The countdown to semi-solid battery loading is expected to accelerate in 2022.

With the efforts of many enterprises, the path of commercialization of solid-state batteries is becoming more and more clear. It is expected that 2022 will be a key year for the introduction and quantity of solid-state batteries.

However, it should be pointed out that, including 2022, and even the next 3 to 5 years, it is still only the bulk loading of semi-solid-state batteries, and the development of all-solid-state batteries is still a long way off.

A few days ago, Funeng Technology said in response to investor inquiries that the company's semi-solid battery samples to the vehicle customers received good feedback. It is worth noting that in December 2021, there were media reports that Funeng solid-liquid hybrid battery (sample A) had been sent to Daimler Mercedes-Benz, the news said that "what is sent to Germany this time is the first generation of Funeng semi-solid battery with an energy density of 330Wh/kg, and the battery prototype will be tested soon."

For the above statement, Funeng Technology's answer is: this matter (solid-liquid mixed battery A sample) involves trade secrets, it is not convenient to answer.

However, combined with the above answer, we can speculate that the solid-liquid hybrid battery, the semi-solid battery of Fooneng technology, is advancing in an orderly manner.

In fact, since 2021, solid-liquid mixed semi-solid battery has appeared frequently, from the beginning of the year of 360Wh/kg semi-solid battery package, to Weilan new energy, Guoxuan high-tech solid-liquid hybrid battery parameters exposure, and then to SES release of solid-liquid mixed lithium metal battery, and then to Jiangxi Ganfeng lithium battery first generation solid-state battery loading, the commercialization process of solid-liquid mixed semi-solid lithium battery began to accelerate.

At the policy level, the Deputy Director of the High and New Technology Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology said that during the 14th five-year Plan period, the Ministry of Science and Technology will adhere to the development direction of electrification, intelligence, and networking, and focus on the most critical power batteries in the electric vehicle industry chain. carry out research and development of common key technologies such as solid-liquid hybrid high-performance lithium-ion batteries and cobalt-free batteries.

From the point of view of the mass production and loading time of a number of "fresh" enterprises, it is expected that the mass production process of solid-liquid hybrid batteries will be accelerated in 2022.

A number of companies have announced the progress of semi-solid batteries. The products are expected to hit the ground in batch in 2022.

Since January 2021, Xilai Automobile took the lead in firing the first shot in the loading time of semi-solid batteries in the industry, and semi-solid batteries began to attract more and more attention. At that time, Xilai did not disclose which battery supplier it was, and there was a lot of speculation in the industry about the battery supplier.

In July 2021, "in the automotive field, our energy density has reached 270Whhampkg, and the high-safety vehicle solid-liquid hybrid battery that can be punched by acupuncture has entered SOP, and can be loaded in batches. We are promoting the research and development and engineering of solid-state power batteries with higher energy density as planned, and batch verification will be provided to customers in the second half of 2022." Li Yongwei, deputy general manager of Beijing Weilan New Energy Technology Co., Ltd., revealed to Battery China that the manufacturing process and equipment of Weilan New Energy solid-liquid hybrid battery are not much different from the current liquid battery process and equipment, basically more than 90% are the same. But in the key process, such as mixing, because of the addition of solid electrolyte, the equipment will be different; in addition, in the liquid injection and in-situ solid state, the mode of operation is not the same as the current liquid battery.

In November of the same year, Weilan New Energy also received investment from Xiaomi Group, Huawei and other strategic institutions, with a valuation of 5 billion yuan and an investment of about 500 million yuan. In addition, it is reported that Weilai's semi-solid battery scheme is also provided by Weilan New Energy, which may be the second battery supplier introduced by Weilai outside the Ningde era.

In 2021, Guoxuan Tech has also made outstanding progress in the field of solid-liquid hybrid batteries.

Li Gong, chairman of Guoxuan Hi-Tech, said publicly in November that the company's semi-solid battery for a domestic high-end pure electric vehicle had a range of more than 1000 kilometers, double that of its first-generation model. However, Li Gou did not disclose the supporting car companies, model information.

