New energy vehicles continue to accelerate, the fundamentals have grown steadily, and they have entered a new round of change amid the transformation of the energy structure and rising carbon emission requirements. In his keynote speech, BAK Battery Dr. Xu Yan shared his thoughts on the current global battery changes and the response strategies of Chinese battery companies.

Dr. Xu Yan said: "Driven by technological innovation, industrial development and market demand have shown a trend of 'from existing to good'. Terminal application companies, especially first-tier car companies, have put forward the 'need, need, and need again' demand for batteries." 's stringent requirements, high safety, high energy density, fast charging performance and low cost are indispensable, and the demand continues to increase."

Under this trend, lithium cylindrical battery cell will gain a higher market share by virtue of their high degree of standardization, high safety, and excellent performance such as high energy density and rate. Among them, large cylindrical batteries (including 3 series, 4 series, 6 series etc.) will be the core driving sector for the substantial growth of the cylindrical battery market in the future. Data show that China’s cylindrical battery shipments will be 32GWh in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 0.7%. China's cylindrical battery shipments are expected to reach 789GWh by 2030, with a compound growth rate of 49% in the next eight years.

Innovations in lithium ion batteries are divided into two categories: one is innovation in material systems, and the other is innovation in structural processes. Dr. Xu Yan judged that the double breakthroughs and innovation potential of large cylindrical batteries in material systems and structural processes will lay an important foundation for them to lead the development of next-generation new energy vehicle batteries and dominate a new round of changes in the global battery market.

"Large cylindrical batteries generally use pressure-resistant casings. Especially after using high-strength steel, they can basically use the most advanced material systems currently on the market. With a higher safety limit, large cylindrical batteries can support higher energy density chemistry. Material systems, from lithium iron phosphate to high-nickel ternary lithium, from liquid electrolytes to semi-solid electrolytes and all-solid electrolytes, large-size structures can also accommodate more active materials, thereby improving the overall performance of the battery," Dr. Xu Yan introduced . Structural innovation will revolve around shell materials, all-pole lugs, and packaging forms. BAK is currently designing the third generation of large cylindrical structures, posing more advanced challenges to mature, high-speed, and low-cost structural designs.

In addition, higher production efficiency is also the key to the future of large cylinders. The current production efficiency of 4680 large cylindrical batteries is 50~150ppm. Compared with small cylindrical batteries, its single-line production capacity is increased by 3~10 times, resulting in effective scale-up of its labor costs, fixed assets, etc. Amortized, its manufacturing cost is about 50-70% of that of small cylinders. As large cylinder technology continues to improve, its efficiency is expected to reach 300ppm, and the annual production capacity of a single line is expected to be equivalent to square. Since the investment in large cylindrical battery equipment is smaller than that of prismatic batteries, its manufacturing cost after mass production is expected to be slightly lower than that of prismatic batteries.

Since the domestic debut of the 4680 all-tab large cylindrical battery in 2021, BAK Battery has continued to work hard on the research and development of large cylindrical technology. BAK Battery will launch a representative first-generation product, which is expected to start mass production in 2024. Its energy density will reach 280Wh/ kg or more, while supporting 4C fast charging. This high-performance route will first iterate in the direction of lightweighting and continuous optimization of the chemical system, reaching more than 300Wh/kg. At the same time, within 3 years, quasi-solid-state products with energy density exceeding 330Wh/kg will be launched.