Ouyang minggao said that China, Japan and South Korea lithium battery technology is a leading camp

The rise of battery enterprises has laid a certain technical foundation for China's electric vehicle revolution, but to truly catch up with Germany and Japan, the electric vehicle industry needs further technological breakthroughs and timely industrialization

China is about to enter its 10th year of electric vehicle development. As the electric car heart's power battery, its industry pattern appeared the ice fire double sky.

In 2017, shenzhen watma battery co., LTD., the world's fifth largest and China's third largest power battery company by sales volume, and its parent company jianruihuaneng (300116.sz) defaulted on 2 billion yuan of debt at the beginning of April, with the total debt as high as 22.138 billion yuan. In addition, many small and medium-sized power battery enterprises have closed down under the pressure of cost. On the other hand, ningde new energy technology co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as CATL), the world's largest power battery sales company in 2017, successfully held a meeting in early April, with an estimated value of more than 130 billion yuan.

In addition to the internal reshuffle situation, in the global market Japanese and Korean enterprise group strong environment in the competitive landscape, China's new energy vehicle competitiveness? Is there any chance of overtaking on a curve? Ouyang minggao, an academician of the Chinese academy of sciences and executive vice chairman of the all-china electric vehicle association, told caijing recently that China's electric vehicle technology bottom line has been formed. Can return lithium iron phosphate battery bottom, into a new generation of lithium ion power battery.

China power battery attack and defense

Q: what is the development path of power batteries in China?

Ouyang ming-gao: the 11th five-year plan focuses on the development of lithium iron phosphate lithium positive ion battery, the 12th five-year plan focuses on the development of ternary positive lithium ion battery, the 13th five-year plan is focusing on the development of high nickel ternary positive electrode + silicon carbon negative lithium ion battery.

Q: is the domestic research on lithium iron phosphate batteries mature? What are the advantages and disadvantages of ternary lithium batteries compared with lithium iron phosphate?

Ouyang: lithium iron phosphate batteries are the technological bottom line of the electric car revolution. Although the specific capacity is lower than lithium ion battery, lithium iron phosphate battery has mature technology, abundant materials, controllable cost and high safety. At present, the advanced lithium iron phosphate battery has achieved a continuous driving range of 500 kilometers in the electric car of the tengsey, giving consideration to both safety and economy.

lithium iron phosphate and ternary are different anode materials of lithium battery. Ternary lithium battery achieves higher specific energy, but there are still problems such as safety, raw material cost and service life. The technical threshold is raised to encourage technological progress, and the safety requirements for lithium-ion batteries are also higher.

Q: ternary lithium battery is now regarded as a mainstream power battery line. Many enterprises have turned to the production of ternary lithium battery with higher energy density and more complicated technology. What is the status quo of ternary lithium battery technology in China? What are the difficulties?

Ouyang ming-gao: at present, NCM811+ silicocarbon negative lithium ion battery has a specific energy of 300 watt-hours/kg in the research and development of battery samples, but the safety, especially the overcharge safety, is a big challenge. In 2020, the combination of 811 anode, silicon-carbon anode and liquid electrolyte may become the mainstream product (some Japanese and Korean battery experts think 622 anode may be a better choice from the perspective of comprehensive balance of performance).

It is not difficult to reach the target of 300 watt-hours/kg by 2020. The core is once the industrialization of large-scale production implementation, raw materials, production process can meet the demand. After the industrialization of lithium ion battery 811, it is limited to anode materials. From an industrial perspective, it will be very difficult to achieve 350 watt-hours/kg specific energy.

Q: is high nickel a trend?

Ouyang minggao: high nickel is a trend at present, mainly to reduce the dependence on cobalt, so as to make the cost controllable. The decline in the use of cobalt is an inevitable trend.

Q: will China follow the path of Japan's panasonic? For example, the development of cylinder 18650 811 lithium battery.

Ouyang minggao: panasonic 18650 because of the small capacity, it is easier to achieve high specific energy index. Small battery can avoid the problem of material unevenness and polarization after volume amplification. But because the electrolyte dries easily, its service life is relatively short. But China will not blindly follow panasonic's path and choose different materials. China is nickel-cobalt manganese, panasonic is nickel-cobalt aluminum. The safety of nickel-cobalt-aluminum is not well controlled, and manganese is relatively more stable.

Q: will lithium-ion batteries be the mainstream in the medium term?

