What do you value most when buying a tram? I believe that the answer for many people will be: battery!
As the core and most expensive component of the tram, the battery has an undoubted impact on the performance and safety of the tram, and even in the eyes of many consumers, buying a tram is buying a battery.
Consumers attach so much importance to batteries, car companies are naturally not idle, in recent years, such as Kirin, Shenxing, gold bricks and other names of the battery overwhelmingly launched, although each family said their best, but it is difficult for consumers.
With so many bells and whistles, which ones are bragging, and which ones are the best? Under the sugar-coated shells promoted by car companies, what information should we, as consumers, pay attention to?
If you happen to have similar questions, then this time, we might as well simply take stock of the mainstream battery products on the market, after reading our analysis, you should have a number in your heart.
The "King Ning" who can't be avoided
If you want to say that the largest and most popular battery brand in China, there is no doubt that it must be CATL.
It is no exaggeration to say that CATL is the battery brand with the largest range of battery technology and products in China, and 43% of the new energy vehicles produced and sold in China last year were equipped with batteries produced by CATL.
And among these 43% of the models, there are also models that we are very familiar with, such as Tesla Model 3, Xiaomi SU7, Zeekrypton 001, Ideal MEGA and so on.
The reason why CATL can become the mainstream, in addition to its early entry, the core reasons are two, one is that it has rich battery technology and products, just like a large supermarket, there is always one suitable for you.
The other is that if you are not satisfied with the ready-made battery, you can also choose to "jointly develop" with CATL to customize the battery that is more in line with the needs of car companies and consumers.
Kirin battery
As a ternary lithium battery, it is characterized by relatively higher energy density and can support overcharging, which is very suitable for those models that pursue performance parameters.
ZEEKR 009 is one of the first models equipped with Kirin batteries, which not only has a huge battery capacity of 140kWh, but also has an ultra-high energy density of 192.6Wh/kg.
Even if the ZEEKR 009 is already a "big bread" with a car weight of nearly 3 tons, the Kirin battery can also give it an ultra-long CLTC range of 822 kilometers, which shows its strong performance.
The same is the "big bread", the 102.7kWh Kirin battery equipped with the ideal MEGA is the main 5C supercharge, which can charge 500 kilometers in 12 minutes at the earliest, and is currently the fastest mass-produced ternary lithium battery.
There is also Xiaomi SU7, they and CATL jointly developed a 101kWh Kirin battery, in addition to supporting 800V high voltage and 4C overcharging, but also redesigned the position of the pressure relief valve of the battery cell to improve the safety of the battery after thermal runaway.
Of course, there is also a price, that is, the energy density of the whole pack of Xiaomi SU7 Kirin battery is only 156.4Wh/kg, and the ideal MEGA is only 163.3Wh/kg, which is far less than the Kirin battery of Extreme Krypton 009, as for why, let's explain it carefully later.
Shenxing battery
As a lithium iron phosphate battery, it is characterized by a supercharging speed of no less than 4C rate while taking into account higher safety and life, which is more suitable for family models that pursue reliability and efficiency.
ZEEKR 001 is an example, equipped with a 95kWh Shenxing battery, ZEEKR 001 not only supports the 800V platform, but also has a higher charging rate of 5C, which can be charged for at least 500 kilometers in 12 minutes at the earliest.
The disadvantage is that the energy density of the whole package of Shenxing battery is less than 150Wh/kg, so under the same volume and capacity, it will weigh more than ternary lithium batteries.
Whale battery
This is a battery jointly developed by Huawei and CATL, and its cell material is neither ternary lithium nor lithium iron phosphate, but ternary lithium & lithium manganese iron phosphate after the two are "mixed".
This cell material has a characteristic, that is, it can take into account the high-performance advantages of ternary lithium and the high safety advantages of lithium iron phosphate.
For example, the M9 is equipped with a 100kWh giant whale battery, which supports an 800V platform, not only has the energy density of the whole package reached 186.1Wh/kg, but also the maximum charging rate reached 3.2C.
On the one hand, there are not enough charging piles in China that support 800V supercharging, and on the other hand, it is to sacrifice the charging speed of a few minutes, which can be exchanged for a more comprehensive advantage.
The unavoidable "Dizi"
Although CATL is a dominant company in the battery field, depending on the seniority in the industry, BYD is superior.
BYD originally started in the battery industry, but because it saw the dawn of new energy vehicles at the beginning of the millennium, it plunged into the automotive industry.
According to the data, 27% of the new energy vehicles produced and sold in China last year were equipped with batteries produced by BYD. And these 27%, if nothing else, are basically BYD's own brand models.
For example, Dynasty, Ocean, Denza, Yangwang, Equation Leopard, etc., although this self-developed, self-produced, and self-used model limits the market share of BYD batteries, but it can better squeeze the potential of batteries.
For example, every time BYD introduces its flagship product, the blade battery, it will proudly introduce a series of technical terms, such as multiplexed electric drive boost charging, upcurrent charging, pulse self-heating technology, composite refrigerant direct cooling, and so on.
It is the first battery that overcomes the low energy density of the whole package of lithium iron phosphate batteries and poor battery life in winter through technological innovation, so that lithium iron phosphate batteries can compete with ternary lithium batteries on the same stage.
