In recent years, the sales of new energy vehicles of the global mainstream car companies have increased significantly, driving the demand for power batteries to continue to increase. At the same time, the demand for new energy storage represented by electrochemical energy storage is increasing rapidly. In addition, with the implementation of the “new national standard” of electric bicycles and the beginning of the popularity of electric motorcycles, the trend of lithium electrification is gradually emerging.
As one of the emerging mainstream routes, the large cylinder battery is just in time. Battery companies have heard the news and invested in product development to promote the mass production process of large cylindrical batteries.
As an early enterprise involved in the development of large cylinder batteries, polyfluoride combined with the characteristics of PACK structure design, comprehensive safety, temperature, cost and other factors, innovative design of low-cost, high-performance 40/42/46/60/65 series of large cylinder batteries to meet the diversified needs of customers.
Xu Fei, general manager of polyfluorine new energy, believes that from the comprehensive consideration of economic, performance, safety and other factors, the application scenario within 30 degrees of electricity and the single capacity of 100Ah, the large cylinder battery has comprehensive advantages and is the best solution for market selection.
Recently, starting lithium interviewed Xu Fei, general manager of polyfluoro new energy, for in-depth discussion on product development, market application, industry sticking points and other issues.
Starting point lithium: How is the overall large cylinder battery order situation in 2024? What are the main areas of shipment?
Xu Fei: In 2024, the company’s large cylinder battery orders are in short supply as a whole. Especially in the second half of the year, the capacity utilization rate is full, and various models of large cylinders are popular in the market, including several fields such as automotive power, light vehicles, home storage, and portable energy storage.
Starting point Lithium: What is the company’s current product matrix? Which model will ship more?
Xu Fei: The company develops different product models around the needs of various downstream market segments. At present, the company’s products focus on 4 areas.
First, the overseas energy storage market, mainly based on soft bags and square products, since 2017, the company has established energy storage industry base in overseas cooperation, in the United States and Europe and other countries with a perfect customer structure and after-sales support, order status is good.
The second is the automotive field, mainly applied within 300 kilometers of the model, to provide cylindrical battery solutions, product models cover 60/65 series products, customers include Chery, Wuling, etc. In addition, last year, the company’s 40/60 series products made great progress on PHEV models, of which 46 series application scenarios also include automotive starting power.
The company uses large cylinders to do this market, mainly that in the 100AH capacity range, compared with square and soft pack batteries, large cylinder batteries have the comprehensive advantages of economy, performance, safety and other elements. This is in line with the company’s market strategy judgment. From the point of view of loading volume, the company’s full series of large cylinder loading volume ranks among the best in China.
The third is outdoor power supply and home energy storage. The outdoor power supply uses the 40 series, which has a higher capacity than the competition because of our higher integration efficiency, lower internal resistance, and better system security. So, our 40 series almost leads the industry. At the same time, the 40 series has been extended to the 42 series, and the company’s 42135 model is very popular in the market.
Fourth, the domestic light vehicle market. In 2024, due to the decline in the price of lithium raw materials, the combined effect of the new national standard, the white list and the old for new, the penetration rate of lithium two and three rounds has become the focus of concern. At present, the company’s customers cover most of the domestic second and three-wheel vehicle enterprises, such as Emma, Jinpeng, Xupai and other leading brands, providing 40/46/60 and other full series of product solutions.
Starting point lithium: At present, there are many large cylindrical cell models, how do you think about the application of different cell models such as 32/40/60 in the second/three-wheeler, home energy storage and other markets?
Xu Fei: Before, everyone talked about battery standardization, especially cylindrical batteries. But at present, it is difficult to occupy the entire market with a single battery model. And taking into account customer needs and the economy and reliability of the product, using one or two sizes to match the market is also the current optimal solution.
Companies have different solutions to this problem. For example, 50Ah to 100Ah capacity range, using 60 series products; 30Ah to 50Ah, providing 46 series solutions; 15Ah to 30Ah, using 40 series products.
Starting point lithium: Facing the diversified needs of customers, for enterprises, does the multi-model large cylinder battery product series mean the increase of production line pressure and production costs?
Xu Fei: From the perspective of production capacity, the company currently has 12GWh production capacity, and the total production capacity will reach 30GWh by the end of the year.
At the beginning of the construction of the production line, the company took into account the model switching problem, the current 46 series products as the “bridge”, the production line can be flexibly switched back and forth with the 40/60 series according to the market and customer needs, the replacement time is short, high efficiency, and can meet the customized needs of the downstream in time.
Starting point lithium: What is the yield of the company’s current all-pole large cylinder? What are the biggest advantages of the all-pole process compared to traditional cylindrical batteries? Will all-polar ears be the next big trend?
