Chinese companies are increasingly declaring themselves as developers and manufacturers of promising batteries. Foreign technologies are not simply copied, but improved and implemented into a commercial product.
The successful work of Chinese companies leads to inevitable progress in battery characteristics, although we, of course, would like “everything at once.” But this does not happen, but a battery with a range of more than 800 km and without expensive cobalt will soon appear. We will say thank you to the Chinese company SVOLT Energy Technology.
Recently, the management of SVOLT Energy, a former subsidiary of the Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor, a new line for the production of promising automotive lithium-ion batteries. The line will produce two types of batteries, but for now in small-scale quantities. Mass production will begin in the second half of next year. What kind of products are these?
One type of battery will rely on 115 Ah cells with an energy density of 245 Wh/kg. These cells are planned to be used to assemble mass-produced batteries for a wide range of electric vehicles. The second product, cells with a capacity of 226 Ah without cobalt, will be produced exclusively for Great Wall Motor, which plans to install them on its premium electric vehicles.
According to the manufacturer, the new long L6 cells in the battery will provide the electric vehicle with a range of up to 880 km on a single charge. The declared battery life exceeds 15 years, which can be converted into a range of up to 1,2 million km without battery replacement.
To achieve such impressive battery characteristics, Chinese engineers have developed a whole range of technologies and technical processes, starting with the replacement of cobalt in the anode with nickel and other materials. For example, lithium ions in the battery are replaced by nickel ions, which prevents the degradation of lithium during battery operation. This in itself caused technical problems, which have now been successfully resolved.
There have also been many other innovations in the production of battery cells, as well as a revision of the design and operation of the entire multi-cell battery pack. The new battery pack is formed according to the matrix principle and can be easily scaled to specified parameters, which also reduces the cost of production of battery assemblies.
Let us add that SVOLT Energy batteries without cobalt operate at a slightly higher voltage - 4,3–4,35 V. It is due to this that their stored energy density is higher than that of traditional lithium-ion batteries. It remains to be seen how they behave in practice.
Source: 3dnews.ru