Ternary battery can be subdivided into NCM route and NCA route. NCM refers to the positive electrode material is composed of three materials, nickel, cobalt and manganese, in a certain proportion. The product type ranges from NCM111 (N:C:M=1:1:1) to 532,622,811. The cathode material of NCA is composed of nickel, cobalt and aluminum, and the ratio of the three materials is usually 8:1:5:0.5. The large-scale application of NCA with relatively higher energy density is also widely carried out in Japan and South Korea.
At present, the lithium ion battery industry is mainly concentrated in China, Japan and South Korea. In terms of route selection, Japan mainly takes NCA route, while South Korea takes NCM and NCA side by side. At present, China takes NCM route as the main route, and the output of NCA is relatively small.
At present, China has not yet large-scale production of NCA batteries for the following important reasons:
1. Compared with Japan and South Korea, Chinese battery companies started the RESEARCH and development of NCA later, and there is still a certain gap between Them in terms of manufacturing process, patent and material use.
2. The production process of NCA is more strict than that of NCM811. For example, the humidity of NCA is required to be controlled below 10% in the manufacturing process, while the humidity of NCM and other types of batteries is strictly controlled in the liquid injection process. This high standard of production environment poses great challenges for domestic companies.
3. It is mistakenly believed that the safety performance of NCA battery is poor, and a good design method of BMS, module and battery pack is needed, which is why only TSLA can apply NCA on a large scale at present. In fact, as can be seen from the figure above, NCM811 is not as safe as NCA in the case of overcharge abuse testing.
From the perspective of the important application of NCA, let's first look at the field of electric vehicles. It can be seen from the data that the number of NCA installations in 2017 increased by 326% year on year. Although there was a year-on-year decline in 2018, the number of NCA installations in the first seven months of 2019 has exceeded the total number of installations in 2017 and 2018, with a fast growth rate. At present, panasonic, Samsung, Jiangsu Tianpeng, Deloneng and Lishen are important suppliers of NCA batteries in China's ELECTRIC vehicle market.
In terms of the NCA consumption of the power tool market, the installed capacity increased from 0.95GWh in 2016 to 1.71GWh in 2018. As all the cylindrical lithium ion batteries used in the power tool market are more suitable for THE NCA system, the installed capacity of NCA batteries for power tools is expected to reach 2.44GWh by 2020. Accounting for more than 40% of the total installation of power tools. At present, the important suppliers of NCA battery for power tools are Samsung SDI, LG, Panasonic, Jiangsu Tianpeng.
The early 18650NCA battery energy density has reached 250Wh/kg. At the beginning of 2018, the 21700NCA lithium ion battery jointly launched by Panasonic and TSLA has reached 340Wh/kg energy density. Exceeding the 280Wh/kg energy density of the current NCM811. Samsung SDI is the most important NCA power lithium battery manufacturer besides Panasonic, their 21700 main product 48G4800mAh energy density has reached 260Wh/kg. In order to enter the TSLA supply chain, LG Chem is also actively developing the NCA system 21700 battery, which has successfully achieved mass production in 2018. The latest product M505000mAh energy density of 270Wh/kg.
The best company in China in terms of NCA batteries should be Jiangsu Tianpeng. In terms of NCA batteries, Jiangsu Tianpeng and TSLA products of the same type of high specific energy NCA/ silicon system have achieved batch and large-scale and stable shipment at the end of 2017, especially in the power tool market, occupy the leading position in the supply of lithium ion batteries in China. Other companies that do better still have Tianjin Lishen, Delang neng, etc.
In addition to the companies that have achieved mass production, CATL and BYD, the leading lithium ion battery companies in China, both have NCA battery research and publication bureau. In terms of NCA materials, the NCA materials in foreign markets are mainly monopolized by Sumitomo Metal, Japan Chemical Industry Corporation and Toda Chemical. At present, Beitree has the largest output (3000 tons of NCA material output) in the Chinese market, while other companies such as Shanshan Energy, Rongbai Lithium, BAMo and Changyuan Lithium have a small output layout of NCA material.
In general, due to technology, cost and other reasons, China's terpolymer lithium ion battery market is still dominated by NCM, and THE scale of NCA is not large. However, with the improvement of the cognition of NCA battery by domestic battery companies and automobile enterprises, the improvement of the comprehensive performance and stability of domestically made cathode materials, and the decrease of the cost of NCA materials, Domestic NCA will be able to break through the technical and technological barriers of Japanese and Korean companies and mass produce NCA lithium ion batteries. In the future, we believe that the market of NCM and NCA will coexist and advance.