Xu Fei: Polyfluoride is the earliest application and production of all-pole ear large cylinder batteries. Last year, 40 to 50 million units were shipped, and the production line efficiency was between 50 and 150ppm.
Compared with traditional cylindrical batteries, the all-pole ear structure shows unparalleled advantages, and the performance of internal resistance, safety, charge and discharge efficiency is greatly increased. Based on these advantages, the all-pole ear has been the technical route widely adopted by various large cylinder battery companies.
At present, polyfluoro has been iterated to the third generation of large cylinder batteries, integrating the company’s latest research results on the three core elements of battery safety, capacity and cost. Through the introduction of innovative technologies such as bidirectional pressure relief explosion-proof valves, unique formula additives and single-side bus design, comprehensive upgrades are achieved in terms of energy density, safety, service life and cost control.
Starting point Lithium: How is the company’s market development progress on sodium cylinders? What do you think is the most suitable application scenario for large cylindrical sodium batteries? Where is the time point for commercialization?
Xu Fei: In the field of sodium electricity, polyfluoro is also an early R & D and production enterprise in the industry.
Since 2017, the company has gradually carried out the pilot development of sodium hexafluorophosphate, the core material of sodium electricity; In 2018, the construction of sodium hexafluorophosphate production line was completed to meet the mass production. Successfully applied in batches to downstream sodium electricity customers in 2019; In 2020, the pilot development of key materials for sodium electric positive and negative electrodes will be completed; In 2022, polyfluoro matched the self-developed material system and was successfully applied to large cylindrical sodium-ion batteries, which met the mass production conditions, realized the loading test, and completed the winter standard test in 2022. In the field of energy storage, it has formed a joint research and development of energy storage application scenarios with China Tower.
To expand the market in sodium electricity, polyfluoro believes that there are two logic, the first logic is the logic of cost advantage, the second logic is the differentiation of product performance logic, if a product differentiation can not be found, only the cost, in this case sodium-ion batteries and lithium-ion batteries to the forefront of the market application.
From the perspective of market demand, sodium electricity has obvious advantages in low temperature scenarios on the one hand, and has good application prospects in price-sensitive fields on the other hand. At present, the prospect of sodium electricity industrialization requires the joint efforts of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, one is to reduce the cost, and the second is to find the right demand scenario to quickly cut into.
Starting point lithium: In 2025, what is the prospect of large cylinders in overseas home storage/portable energy storage order demand?
Xu Fei: Due to the relatively low electricity price in China, the logic of household storage and industrial and commercial storage is still in the early stage.
Regions with unstable power supply, frequent power outages and inadequate infrastructure, such as Asia, Africa and Latin America, are experiencing strong demand. In the long run, the flexibility, economy, reliability and safety performance of large cylinder battery assembly will be the best choice for these scenarios below 30 KWH, and future order demand continues to improve.
But the current competition is also very fierce, in order to do a good job in this market, enterprises to open up the market at the same time to keep the bottom line of safety and quality.
Starting point lithium: At present, two rounds of domestic lithium penetration is accelerating, ushering in a new round of opportunities, but at the same time, the market is still mixed, how to look at the future application prospects of large cylinders in this market?
Xu Fei: In fact, if you want to really do a good job in the two-round lithium battery market, the threshold for entry is relatively high.
On the one hand, if you want to do a good job in this market, you need to develop suitable products to production line investment, and then to downstream market customer development, time and investment costs are higher. However, under market competition and overcapacity, for general enterprises, whether the products produced can make money and not lose money is a big test.
On the other hand, the market is now full of B products and echelon disassembly, small workshops disrupt the market, and under the chaos of the industry, consumers lack awareness of the safety of lithium electric two-wheeled vehicles.
But in fact, the regular, standards-compliant lithium battery is very safe, and the third generation of polyfluoride large cylinder batteries has achieved extreme safety. For example, the self-developed two-way pressure relief can effectively prevent accidents caused by excessive pressure on the battery. When the pressure inside the battery rises abnormally due to various reasons, the “two-way” pressure relief explosion-proof structure can quickly sense and automatically open, effectively releasing the high pressure gas accumulated inside.
The full CTC structure fills the gaps between cells with foamed structural adhesive, simplifying the system structure and improving group efficiency. It can achieve “thermoelectric separation” structural design, as well as thermal runaway no fire no explosion, no thermal diffusion, and CTC design with structural strength and high group efficiency.
Therefore, the safety of the two-wheeler market not only requires strict supervision by government laws and regulations, but also requires upstream and downstream enterprises to hold the bottom line, resist inferior products, and work together to build a safety fence. Only such large cylinder batteries will have a broader application prospect in this market.
