CATL Proposed: Create A "High Standard" Era of Power Batteries

There are media reports that by 2050, with global warming, most cities in the world will be too hot to host the Olympic Games. The climate problem is serious. What to do? The world is looking for answers. Recently, the newly released "Relevant Opinions on the Comprehensive Green Transformation of Economic and Social Development" has clarified the top-level design, phased goals, and policy system of green transformation. This may be China's answer to the world. Promoting the green transformation of energy and transportation is an important part of the overall green transformation, and it is also a major issue concerning survival and development. New energy batteries, as the key to promoting transformation, have also entered a new stage of development. Last year, CATL proposed that the power battery industry needs to go from "have" to "good"; At this year's World Power Battery Conference, CATL pointed out that the industry must step into the "high standard" development stage.

As the world's leading new energy technology creator, after more than 20 years of wind and wind, CATL has adhered to the enterprise vision of making outstanding contributions to the human new energy cause, adhered to scientific and technological innovation, and has been at the forefront of domestic and even global new energy development, leading the industry to develop towards a higher standard.

What does "high standards" mean? How do we do that?

First, it is high security.

High safety is the lifeline of the sustainable development of the industry. According to the Ministry of Public Security, as of the end of June, the number of new energy vehicles in China has reached 25 million. According to the statistics of the National Passenger Federation, the retail penetration rate of domestic new energy passenger vehicles reached 51% in July, and is expected to exceed 53% in August. The market for new energy vehicles continues to grow. However, new energy vehicle safety accidents occur frequently. In June this year, a special report by CCTV mentioned that the fire incidence of new energy vehicles in 2023 was about 0.96 per 10,000. If security issues are not addressed, the consequences will be catastrophic. Improve safety, and focus on the battery, the key is in the standard. Currently, the safety factor of most batteries on the market is far from enough. Many products claim to have a safe failure rate of PPM, that is, one in a million, but in fact, the safe failure rate is one in a thousand. At present, the number of batteries loaded in the 25 million new energy vehicles in the country has reached billions. This absolute value multiplied by the failure rate, the safety risk can be imagined. Therefore, safety must have absolute standards.

At present, CATL regards safety as the lifeline of the enterprise and has successfully reduced the safety failure rate of the cell to one part per billion, that is, PPB level, which has improved the safety factor by several orders of magnitude. Battery safety is a complex system engineering, which runs through the whole process of battery material development, monomer design, system integration, and user use.

For batteries, the intrinsic thermal stability of the material is very important; The battery system composed of individual cells also contains very important interaction processes. The difficulty of battery thermal stability management lies in how to fully excavate various side reactions in the battery system. After all, batteries are more than just mechanical assemblies of various components. CATL focuses on the overall safety of the battery and establishes a systematic safety guarantee system. Battery design, production, and testing focus on various scenarios that may occur in the service process of the vehicle to achieve full-scene, full-cycle, all-round, and full-system safety. In terms of system design, CATL was the first to release and mass-produce "thermal diffusion" technology, also known as NP technology. The third generation of NP technology (NP3.0) can not only ensure that the battery system does not catch fire and does not spread after the thermal runaway but also further achieve "no smoke".

Dr. Tsang Yuk-chun speaks at the World Power Battery Conference 2024

In terms of production, CATL has built an AI-enhanced eighth-generation intelligent manufacturing production line and set up more than 6,800 quality control points in the production process to conduct intelligent monitoring of the entire production process and avoid product defects to the greatest extent. At the same time, the industry's richest battery defect database has been built, and AI learning has been introduced into the lithium battery industry to improve the accuracy of detection and the stability of the system through continuous learning and optimization of algorithms. At present, one out of every three new energy vehicles in the world is equipped with CATL batteries. "Choosing a tram to look for CATL batteries" has become a consensus in the minds of consumers. Zeng Yuqun, president of CATL, pointed out at the meeting: "The industry puts competition aside and puts the vital interests of consumers, especially the safety of everyone, in the first place; Jointly raise safety standards and establish an absolute red line of safety standards."

Second, it is highly reliable.

