How effective is the blade battery?

BYD’s legendary knife battery is essentially a lithium iron phosphate battery, so it is inherently much safer than a ternary battery.

In addition, lithium iron phosphate technology is one of BYD's core technologies. As for the specific effects, time has proven everything.

The battery was put into mass production in March this year, and BYD Han equipped with the battery rolled off the assembly line in June. At that point, the facts will speak for themselves.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released the latest new energy vehicle promotion catalog. I saw Han EV in it. In addition, we also paid attention to the system weight energy density of the blade battery used? 140Wh/kg.

This energy density has caused some controversy in the industry. Is it equivalent to the 811 battery of the CATL era (the energy density has reached 180Wh/kg and has been in mass production for more than half a year)? Whether in terms of energy density or mass production time after one year, BYD's blade batteries lag behind CATL's 811 batteries.

The point of debate is obvious, but in the face of BYD's pledge and the strong endorsement of Toyota, it is not advisable to arbitrarily judge that knife batteries are not as good as CATL's 811 batteries. So, what is the truth?

The initial performance of the cutting tool battery was at BYD’s performance exchange meeting in the third quarter of last year. The new generation of iron lithium batteries to be released from May to June next year has a volume specific energy density increased by 50% and a life span of 8 years and 120%. 10,000 kilometers, cost savings of 30%.

The essence of the knife battery is a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery. Its 50% performance improvement is the volume specific energy density, not the weight energy density. BYD did not clearly state that the weight energy density of the knife battery has been improved (media reports 9). Therefore, the media uses the weaknesses of LFP to compare the advantages of ternary lithium. This idea is inherently wrong, the two are not one-dimensional.

In addition, the energy density of the media heat transfer blade battery is even stranger than the current 811 battery on the shoulder. In fact, the unit energy density of the new generation blade battery is even stranger than the energy density of the current 811 system on the shoulder.

In 2018, BYD stated that the energy density of lithium iron phosphate monomer is 165Wh/kg, and the packaging body is 140Wh/kg (compared with what was released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, it should be the first generation of embedded batteries). In the next two years, it is planned that the energy density of the monomer will rise to more than 180Wh/kg, and the packaging will rise to 160Wh/kg (should be the next generation).

In the chemical system, LFP and ternary lithium are not in the same category, so we do not want to simply compare a certain performance. For consumers, as long as the effect is achieved, it is the "best battery" in every system. The effect is the battery life that everyone pays attention to.

According to information published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Han EV has two versions: single motor and dual motor. The former lasts 605 kilometers combined, and the latter lasts 550 kilometers. The meaning behind the two data is that although the system weight density of the blade battery is 140Wh/kg, the cruising range is still the highest level for pure electric cars equipped with LFP batteries, almost better than the 811 batteries of the CATL era.

The credit behind this is of course the increase in volume energy density by up to 50%, which means that more blade batteries can be packed into the same size. This is actually the same as the reason for increasing the weight energy density of ternary lithium batteries. Same. The difference is that LFP has low cost and theoretically good security. Regarding costs, according to data from the China Chemical Physics Power Supply Industry Association, the current market estimate for lithium iron phosphate battery units has dropped to about 0.7 yuan/Wh, and that of ternary battery units has dropped to about 0.9 yuan/Wh. BYD blade batteries are estimated to drop another 30 hours according to market average estimates, that is, about 0.49 yuan/Wh. The cost of blade batteries using a 60KWh battery pack is an average of 18,600 yuan lower than the market ternary lithium.

Of course, this is a simple estimate of the unit estimate. The actual blade battery adopts battery pack technology from the unit, eliminating the need for intermediate modules, reducing hardware and software such as sensors, BMUs and wiring harnesses, and the cost savings are more optimistic. What does the decline in battery costs mean? Needless to say, the era of popularization of electric vehicles is here.

Let’s push it back and have a look. Why does Toyota, which has not moved on electric vehicles, suddenly accelerate its electrification? It must cooperate with BYD to smell this change. About safety

But LFP is safer than ternary lithium. This itself is a false proposition. Our benchmark is mainly that the thermal runaway temperature of LFP batteries is above 500 degrees and that of ternary lithium batteries is less than 300 degrees. Some high-nickel ternary lithium batteries have thermal runaway temperatures of less than 200 degrees. But this is safety at the material level and does not take into account the technical capabilities of the manufacturer. When it comes to blade batteries being safer, one is LFP and the other is BYD.

In response to the controversy over blade batteries, Zhao Changjiang, president of BYD Sales Company, posted on Weibo. Generally speaking, it means a brand with high consumer safety, large retention volume, and a service and quality assurance button that can be honored after 10 years. Indeed, regardless of the LFP chemical system of the blade battery and BYD's brand's years of reputation accumulation in the new energy field, many factors make Han EV not afraid of competing with other brands of electric vehicles using 811 batteries.

Now that we have talked about Han EV, we can make some expansions. BYD's brand power is weak, but after years of "BYD Supercar" fermentation (see this publication), Han has formed a super strong brand IP, which means Han's best opportunity to improve BYD's brand power.

However, Han EV now uses a lower-cost blade battery, and the battery life is 811 batteries, which means that the price of Han EV may be cheaper than its competitors from other brands, which is a great benefit to consumers. It is indeed a huge surprise. On the contrary, it is about how to play the hero card to improve BYD's brand power. BYD should consider it at the earliest and not waste such a good IP.