Tesla Will Use Domestic Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries!

Recently, a not-so-conspicuous and iconic incident was quietly released. Tesla decided to use domestic lithium iron phosphate batteries!

On May 22, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the announcement of new vehicle products, changes and expansion products declared for the "Announcement of Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Enterprises and Products" (batch 333). There are a total of 37 pure electric passenger cars in this issue. It is worth noting that the Tesla Model 3 using lithium iron phosphate battery and BYD Song Plus EV, BMW Brilliance iX3, FAW Audi e-tron and other models are juxtaposed, which means The Tesla domestic lithium iron phosphate battery that was previously speculated by the market really came.

From BYD's introduction of blade batteries to lead the transformation of lithium iron phosphate batteries, to the leading lithium iron phosphate company Guoxuan Hi-Tech intends to introduce a strong new owner (probably Volkswagen), and now Tesla uses lithium iron phosphate, which once dominated new energy. The technical route of the battery industry seems to be back to Rongguang home.

Why is the technical route of lithium iron phosphate back?

Ningde era for Tesla domestic lithium iron phosphate battery

In the 333 batch of automobile announcement declarations, a total of 26 automobile companies declared 49 new energy passenger vehicles, including 36 pure electric vehicles, 3 pure electric vehicles with replacement models, and 10 plug-in hybrid vehicles.

In the 36 pure electric vehicles, the proportion of lithium iron phosphate batteries and ternary batteries is 11:20, and the remaining 5 models are marked as lithium ion batteries. It is not specified whether they are ternary materials or lithium iron phosphate materials. .

Among the pure electric vehicles, several models are declared for the first time. Among them, the Tesla Model 3 is particularly noticeable. Its power battery uses lithium iron phosphate batteries. The manufacturer is Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. In February 2020, Ningde Times issued a cooperation announcement to supply lithium-ion power batteries for Tesla.

The Model 3 power battery manufacturer in this announcement, Tesla (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., was the buyer in the previous announcement of Ningde Times. In view of the fact that LG Chem’s Nanjing factory, a previous supplier of domestic Tesla, does not have the ability to produce lithium iron phosphate batteries, the TSL7000BEVAR1 model declared for this batch of models can basically be provided by Ningde Times. Shanghai) Co., Ltd. models packaged by themselves.

According to the product naming convention of Tesla models, the letters at the end of the product model TSL7000BEVAR1 respectively indicate A standard endurance, R rear drive, 1 is the second model of the basic endurance version, so this time the application of lithium iron phosphate battery models is standard endurance Model.

The cruising range has always been a concern of consumers. Compared with the Tesla standard battery model 3 using the ternary battery version, the lithium iron phosphate version weighs 1745kg, which is the same as the long battery version of the ternary battery.

According to the information of the "Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, "Recommended Model Catalog for New Energy Vehicle Promotion and Application", "Road Motor Vehicle Manufacturers and Product Announcements", etc., to exclude the possibility of Tesla's software locking power, market analysts estimate lithium iron phosphate battery The standard battery life of the Tesla Model 3 is about 66kWh, and the cruising range is about 530km, which is higher than the ternary battery version of 13kWh and 80km.

In terms of cost, the cost per kWh of lithium iron phosphate batteries is 0.1-0.15 yuan/Wh lower than that of ternary batteries, but market analysts pointed out that after increasing the power of 13kWh, the battery cost of two standard battery life Model 3 models with different battery materials It may not be much different.

"Tesla needs high endurance and high performance on the one hand, and the price reduction pressure of domestic model3 on the one hand, so it is normal for multiple solutions such as lithium iron phosphate to coexist." Shi Shuai, executive director of Roland Berger, told the editor that Tesla should Studying multiple routes together does not mean giving up or turning to something. Facing the market, Tesla is rational, and price, performance, cost, and supply chain will be considered.

Lithium iron phosphate shines again?

However, in the short term, lithium iron phosphate has once again become a hot word in the domestic field of new energy vehicles. Judging from the historical sales of power batteries, ternary batteries have the absolute upper hand. But the wind has begun to change.

In April 2020, the decline in domestic installed capacity of power batteries narrowed year-on-year, and continued to pick up. Among them, the installed capacity of ternary batteries was 2.6GWh, a year-on-year decrease of 30.4%; and the installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate was 0.9GWh, a year-on-year decrease of 39.2%. The installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate rose in April, accounting for 26%.

The recovery of lithium iron phosphate in 2020 has become an obvious trend. Many domestic battery companies have launched CTP batteries based on lithium iron phosphate. In the second half of the year, high-end models such as BYD Han EV and lithium iron version Model 3 will be launched successively. The proportion of installed lithium iron will continue to increase.

Major domestic battery listed companies are also making efforts to accelerate the layout of lithium iron phosphate batteries.

Ningde Times and Beiqi reached a strategic cooperation on CTP batteries at the end of last year, and BYD also announced the development of blade batteries at the beginning of this year. Industry experts pointed out that both CTP batteries and blade battery technologies have made lithium iron phosphate batteries have the advantages of ternary lithium batteries, that is, extended battery life, while maintaining the traditional advantages of lithium iron phosphate safe and cheap, long life.

After the technical transformation, the lithium iron phosphate battery can reach a cruising range of 500 kilometers, and other materials for the entire battery production do not need to be changed, and the production line has not changed much, which means that battery companies can quickly produce energy.

In addition to Ningde Times and BYD, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, another listed battery company, also deserves attention. In the recently released "Category of Recommended Models for the Promotion and Application of New Energy Vehicles (Batch 5 in 2020)", of the 15 models equipped with lithium iron phosphate, 4 models choose the Ningde era, 4 models choose Guoxuan Hi-Tech, and the two account for Than 53%.

In the field of lithium iron phosphate, Guoxuan Hi-Tech focused on the improvement of monomer energy density. The company mentioned in its 2019 annual report that its lithium iron phosphate battery technology is at the international leading level, and the monomer energy density has exceeded 200Wh/kg in the pilot test. The system energy The density is 160Wh/kg. At the performance briefing, Guoxuan Hi-Tech predicted that the capacity of lithium iron phosphate could reach more than 14G by the end of 2020.

On May 20, Guoxuan Hi-Tech issued a suspension announcement, saying that the company has recently received a notice from the actual controller Li Zhen and its concerted parties. It is planning the transfer of equity and intends to transfer part of its equity held by the company to strategic investors. It also involves other voting rights arrangements, which may lead to changes in the company's largest shareholder and actual control. Industry sources close to Guoxuan Hi-Tech said that the suspension should be related to Volkswagen's acquisition of Guoxuan Hi-Tech.

Li Ke, an analyst of lithium battery analysis, said that once the transaction is completed, the coveted Volkswagen manufacturer will get rid of the dependence on battery companies and improve the important part of the electrification turnaround. The country's third-largest battery manufacturer Guoxuan Hi-Tech, which has long been obscured by the Ningde era and BYD, will also enter the fast lane and is expected to become a new international lithium battery company.