Recently, South Korea's "The Electronic Times" held "2021 Battery Day". Choi Seung-don, director of LG Energy Solutions (LG Energy Solution) Electric vehicle Development Center, attended the event and gave a speech, saying that the company plans to commercialize lithium-sulfur batteries by the end of 2025 and all-solid-state batteries between 2025 and 2027. Among them, "lithium-sulfur batteries may be commercialized earlier than all-solid-state batteries." This is the first time that LG Energy Solutions has disclosed in detail the progress of next-generation battery development and commercialization plans.
In addition, the LG energy solution plans to reach 260GWh capacity by 2023, "which will be the highest capacity in the world."
It is worth mentioning that Cui Shengdong detailed the company's development strategy in the field of electric vehicle batteries:
The goal of LG Energy solution is to achieve sales of US $270 billion by 2024 and to become the number one company in the field of electric vehicle batteries.
The company is currently considering carrying lithium-sulfur batteries on electric vehicles.
For large and full-size luxury electric vehicles, the company will introduce high-nickel NCMA batteries (80% nickel and silicon-based anodes). For medium-sized electric vehicles, the company plans to develop battery packs with a nickel content of about 65%.
Starting in 2023, the company will target the small electric car market with dry electrode technology and cathode materials that are 10% cheaper and 20% cheaper.
Lithium-sulfur battery: a new choice for future batteries?
LG Energy Solutions was founded in December last year and was chemically split by LG. At the beginning of its establishment, the company took the new generation battery technology such as all-solid-state battery and lithium-sulfur battery as the main development direction and growth engine of the company.
Compared with the recent buzz about all-solid-state battery, lithium-sulfur battery is still a relatively unfamiliar concept.
The data show that lithium-sulfur battery is a kind of lithium battery with sulfur as positive electrode and lithium as negative electrode. In general, cathode material is the key to the performance, cost and capacity of lithium battery. In theory, the energy density of lithium-sulfur battery using sulfur as cathode material is 1.5 times higher than that of lithium-ion battery. From an economic point of view, sulfur is rich in reserves and low in price, and it is more convenient and cost-effective to recover than metals. In addition, the biggest advantage of lithium-sulfur battery is light, so it is also suitable for aircraft, and it is also a choice for urban air traffic (UAM).
Light weight and low price are the main reasons why LG Energy is considering using lithium-sulfur batteries in electric vehicles-reducing the production cost of electric vehicles and improving battery performance.
In September last year, LG Chemistry announced the successful high-altitude test flight of a solar drone equipped with lithium-sulfur batteries, setting an all-time high in the stratospheric flight of South Korean drones at the altitude of 22km.
In December of the same year, LG chemically verified the long-term performance of the lithium-sulfur battery. The UAV carrying the battery had a lag time of 13 hours and 11 minutes, including 7 hours of flight in the 12-22km high stratosphere.
However, the Ningde era had a different view. Prior to LG research and development of lithium-sulfur battery, Ningde Times said on the interactive platform: lithium-sulfur battery has some technical disadvantages, such as poor cycle life and low volume energy density, which is not suitable for applications requiring high volume energy density.
