Sino-Singapore Jingwei Client, January 18 (Fu Yumei) "If someone says that his car can run 1,000 kilometers, and can be fully charged in a few minutes, and it is also extremely safe and the cost is very low. Don’t believe it. , Because this is impossible." The speech of Ouyang Minggao, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, at the 2021 Forum of the China Electric Vehicles Association on the 16th (hereinafter referred to as the forum) attracted widespread attention.
Coincidentally, GAC Ion, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GAC Group, only released a poster about its new power battery technology the day before, saying that models equipped with graphene-based super fast charging batteries can be charged to 80% in 8 minutes. The model has a range of 1,000 kilometers.
At present, GAC has responded to the academician's remarks, saying that technological breakthroughs should not be confused with commercial promotion.
But the graphene battery at the center of the storm still faces a major controversy: is it reliable?
Is battery technology reliable?
According to the poster released by GAC Ion on the 15th, graphene-based super fast charging batteries have three main highlights: super fast charging + super long battery life + super safety.
On the 17th, GAC Aian General Manager Gu Huinan responded to the academician’s remarks at the forum, so that everyone should not understand Ouyang Minggao’s words. "Academician Ouyang’s original words are that they can run 1,000 kilometers and can run fast. It’s impossible to charge, and it’s cheaper. Everyone forgot that cheap."
Screenshot of GAC Group poster
On the 18th, the graphene concept started to rise. GAC Group's A shares once rose by an intraday limit and closed up 5.43%.
However, the performance of GAC Group's H shares was quite different. It fell more than 10% at one time and closed 8.10%.
Public information shows that graphene is a two-dimensional carbon nanomaterial composed of carbon atoms in a honeycomb lattice.
As the thinnest, strongest, and strongest new type of nanomaterials found so far.
When applied to batteries, graphene is used as a conductive agent and as an electrode lithium-intercalation material.
Zeng Qinghong, chairman of GAC Group, said: “GAC's graphene-based fast-charge battery has now entered the real-vehicle test phase. The first model to be installed is the AION V. It is currently undergoing winter trials in Heihe and is tentatively scheduled for mass production in September this year.” Gu Hui Nan said that don’t confuse technological breakthroughs with commercial promotion. “This year, cars with a battery life of 1,000 kilometers will definitely come out, and fast charging will definitely come out. It’s theoretically possible to charge 1,000 kilometers in 8 minutes.”
Theoretically feasible and mass production are two different things.
In an interview with the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client, Zhang Xiang, an analyst in the automotive industry, said that the current manufacturers are more likely to speculate on graphene batteries.
The problem is that although the raw materials of graphene are cheap, the production cost is very high, and there is no large-scale mass production application in batteries.
An industry expert who did not want to be named also believes that graphene batteries have not yet reached mass production conditions, and commercialization is very difficult.
In addition, Zhang Xiang also questioned that he had hardly heard any discussion of graphene battery technology at automotive industry conferences in recent years.
"If a new technology is to be commercialized on a large scale, there must be many companies studying it in the early stage, but now only one company has come forward and said that it has made a breakthrough. The graphene battery is about to be mass-produced. It lacks a foundation and is easy to doubt." He also mentioned that GAC has not released a specific test report of the so-called 8-minute charging and 1,000 kilometers, so it is holding a wait-and-see attitude on the feasibility of its graphene battery.
According to the report of the Prospective Industry Research Institute, China's graphene industry is currently in the market introduction period, the product is not yet mature, and the industry profit margin is low.
According to the information currently published by GAC Group, the graphene preparation technology that GAC has mastered can reduce the production cost by more than 90%, making the overall cell cost slightly higher than the cost of conventional power batteries on the market by 5%-8%.
Does the market recognize it?
Some industry insiders interviewed by the Sino-Singapore Jingwei client believe that the controversy of GAC's graphene battery is not only on the technical level. "Generally speaking, companies only promote when they have the conditions for production, but there are no actual results." Some insiders also said bluntly: " Simply mentioning the long distance of electric vehicles does not mean that there is any technology, and more batteries can be achieved." The industry generally believes that in addition to battery life, it is necessary to comprehensively consider issues such as safety, cost, and user acceptance.
"For most electric vehicles, 1,000 kilometers of cruising range are not needed. Unless there is a new breakthrough in battery technology, we have not yet seen it." Wang Binggang, head of the National New Energy Vehicle Innovation Engineering Expert Group According to the analysis of the new Jingwei client, under the current technical level, the price of long driving range is vehicle weight, cost and energy consumption. Such parameters are unreasonable in themselves, so they must be guided correctly.
The driving range should be gradually improved with the development of battery technology, otherwise it is not worth promoting.
Wang Zidong, deputy secretary-general of the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, also told the Sino-Singapore Jingwei Client, "How many people need an electric car for 1,000 kilometers? What is the energy consumption of 1,000 kilometers? I personally think that companies should still focus on It’s better to build a car for.” Wang Zidong believes that the technical aspect is second, but from the perspective of safety and energy saving and emission reduction, it is not appropriate to pursue the cruising range of electric vehicles.
It is worth noting that in addition to GAC E'an, many car companies have also introduced "1000 km batteries."
On January 13, SAIC Motor's subsidiary Zhiji Automobile announced that its first model will cooperate with CATL, equipped with a "silicon-doped lithium supplement" battery, with a maximum cruising range of more than 1,000 kilometers; on January 9, Weilai released a 150kWh solid-state battery, saying NEDC models equipped with the battery can reach 1,000 kilometers.
The chairman of CATL, Zeng Yuqun, also announced at the forum that the BEV battery pack of CATL can achieve more than 1,000km of battery life, 10-minute fast charging, 16 years of 2 million kilometers of life and other performance indicators.
New latitude and longitude in the data map of GAC Eian Photographed by Fu Yumei
Compared with the enthusiasm of enterprises, many industry researchers believe that they should be rational.
Before making the aforementioned remarks, Ouyang Minggao said that battery material innovation is a very accumulated matter and requires long-term efforts.
"Because we have to balance the contradictory performance use of lithium energy, life, safety, fast charging, cost, etc." (Zhongxin Jingwei APP)
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