Based on the needs of customers and application scenarios, more and more soft pack battery companies have begun to lay out square battery production lines and continuously improve the battery system.
Recently, South Korea's SK On plans to build a trial production line for prismatic batteries, which is expected to be put into use in December this year.
SK On has always been one of the leading companies in the global soft pack battery industry, and has been promoting soft pack batteries for many years. According to sources, when SK On communicated with customers recently, many customers have put forward requirements on the battery form. It is reported that SK On has communicated with the square battery production line equipment company.
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It is understood that, as one of the world's leading soft pack battery companies, Envision Power has built production bases in Wuxi, Ordos and other places in China, and has also laid out a square lithium iron phosphate battery production line. The products are mainly used for energy storage and replacement of heavy trucks. and other fields.
In addition, Funeng Technology, as a leading domestic soft pack company, aims at the new track of the trillion-level energy storage market, and also begins to intervene in the square lithium iron phosphate battery system, and seeks breakthroughs in the direction of longer cycle life technology.
As of now, LG New Energy, the global leader in soft-pack batteries, has not yet revealed its signal of getting involved in prismatic batteries. However, LG New Energy has considered the layout of a lithium iron phosphate battery system to meet customer demand for low-cost batteries. In the future, it is not known whether LG New Energy will also enter the square battery field with the help of lithium iron phosphate.
In addition to soft pack battery companies, Panasonic, the world's leading cylindrical battery company, has already begun to deploy square battery products.
Previously, Panasonic batteries were mainly based on cylindrical routes, and power products mainly served Tesla. But in 2020, Panasonic Batteries began to cooperate with Toyota Motor to establish a joint venture to mainly produce prismatic batteries.
According to the data of the Power Battery Application Branch, in 2021, the installed capacity of new energy vehicle power batteries in the Chinese market will be about 159.6GWh, of which the installed capacity of prismatic batteries will be about 141.3GWh, accounting for 88.5%. Nowadays, there are constantly soft pack and cylindrical battery companies that have begun to get involved in prismatic batteries. It is expected that the market share of prismatic batteries will increase in the future.
SK On, Envision Power, Panasonic Battery, Funeng Technology, and other companies have set foot in square batteries. There are mainly the following reasons behind them:
1. The needs of customers in terms of battery form have prompted the above-mentioned companies to start deploying square batteries.
SK On is considering entering prismatic batteries, according to people familiar with the matter, because it hopes to get more orders from the Volkswagen Group. In 2021, Volkswagen revealed on its "Power Day" that it will push "standard batteries" in square packages, which will cover 80% of Volkswagen models in the future. SK On will further cooperate with Volkswagen in the future, and will undoubtedly follow Volkswagen's plans and routes.
Panasonic's battery layout of square batteries is also a choice made in consideration of cooperation with customers other than Toyota and Tesla.
In addition to international car companies such as Volkswagen and BMW, most domestic car companies currently use prismatic batteries, which also prompted domestic battery companies that used to dominate the soft pack form to start deploying prismatic batteries.
2. Enrich the product system to meet the application needs of different scenarios such as energy storage.
Under the carbon neutral strategy, the energy storage market is rapidly opening, and energy storage batteries have higher requirements for battery cycle life, cost, and safety than electric vehicle batteries, which makes the lithium iron phosphate material route very popular. The advantages of batteries in terms of manufacturing cost and service life also make them more preferred.
Envision Power has planned a 20GWh square lithium iron phosphate battery project in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, mainly because of the integration of wind and photovoltaic energy storage in Inner Mongolia, as well as the broad demand prospects of the market such as battery replacement heavy trucks.
3. CTP technical advantages and cost advantages of prismatic batteries.
In terms of improving the energy density of the battery system and reducing the cost of the battery system, many companies are currently using the CTP design. It is easier to implement CTP solution design for prismatic batteries, while soft pack batteries face greater challenges in order to realize CTP solution design. At present, it is still mainly to iterate from larger modules.
At the same time, the CTP of the battery pack can not only improve the energy density of the system, but also reduce the use of parts and costs. Therefore, this makes the system cost of the prismatic battery more advantageous than that of the pouch battery.
Economical models are more sensitive to battery costs, but the market for economical models is huge, which is the main reason why leading soft pack companies such as SK On, Funeng Technology, and Gateway Power have begun to pay attention to the square battery market.
In order to meet the needs of more scenarios, soft pack and cylindrical battery companies have begun to lay out the technical route of square batteries and continuously improve their own product systems.
Similarly, many square battery companies have also begun to reverse their layout in the fields of soft packs and cylinders. Although CATL is the global leader in prismatic batteries, it also has a soft-pack battery layout; BYD's small blade battery adopts a "soft-pack + hard-shell" secondary packaging solution; Honeycomb Energy also adopts a soft-pack design scheme for HEV batteries.
Globally, car companies including Daimler, Hyundai, GM, Honda, Nissan, Renault, Volvo, and Geely currently mainly use the soft pack battery route. On the one hand, soft packs have higher energy density and safety; on the other hand On the one hand, it also has obvious advantages in lightweight and flexible design.
In addition, with the innovative iteration of the 46 series large cylindrical battery technology, many square and soft pack battery companies are also actively deploying large cylindrical routes.
It is foreseeable that in the future, based on the needs of different application scenarios, various technical routes will not only coexist on the one hand; on the other hand, they will learn from each other and integrate to promote the continuous optimization of battery performance and cost. For example, the lamination design, which was widely used in the field of soft packs, is now being introduced on a large scale in the field of prismatic batteries.
In the future, leading battery companies will build diversified technical routes to meet the application needs of different car companies and scenarios.
