium-ion batteries, which can significantly reduce costs, have low energy density, but still have a promising future in some specific models. From the perspective of battery structure, more and more enterprises adopt CTP, CTC, and further CTB transformation, in order to further improve the performance of power batteries in the mature lithium-ion battery framework.
As the cost of raw materials accounts for a very high proportion in the power battery of new energy vehicles, the cost reduction effect of large-scale production is different from the unit cost reduction brought about by the traditional automobile industry relying on large-scale production, which can only be achieved through the optimization of technology and the upgrading of equipment. For example, copper foil, which accounts for about 8% of the overall cost of lithium batteries, uses 4.5um, 6um and 8um lithium-electric copper foil with a unit copper consumption of 0.47, 0.62 and 0.83kg/kWh respectively. Domestic enterprises have basically popularized 6um copper foil, some leading enterprises have been in the batch production of 4.5um copper foil lithium-ion batteries. Compared with 8um copper foil, the amount of copper used in 6um copper foil can be reduced by nearly 20%, and the amount of copper used in 4.5um copper foil can be reduced by more than 30%. Due to the constraints of cost, safety, and upstream raw material supply, more and more companies are beginning to innovate at the structural level. On the basis of the existing battery material unchanged, through the optimization of the structure of the battery module, the balance of the increase of energy density, the improvement of safety and reliability, and the reduction of cost is realized. From the traditional CTM(Cell to Module) mode to JTM(Jelly Roll to Module), it is easy to realize the standardization of the module, while simplifying the process and reducing the cost, it is also convenient for future echelon utilization and improving the residual value of the battery. The Kirin battery introduced by Ningde era and the blade battery introduced by BYD can be regarded as the concept extension of CTP(Cell to Pack), which can increase the volume utilization rate by nearly 20%, reduce 40% of parts and improve the production efficiency by 50%. The next-generation technology development direction CTC(Cell to Chassis) is to directly integrate the battery cell into the car chassis, which can significantly reduce the weight of the car and improve the structural efficiency. Tesla plans to adopt the "CTC + integrated die casting" scheme to achieve the goals of reducing body weight by 10%, reducing battery volume by 10%, reducing unit battery cost by 70%, and increasing endurance by 15%.
In summary, at this stage, the technology of new energy vehicle power batteries adopts two legs. On the one hand, the performance of battery materials is improved through solid-state batteries and material optimization, thereby reducing costs, improving performance and safety; On the one hand, through the optimization of the battery structure, the potential of the existing battery is fully tapped, and the performance of the vehicle is further improved on the basis of mature lithium-ion batteries. These different power battery technology routes will effectively improve the performance and safety of new energy battery vehicles, and further expand the market of new energy vehicles.