Since the beginning of the 21st century, with the rise of consumer electronics such as smartphones, tablets, wearable devices and drones, the demand for lithium batteries has seen an unprecedented explosion. The global demand for lithium batteries is growing at a rate of 40% to 50% every year, and the world has produced about 1.2 billion new energy vehicle chargers and more than 1 million power batteries for electric vehicles, 80% of which come from the Chinese market. According to Gartner data: By 2025, the global lithium battery capacity will reach 5.7 billion Ah, with a compound annual growth rate of 21.5%. With the advancement of technology and cost control, Li-ion battery has become a competitive price alternative to traditional lead-acid battery in new energy vehicle power battery.
1.Technology Trends
Lithium battery technology continues to develop, from the past ternary materials to higher energy density lithium iron phosphate materials, is now the transition to lithium iron phosphate and ternary materials, and the cylindrical process is dominant. In the field of consumer electronics, cylindrical lithium iron phosphate batteries are gradually replacing the traditional cylindrical and square lithium iron phosphate batteries; from the power battery applications, from the beginning of the use to date, the proportion of power battery applications are increasing year by year trend. The current international mainstream countries power battery application ratio of about 63%, is expected to reach about 72% in 2025. In the future, with technological progress and cost control, lithium battery product structure is expected to be more stable and present a broader market space.
2.Market Landscape
Li-ion battery is the most frequently used type of power battery and has a wide range of applications in the field of new energy vehicles, and the market demand for Li-ion battery is large. Ah, up 44.2% year-on-year. Among them, Ningde Times production accounted for 41.7%; BYD ranked second, with 18.9% of production. With the continuous expansion of enterprise production capacity, the competition pattern of lithium battery industry is becoming increasingly fierce, Ningde Times, BYD and other enterprises continue to expand their market share by virtue of their own advantages, while Ningde Times has reached a strategic partnership with Samsung SDI and has become one of the mainstream power battery suppliers of Samsung SDI; BYD continues to increase its investment in the field of power batteries by virtue of its technical advantages, and is now in the BYD's production capacity layout in the field of power batteries has gradually improved and entered the stage of large-scale production; BYD has a more in-depth and comprehensive mastery of the upstream raw materials lithium materials, its high nickel ternary lithium, graphite system products have been able to meet the requirements of most lithium battery companies.
3.Lithium battery material structure analysis
From the chemical composition, there are mainly cathode materials (including lithium cobaltate materials and lithium manganate materials), negative electrode materials (including lithium manganate and lithium iron phosphate), electrolyte (including sulfate solution and nitrate solution), and diaphragm (including LiFeSO4 and LiFeNiO2). From the material performance, can be divided into positive and negative electrode materials. Lithium-ion batteries generally use cathode to improve charging efficiency, while using lithium as the cathode material; negative electrode using nickel-cobalt-manganese alloy; cathode materials mainly include NCA, NCA + Li2CO3 and Ni4PO4, etc.; negative electrode as an ion battery in the cathode material and diaphragm is the most critical, its quality directly affects the performance of lithium-ion batteries. In order to obtain high charge and discharge specific energy and long life, lithium must have both high performance and long life characteristics. Lithium electrodes are divided into solid-state batteries, liquid batteries and polymer batteries according to the material, of which polymer fuel cells are relatively mature technology with cost advantages and can be used in cell phones and other consumer electronics; solid-state power due to high energy density and low cost of use, suitable for energy storage and other fields; and polymer power due to lower energy density and lower cost but limited frequency of use, suitable for lithium battery pack. Polymer fuel cells can be used in cell phones, laptops and digital cameras; solid-state battery technology is currently in the experimental stage.
4.Manufacturing process and cost analysis
Consumer electronics lithium batteries are manufactured using high voltage cells, which are mainly composed of positive and negative electrode materials and diaphragm materials. The performance and cost of different cathode materials vary greatly, where the better the performance of cathode materials, the lower the cost, while the poorer the performance of diaphragm materials, the higher the cost. According to China Industry Information Network data show that consumer electronics lithium battery positive and negative electrode materials account for 50% to 60% of the total cost. The positive material is mainly made of negative material but its cost accounts for more than 90%, and with the negative material market price increases, the product cost gradually increased.
5.Equipment supporting the requirements of the equipment
In general, lithium battery assembly equipment includes injection molding machine, laminating machine, and hot finishing line, etc. Injection molding machine: used to produce large-size lithium batteries, mainly used to have a very high degree of automation for the assembly process, while having a good sealing. According to the production demand, it can be equipped with corresponding molds, so as to realize the precise cutting of packaging materials (core, negative material, diaphragm, etc.) and envelope. Stacking machine: This equipment is mainly used to provide the stacking process for power lithium battery, which mainly consists of two major parts: high speed stacking and high speed guide.
Post time: Oct-11-2022