Wang Zhengwei of Xingheng Power supply: the energy cost of the next generation lithium manganate is higher than that of iron lithium.

Among the many battery companies in China, Xingheng Power supply is a very unique one. While many players are chasing each other on the track of lithium iron phosphate and ternary, TA has found its own way to make the technical path of lithium manganate very popular. In the field of light electric vehicles, the reputation of "Manganese over Jianglong" is prestigious.

Industry data show that from 2018 to 2020, Xingheng Power's light vehicle lithium battery sales have reached the first place in the world for three consecutive years; in 2020, the global sales of light vehicle lithium battery reached 5.2 million sets, accounting for 32.4% of the market.

A few days ago, Wang Zhengwei, president of Xingheng Power Battery Research Institute, made extensive exchanges on the technical characteristics and future development trend of lithium manganate batteries while attending the "2021 China International Lithium Industry Conference".

Wang Zhengwei said that the implementation of the new national standard since 2019 has stimulated a substantial increase in the application of lithium batteries in the field of electric bicycles. On the whole, the growth of the market can be divided into two aspects, one is the C side, the increase in the demand of individual consumers to buy cars, and the other is the B side, especially the demand for shared bicycles is very huge. sales of electric light vehicles such as Yadi and Emma are on the rise.

According to Wang Zhengwei's forecast, sales of lithium batteries in electric light vehicles will exceed 10 million sets this year, continuing to maintain a rapid growth trend. Relevant data show that the number of light vehicles loaded with lead-acid batteries is about 3000 to 40 million per year, which will be large if all of them are replaced with lithium batteries in the future. At the same time, lead-acid battery vehicles also have a secondary market, the current market is very large, there are about hundreds of millions of lithium battery replacement demand.

According to reports, in the C-terminal market of electric light vehicles, almost all the lithium batteries assembled are lithium manganate, and the main 12Ah products of Xingheng Power supply are in short supply. For the sharing field, the company launched a special 14Ah product, which has a higher energy density than 12Ah.

"because our B-end customers have this demand for energy density, there will be a trend towards a larger capacity in this field in the future, moving in the direction of 20Ah and 24Ah. Lithium manganate mixed with a certain proportion of ternary can improve the cycle life on the original basis, and at the same time make the energy density relatively higher. " Wang Zhengwei said.

According to Wang Zhengwei, in terms of the cycle life of electric light vehicle batteries, Xing Heng's current products are guaranteed for three years, which is enough for 1000 cycles in practical application. Recently, some customers have proposed a five-year warranty, and the technology is also moving in this direction, he said. However, as a senior expert in the field of lithium batteries, Wang Zhengwei also has his own views.

"the battery can last for five years, and the cycle life is long enough, but there are still some challenges on the product side. For example, to do waterproof, some of the shell is plastic, the tightness can not meet the requirements for a long time, then the longer the time, the less good for battery safety. Once there is water in the battery pack, there may be a high temperature accident. Therefore, from a safety point of view, under the premise that the supporting level is not improved, a very long period of quality assurance is not necessarily a good thing. " Wang Zhengwei said.

Having said that, Xingheng Power supply is not satisfied with the current technical performance.

In the past two or three years, Xingheng Power supply has done a lot of work on the research and development of lithium manganate basic materials, striving to make up for the shortcomings of lithium manganate and more than double the normal temperature cycle life and high temperature cycle life. At that time, the cycle life of lithium manganate can be as good as that of lithium iron phosphate, while maintaining the low temperature performance advantage of lithium manganate itself. In terms of overall cost, the improved lithium manganate also has an advantage over lithium iron phosphate.

Wang Zhengwei pointed out that lithium iron phosphate itself has an obvious disadvantage, that is, the voltage platform is low, if 3.2V battery pack, it needs 15-16 strings, while lithium manganate system only needs 13 strings; lithium manganate has more advantages in volume energy density. Therefore, after the launch of Xing Heng's next generation of lithium manganate, the prospect will be very good.

Due to the strong demand downstream, the company is also actively expanding production. According to reports, at present, a new production line in Chuzhou production base of Xingheng Power supply is about to be put into production. At that time, Xingheng's total production capacity will reach 10GWh.This base can realize collinear production of lithium manganate and lithium iron phosphate.

It is worth noting that, as an enterprise with "Star Sea" in its name, the electrification journey of Xingheng Power supply is not limited to the light car market. Judging from the data in 2020, Xingheng Power supply is the first supplier of Hongguang MINI, the best-selling miraculous car, and the battery uses manganese multi-component composite lithium system.

Wang Zhengwei said that after the launch of Xing Heng's next generation of lithium manganate products, the performance will be better and the cost will be lower. It is very realistic for lithium manganate to become one of the mainstream routes of power batteries. Not only two rounds of small power, in the future in the three-round, four-round field, lithium manganate will also find a broad world suitable for itself.