BAK Battery: Industrialization of large cylindrical power battery boosts electrification process into a new era

ording to the “calendar” of the electrification process, the industrial development is about to enter the third stage and usher in a new era?

On April 2, the last day of the China EV100 Forum 2023, Dr. Fan Wenguang, Vice President of Shenzhen BAK Power Battery Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as BAK Battery), shared a brand-new view of BAK Battery on the electrification process in his keynote speech. He said that the large cylindrical power battery is affecting the overall industrial chain of electric vehicles and boosting the development of electric vehicles with a battery life of 700-1,000 km.

Fan Wenguang, Vice President of BAK Battery

Accelerate the replacement process of fuel vehicles, and increase the layout of large cylindrical batteries for new energy vehicles

It has become a general consensus that electric vehicles will accelerate the replacement of fuel vehicles. However, new energy vehicles still have shortcomings in terms of performance and problems in battery safety, mileage anxiety, inconvenient charging and low maintenance rate, which still affect consumers’ decision-making, while improving battery performance on the basis of existing platforms will pose challenges to safety and cost. In this context, many leading automobile enterprises have set their sights on the large cylindrical batteries.

The large cylindrical battery is regarded as a “hexagonal player” by the industry, with its the most balanced performance in all aspects, which is a powerful weapon to fill the shortcomings of new energy vehicles. Dr. Fan Wenguang said that from the perspective of the development of electric vehicles and power batteries, the next generation of electric vehicles must be at least equivalent to fuel vehicles in all key indicators in order to completely replace fuel vehicles. After that, with more and more weight of reducing economic costs and environmental protection costs, it will gradually become the most critical issue. At present, the large cylindrical battery is one of the few solutions that can make this logic effective.

Power battery enterprises are accelerating the layout, and large-scale mass production of large cylindrical batteries will be realized soon

Fan Wenguang introduced that more than 10 leading power battery enterprises in the world are currently developing large cylindrical batteries, among which the production efficiency of enterprises at the top level has reached 300ppm, the yield rate has reached over 90%, and the annual production capacity of single line is as high as 10GWh.

BAK Battery also shared its strategy of large cylindrical battery products at this Forum. According to the current market demand for “hexagonal players” that are comparable to fuel vehicles in all aspects, BAK will launch the first generation of representative products, and start mass production in 2024, and its energy density will reach more than 280Wh/kg, while supporting 4C fast charging. This high-performance route will first iterate in the direction of light weight and continuous optimization of chemical system, reaching more than 300Wh/kg, and at the same time, quasi-solid products with energy density over 330Wh/kg will be launched within three years. In addition, in order to meet the needs of the economical market, BAK will combine the advantages of good compatibility of cylindrical batteries and simultaneously launch low-cost series on the same platform.

BAK Battery’s full-tab large cylindrical batteries

In the process of industrialization, cutting-edge technology and product R&D need sufficient and high-quality production capacity. On January 28 this year, BAK Battery officially announced that its brand-new large cylindrical battery production base had been settled in Changzhou. The total investment of the project is RMB 13 billion, with a total area of 450 mu. It is planned to build a 30GWh large cylindrical battery production line and an international R&D center to realize 100% green energy use.

In addition to product upgrading and capacity expansion, BAK Battery has also strived to promote digital industry and sustainable high-quality development. BAK also publicized its “1234” digital strategy and sustainable development strategy for the first time at this Forum.

With the vision of becoming a world-class new energy innovation technology company, BAK Battery is committed to establishing a lean production system, building a digital R&D innovation platform, achieving end-to-end efficient collaboration through business process integration and business data integration, and realizing intelligent analysis and decision-making model to help business development and complete strategic goals.

A new round of upstream industry reform has been started, and the centralized layout is fully prepared for mass production of large cylindrical batteries

The theme of this Forum is “Building a globally competitive battery industry”. In the current development and competition of the global power battery industry, large cylindrical power batteries obviously play an important role. As a key link connecting the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, the large cylindrical battery is giving full play to its advantages to drive the whole industrial chain to achieve high-quality development.

From the latest trends of main materials, auxiliary materials and manufacturing equipment of large cylindrical batteries, it can be seen that the upstream of the industrial chain is undergoing a new transformation, and enterprises have laid out in succession and made full preparations for mass production of large cylindrical batteries.

According to the data of China Securities, it is estimated that the bidding volume of 46 series large cylindrical battery equipment is expected to reach 20-30 GWh in 2023, and related lithium-ion battery equipment enterprises are expected to take the lead in benefiting. At present, the manufacturing equipment of large cylindrical batteries has realized intelligent transformation, including high-speed and wrinkle-resistant homogenization and electrode production, high-speed and high-precision winding and assembly, energy-saving and efficient activation and capacity grading and AI automatic inspection and packaging. At the same time, the industrialization of large cylindrical batteries will also promote the development and improvement of related intelligent solutions such as factory simulation, AI visual recognition and big data process optimization. Dr. Fan Wenguang said that the large cylindrical power battery is an important part of the high-quality development of the new energy industry chain.

Under the new situation of global electrification and intelligent acceleration, the new energy industry is seeking an effective and high-quality development path, and the large cylindrical power battery is generally favored by the industry and will occupy an absolute leading position in the middle and high-end market in the future. As one of the pioneers in the domestic cylindrical battery field, BAK Battery also said that it will continue to pay attention to the latest market situation and the latest trends in the industry, and contribute to the high-quality development of the new energy industry chain through sustainable innovation and upgrading of R&D technology.