"Reliable" is the competitiveness of the power battery industry. Only with high reliability can users have protection and the industry has developed. At present, the industry is uneven, many products "name is not true", the real reliability of the product and the nominal reliability gap is very large. Many batteries have a nominal life of 16 years or even 20 years. How to test and verify the battery life? How to ensure battery life in various extreme environments? In this regard, CATL has established a reliability management system to achieve comprehensive and systematic coverage of battery design, production, product raw materials, and after-sales market. At the same time, the industry's most advanced reliability evaluation system has been developed. From the in-depth analysis of the underlying mechanism of the material, through massive research and development data and market side big data cross-validation, the development of the "accelerated testing" method, as well as life prediction model, can accurately predict and verify the battery life. From the application scenario, the "equivalent test" method and standard are developed to make the test "equivalent" to the actual running state, so as to avoid the test from the actual situation. Under the leadership of the government and relevant departments, the industry has worked together to establish a "high standard" in reliability management and testing methods to ensure the "high reliability" of power battery products.

Third, it is high performance.

The industry continues to develop, and new application scenarios continue to emerge. At present, the full outbreak of electric commercial vehicles is just around the corner, electric ships are ready for development, and electric aircraft contain a broad space for imagination. Now is a good time to pursue new breakthroughs in the industry. However, the new scenario has also spawned higher requirements for battery performance, and the battery needs innovative breakthroughs in terms of safety, reliability, energy density, fast charge, cycle life, and temperature resistance. In the first half of the year, in the field of passenger cars, CATL launched the Shenxing Plus battery. This is the first lifepo4 battery in the industry to achieve a 1000km long life and 4C supercharge at the same time. For the commercial scenario, CATL released the first commercial battery brand "Tianxing". "Tianxing" in the industry for the first time to achieve 4C supercharge, 500 km long endurance. In the electric boat field, as of the end of August, there were about 700 electric ships equipped with CATL batteries in various domestic waters. The future of electric aircraft is very promising. Last year, CATL successfully tested a 4-ton civil electric aircraft. At the end of this year, the first flight of the eVTOL with Catel-era batteries is expected.

Fourth, it is high value.

A good battery, the output of kinetic energy is only "basic skills". CATL hopes to let the battery release multi-dimensional economic value and social value to create "high value". A good battery can even be an "investment." For example, the V2G technology often discussed in the industry, Vehicle to Grid, that is, the linkage technology between vehicles and power grids. The essence behind V2G is B2G, Battery to Grid, two-way integration of batteries and power grids loaded in vehicles, ships and other equipment. CATL is now conducting a pilot of this model, including various types of battery and grid, local area network linkage. This would make batteries not just a consumer product, but an investment. Batteries can provide new value to consumers in places where the gap between peak and valley electricity prices is quite high. At the same time, the battery as a "mobile charging treasure", the future can balance wind, light, storage, charging, in some extreme cases of grid instability, can also be used as a power source.

Therefore, B2G technology has both social value and personal economic value. This high value requires that the cycle life, safety, and energy efficiency of the battery be done very well. Such a battery not only provides the kinetic energy of travel services, but also provides storage and charging services, and can help users earn the difference, become an investment product, and become a security guarantee for the society.

At the same time, the CATL president also responded to two hot topics on the progress of all-solid-state batteries and which form of power batteries is better

First, progress on all-solid-state batteries. CATL has spent seven to eight years researching all-solid-state batteries. The key to the development of all-solid-state batteries lies in the research of materials and chemical systems, of which the most difficult is the "solid-solid interface" problem. If you use the numbers 1 to 9, indicating the technical and manufacturing maturity of solid-state batteries, 1 is just involved in this field, 9 is the technology is mature, can be put into mass production. At present, the highest level in the industry is only about 4, and only some device samples have been made and some experimental verification has been carried out. The use of these devices has many boundary conditions, such as the realization of high low temperature performance at 6000 atmospheres. This means that these devices are not yet ready for market application. At present, the research progress of CATL is also around 4, but compared with the situation in the world, its research should be regarded as "a big step ahead", or Second to none in English.

Secondly, about the soft bag, square shell, cylinder and so on, which form is better? This problem, to borrow an old Chinese saying: "gentle and refined, then a gentleman", gentle and refined is the main standard of a gentleman. "Text" refers to the surface form, is external; And "quality" is the essence of the core, it is internal. Text and quality to cooperate with each other, that is, the chemical system and packaging form, to cooperate with each other, to adapt to each other, that can be regarded as "polite".

For the battery, the material and chemical system is the essence, the other is the "text", the material and chemical system is developed well, is the basic skill of the battery, is the decisive factor of the battery quality. There is a saying in CATL, called "practice the basic skills, give play to imagination". Firmly practice the "basic skills" of materials and chemical systems, give play to the "imagination" of innovation and foresight, and create a high-standard era of power batteries.