In October before that, Xu Xingwu, executive vice president of Guoxuan Hi-Tech Engineering Research Institute, said in an interview with the media that Guoxuan Tech had already laid out safer semi-solid batteries. "the idea is very simple. We can use high nickel 9 series or silicon negative electrodes. We will achieve 360Wh/kg semi-solid batteries by the end of the year, which is originally a package, 75 kilowatt-hours of iron lithium, 100 kilowatt-hours of ternary electricity, and 150 kilowatt-hours of electricity of semi-solid batteries," said Xu Xingwu, executive vice president of Guoxuan Hi-Tech Engineering Research Institute. The same bag can run up to 1000 kilometers. "

According to Guoxuan Hi-Tech, its semi-solid battery is expected to start small mass production and loading in the fourth quarter of 2022 and industrialize in 2023.

In December 2021, the first batch of Dongfeng E70 equipped with the first generation of solid-liquid mixed lithium-ion batteries of Ganfeng Lithium Power held a test run in Xinyu, Jiangxi Province, and the model will be delivered before the Spring Festival. At present, Ganfeng Lithium Power has built a 0.3GWh mixed solid-liquid lithium-ion battery production line and put into use, with batch production capacity, and is constantly increasing production capacity.

The person in charge of Ganfeng Lithium Power said that the company has realized the loading of mixed solid-liquid lithium-ion battery based on flexible solid diaphragm. On the basis of excellent electrochemical performance, the battery can pass abuse tests that are higher than the most stringent national standards, including acupuncture, extrusion, overcharging, high temperature hot box and so on.

Battery China learned from Ganfeng Lithium Power that the energy density of this battery is similar to that of mainstream ternary batteries, the energy density is near 260Wh/kg, and its cycle life has met the needs of current passenger cars.

At the same time, the second-generation solid-state battery of Ganfeng Lithium Power Co., Ltd. will have a unit energy density of 360 Whhand kg. Sample B development has been completed in the first quarter of 2021, C sample development is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022, and SOP phase will be completed in the first quarter of 2023.

In addition, SES also announced the research and development of its solid-liquid hybrid battery in November 2021. It is reported that SES has developed an Apollo hybrid lithium metal battery with a capacity of up to 107 Ah, and a weight of only 0.982 Kg, with an energy density of 417 Wh/kg and 935 Wh/L.

At present, SES is building a super factory in Shanghai, which is scheduled to be completed in 2023 with a capacity of 1GWh.

All-solid state is not just a distant problem?

Many professionals predict that all-solid-state batteries may not be fully commercialized for a decade or more. In terms of enterprises, including battery companies such as Ningde Times and Honda, and car companies, they all predict that the application of all-solid-state batteries in vehicles is not expected to be possible until around 2030.

In March 2021, Xu Xiaoxiong, general manager of Zhejiang Feng Lithium New Energy, said bluntly: personally, solid-liquid mixing (semi-solid battery) may be the ultimate route of vehicle power battery.

Xu Xiaoxiong explained that for electric vehicles, all-solid state may not be useful, and there are still many problems, such as low-temperature performance, cost, large-scale production equipment breakthrough, and so on. At present, it is still very difficult to break through these points. This is also the reason why Toyota has repeatedly delayed the demonstration application of all-solid-state battery vehicles.

In November of the same year, Hu Qichao, founder of SES, said that SES started its research and development on all-solid-state batteries, but now we want to tell you that we are not a solid-state battery company. We abandoned the all-solid-state lithium metal technology route and chose the (solid-liquid) mixed lithium metal route.

Hu Qichao explained that all-solid-state lithium-metal batteries are abandoned because their main performance indicators are difficult to match with existing mature liquid lithium-ion batteries, and it is very difficult to produce them in large quantities. However, Hu Qichao said that they found that hybrid lithium-metal batteries share about 60% of the current mainstream liquid lithium-ion batteries, such as materials and manufacturing processes, and have obvious advantages in energy density, safety and so on. cycle life is also good performance.

From the point of view of equipment compatibility, cost control, technical realization and performance, solid-liquid hybrid battery is a good iteration of mainstream liquid battery at present, but there are still many problems to be solved in order to realize industrialization of all-solid battery technology. for example, the ionic conductivity of solid electrolyte is low, the impedance of solid-solid contact interface increases and so on.

It remains to be seen when these problems can be broken through, but in terms of the time advance that can be predicted by current technology, solid-liquid hybrid batteries, or even large-scale loading in the next few years, may even become one of the important routes.