Ouyang minggao: lithium ion battery will always be the main product in the medium term, which will not be overturned easily. But positive, negative and electrolyte may change. In addition, due to the uncertainty of lithium air and lithium sulfur, the prospect of industrialization in the automotive field remains to be seen.

Advantages and disadvantages of China's lithium battery technology

Q: China, Japan and the rok have the right to speak on global lithium power. How did this happen?

Ouyang ming-gao: mainly because China, Japan and South Korea all have the industrial base of lithium battery. It goes without saying that China's industrial base starts from the cell phone battery. When lithium battery technology came along, most of the world's car companies were working on fuel cells, not power cells. China is also focusing on fuel cells at the beginning, but there is a big gap between the United States and Japan in basic materials and membrane electrodes because there is no industrial base related to fuel cells. Later, after repeatedly comparing the domestic industrial advantages and the characteristics of the transportation system, the "pure electric drive" strategy featuring lithium battery was put forward. Only in this way, the company was finally in the same camp with Japan and South Korea, and took the lead in the industrialization of new energy electric vehicles in the world.

Europe and the United States is now very difficult to appear large lithium electric enterprises, mainly because of the late start, weak industrial base.

Q: why is China's industrial advantage and transportation system conducive to the development of lithium battery?

Ouyang minggao: Toyota of Japan has been developing hybrid power on the basis of fuel engine. At that time, Toyota was formulating the first two five-year plans of China's new energy vehicles, and it also followed up that Toyota took hybrid power as the focus of development. The domestic backbone automobile enterprises invested a lot of energy in the research and development of hybrid power. By 2008, the demonstration operation effect of domestic hybrid electric vehicles, especially hybrid electric cars, was not satisfactory.

At the same time, lithium ion battery technology after 2007 made a breakthrough, a short period of time to replace the nimh battery, the development of pure electric is possible. Toyota's move from hybrids to fuel cells is all about raising the bar for technology and securing a competitive advantage.

China's transportation system is based on e-mobility. High-speed rail, e-bike and e-public transportation have formed the characteristics of e-mobility in Chinese society. At the same time pure electric vehicle integration technology is relatively easy, so China is suitable for pure electricity. Technical breakthrough and application scene fit, which is the main reason for the rapid development of pure electricity.

Q: what is the level of China's lithium battery talent reserve and research in the world?

Ouyang ming-gao: I have read a material. In the past 10 years, there have been about 1 million international papers on materials research. China and Taiwan account for 40% of the total. Most of the people who study batteries in the United States are also Chinese. China's lithium battery reserve talents and great potential for research.

Q: is China's high-end lithium battery capacity insufficient?

Ouyang minggao: high-end production capacity is a common problem faced by all industries in China. However, China's battery industry has a high proportion of high-end talents and active technological innovation. Ningde, for example, was worth $20 billion a year, with more than 100 PHDS. Compared with some domestic auto companies, the annual output value of 500 billion yuan is only 50. Such a high talent structure and proportion is completely different from other industries.

Q: at present, the domestic lithium battery industry has a low consistency. Will there be industry standards?

Ouyang minggao: China's lithium battery standards have strict safety standards and clear indicators. The international standard for lithium batteries adopted recently is based on the Chinese standard. The safety and specific energy of lithium battery is a contradiction. With the development of technology and technology, lithium battery enterprises will improve the technical threshold by improving specific energy index. Specific energy is an important and effective baton to adjust the change of production capacity structure, and low-end production capacity in the market will certainly be eliminated.

Q: the ningde era has received large global orders from Volkswagen and Mercedes, and the prices are LG6 percent higher. Why are foreign carmakers willing to pay a premium for Chinese batteries?

Ouyang minggao: first of all, the product quality of ningde era is equal to LG, and sometimes even better than LG. Second, there are no big lithium producers in Europe; Third, China is their biggest single market, accounting for, say, 40 per cent of vw's global sales. Finally, China's lithium battery industry chain is more complete than South Korea's, and its industrial scale and development potential are also higher than South Korea's.

Next generation battery who can break bureau

Ask: at present the most popular 3 yuan positive pole material is rich lithium manganese base, why does it become a hot spot, what advantage and disadvantage exist?

Ouyang minggao: lithium - manganese - rich anode materials, is now a global research hotspot. The theoretical discharge capacity of lithium-rich anode material is high, which can reach over 400mAh/g, and the specific energy of the battery can reach over 400 watt-hours/kg. At the same time, it can reduce the dependence on cobalt and nickel and reduce the cost, especially cobalt. Recently, professor xia dingguo of Peking University synthesized a 400mAh/g positive electrode in the laboratory, but the life of lithium-manganese rich batteries is relatively short.