For example, the blade battery currently equipped with BYD's pure electric models basically has a whole pack energy density of 140Wh/kg and a charging rate of less than 2C.
This data is still very good in the past few years, but now with the advent of a number of high-performance lithium iron phosphate batteries such as Ningde Shenxing battery and ZEEKR gold brick battery, it is no longer enough to see it.
However, the good news is that the second-generation blade battery is said to be unveiled in the second half of this year, and it is rumored that it will have a whole pack energy density of at least 160Wh/kg and a charge rate of no less than 3C.
The newly rising Extreme Krypton
In addition to CATL and BYD, there is actually another brand of battery that is also worth paying attention to, that is, ZEEKR.
Although ZEEKR is a car company, it may be in order to get rid of its dependence on CATL, and it also began to develop its own batteries like BYD, and it is Wang Fang, which has set a new industry standard for lithium iron phosphate batteries as soon as it comes up.
This standard is the self-developed gold brick battery of ZEEKR, its cell structure is similar to BYD's blade battery, but the performance is stronger, not only supports the 800V platform, but also has a charging rate of 4.5C, and it can be charged for 500 kilometers in 15 minutes at the earliest.
And the reason why it is a standard, another reason is that mass production is fast enough, the ZEEKR 007 equipped with a gold brick battery was the first to be launched at the end of last year, and the Shenxing battery of CATL was not mass-produced until the first quarter of this year.
However, the Shenxing battery has been mass-produced on the two brands of ZEEKR and Star Era, while the BRIC battery is currently only used by ZEEKR 007, which is very narrow for consumers.
Who else?
In fact, there are many more batteries with names and surnames.
For example, GM's "Autoneng battery", which is mainly supplied to Cadillac and Buick, mainly uses ternary lithium materials as battery cells, focusing on ultimate safety, but the disadvantage is that the charging speed and energy density are average.
For example, Wuling's "Shenlian Battery", which is a low-cost oriented lithium iron phosphate battery that takes into account certain safety performance and later maintenance difficulty, is suitable for affordable vegetable cart consumers who commute at home.
What should we focus on?
Although a lot of battery technologies and products have been mentioned earlier, for us consumers, there is no need to remember those names, just pay attention to a few parameters that are closely related to our cars.
That is, battery capacity, cell type, charging rate, and energy density.
Battery capacity
The battery capacity is very well understood, and the larger the capacity, the longer the range in a single trip. For example, the Zeekr 009 with a 140kWh battery and NIO with a 150kWh battery can even have a single maximum range of nearly 1,000 kilometers.
However, the larger the capacity, the better the better, because the weight and price of the battery will also increase. On the one hand, the improvement in actual battery life is no longer so obvious, and on the other hand, the cost of replacing the battery will also be higher.
But conversely, the smaller the capacity of the battery, the more it suffers in terms of range life and charging speed. Among them, the short mileage life is due to the fact that on the basis of the same cycle life, the single mileage of a small-capacity battery is shorter, and the total mileage obtained by multiplying the two is significantly shorter than that of a large-capacity battery.
The low charging speed is due to the fact that the charging speed is directly related to the voltage of the battery, and the voltage is superimposed by the number of cells in the battery. Small batteries have fewer cells, the lower the voltage, and the more difficult it is to charge naturally faster.
Therefore, most of the battery capacity on the market is between 60-100kWh, and the CLTC range is basically about 500-800km, which is essentially to take into account performance and cost performance.
Unless you are obsessed with a single ultimate battery life, there is no need to pursue a large-capacity battery, it is better to pay more attention to the charging speed and other dimensions of parameters.
Type of cell
The type of battery cell is also very easy to understand, because today's mainstream is lithium iron phosphate in addition to ternary lithium. On the basis of these two categories, battery manufacturers may optimize the characteristics of battery cells by adjusting the specific material ratio, but the overall characteristics will not change.
For example, the average life and safety of lithium iron phosphate is stronger than that of ternary lithium, so household brands & models such as BYD, Wuling Starlight, and Zeekrypton will give priority to lithium iron phosphate batteries.
The energy density and low temperature resistance of ternary lithium batteries are theoretically higher than that of lithium iron phosphate, so models such as Xiaomi SU7 and Zhiji L6 that focus on performance and quality will give priority to ternary lithium batteries.
The ternary lithium lithium battery & manganese iron phosphate battery used in the M9 is a special case, because it is a mixed product of ternary lithium and lithium iron phosphate, which is equivalent to taking into account the certain advantages of both.
Charge rate > energy density
Let's talk about the charging rate and energy density together, where the former determines how fast your battery can be charged, while the latter can determine how long your range is and how solid the achievement rate is.
However, these two parameters cannot be perfectly taken into account at present, such as the Extreme Krypton 009 mentioned at the beginning, although its energy density is very high, the charging rate is only about 1.5C.
And like the ideal MEGA, a supercharging monster with a 5C charging rate, the energy density of the whole package of its ternary lithium battery is only 163.3Wh/kg, which is not a small gap compared to ZEEKR 009.
summary
In general, although there are many types of batteries on the market, there is no superiority or disadvantage in nature, but there are different performance orientations.
Therefore, for consumers, there is no need to suffer from gains and losses when choosing a battery, as long as they are clear about their car habits and needs, the choice is very clear.