Now, at home and abroad have made 300 watt-hour/kg of lithium manganese rich lithium battery, but the life of hundreds of times, can not meet the requirements of the car, need to continue to work hard. The rich lithium manganese base itself voltage attenuation is fast, in the material needs to seek the improvement. Second, you need to match the lithium-rich manganese base with an electrolyte with a wider voltage range, such as a solid state.

Q: is there a timetable for the industrialization of lithium manganese?

Ouyang minggao: in the national special project, the industrialization of 811 ternary lithium batteries will be realized by 2020. At the same time, lithium-manganese rich base will continue to carry out basic research. Because relevant projects have not been concluded yet, the exact time point for industrialization cannot be determined at present, and it is expected to be around 2025.

At that time, the comprehensive comparison of lithium-rich material lithium battery which is highly expected should be equal to or even better than 811, and the specific energy should be higher than 811. Durability is the key factor for comparison. If the durability can be improved successfully, the lithium-rich material will become a new type of anode material for lithium battery industrialization.

Q: automotive companies will be solid and all solid state battery as the next research and development focus, research and development difficulties?

Ouyang minggao: although the research of solid electrolyte has been a hot topic, the core of all-solid battery is to solve the interface problem between solid and solid, liquid electrolyte still needs to be added at present. In the next 5 to 10 years, the proportion of liquid electrolyte will gradually decrease, showing a trend from partial solid to semi-solid and to all-solid. It will be close to all solid, if not all solid.

Once the all solid state is developed, it will not only have higher safety, but also completely change the battery practice. Because the solid solves the short circuit problem of the liquid battery, the battery can be connected in series internally to improve specific energy. At present, the specific energy should be promoted as far as possible on the premise of ensuring durability, and solid-state batteries also have the potential of quick charging. Many related research institutions and enterprises in China are studying solid-state lithium battery technology.

Q: what is the research status and planning for solid-state batteries in Japan?

Mr. Ouyang: Toyota of Japan has shown off solid-state lithium-ion batteries, and they say they will be industrialized by 2022 or 2023. But specific energy still did not rise, after industrialization so specific energy also won't be too tall.

Can fuel cells replace lithium batteries?

Q: what are the main problems in the development of fuel cells from pure electricity?

Ouyang minggao: China's fuel cell research has made great progress, fuel cell vehicles in the local market has begun to industrialization. Fuel cell system performance optimization, about 2025 technology will be able to relatively mature, if the implementation of mass production, cost will also be reduced.

At present, more attention should be paid to hydrogen energy technology, that is, front-end hydrogen fuel, such as production, transportation, storage, compression and other links. So far, the focus has been on the fuel cell system itself. But the technology and infrastructure associated with hydrogen is not ideal. For example, the on-board hydrogen storage technology has the following problems: high cost of carbon fiber, low weight of hydrogen storage and large energy loss. Therefore, the key is to deepen the basic research and technology development related to hydrogen energy, as well as the construction of related infrastructure.

Q: with no reduction in fuel cell subsidies, do policymakers see fuel cell development as more realistic?

Ouyang minggao: from the perspective of the whole national energy system (not just from the perspective of vehicle use), hydrogen fuel cell technology really needs to accelerate development, which is in line with the needs of China's energy revolution. If the energy requirement reaches a certain level, lithium batteries cannot meet it.

But I also disagree with the claim that hydrogen is the "ultimate energy source" and that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are the "ultimate green vehicles." Hydrogen and electricity are energy carriers, and there is no "ultimate". Smaller cars require less energy, and lithium batteries could play a bigger role. Therefore, as far as new energy vehicles are concerned, combustion and pure electricity will coexist symbiotically in the future.

Q: what is the cost balance between fuel cells and pure electric vehicles in the future for passenger cars?

Ouyang minggao: some studies suggest that by 2025, for cars above the intermediate level, the range of 350 kilometers may become the balance point between fuel cell vehicles and battery electric vehicles. More than 350 kilometers, fuel cell cost is better; Within 350 kilometers, the advantage of lithium battery is stronger.

At present, China's developed high-speed rail network can fully meet the needs of people's long-distance travel, so there are not many renewals of ultra-long range electric vehicles. In the future, when hydrogen energy develops to a certain extent, fuel cell can be used as a range extender of lithium ion battery, which can increase the mileage and reduce the battery consumption through electric mixing.

The page contains the contents of the machine translation.