Lithium battery running, what new opportunities are there in the new energy era?

In the past three decades, lithium batteries have been stimulated again and again by their excellent electrochemical potential, from powering mobile phones to driving cars. Nowadays, new energy vehicles have become the most beautiful boy in the spotlight. However, new energy vehicles are not the end of the application of lithium batteries, but the starting point.

In recent years, with the implementation of environmental protection, energy conservation and emission reduction policies, and the background of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, new energy vehicles have achieved unprecedented development and have grown into a rookie in sales in the automotive market. As the first choice for new energy vehicle power batteries, lithium batteries have also developed rapidly.

Although lithium batteries are well-known because of the popularity of new energy vehicles, in fact, this lightweight and powerful secondary battery has been changing people's lifestyles since its inception, from early digital products to smartphones to electric vehicles. , Lithium batteries have been inseparable from our daily necessities, so in fact, new energy vehicles are only a branch of lithium battery applications, and the highlight is still to come.

The full circle of lithium batteries

The penetration of lithium batteries outside the fields of consumer electronics and automobiles is no longer just chasing the wind and whimsical. What we really see is the full out of the circle of lithium batteries.

electric two-wheeler

There are more than 300 million electric two-wheeled vehicles in my country, which is on the same level as cars, and the annual sales of electric two-wheeled vehicles are stable at more than 30 million units. This is a solid market of 100 billion.

In the past, electric two-wheelers basically used lead-acid batteries with low performance, heavy weight and serious pollution, which accounted for as high as 90% at one time. Beginning in May 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "New National Standard", which was officially implemented in April 2019.

In the short term, the exchange of over-standard vehicles is the biggest opportunity for lithium batteries in electric two-wheelers. In the medium and long term, as the unit price of lithium batteries decreases year by year, the price difference between lithium batteries and lead-acid batteries gradually narrows, and compared with other batteries, lithium batteries have high storage energy density (6-7 times that of lead-acid batteries), use It has a series of advantages such as long life, high rated voltage, strong adaptability to high and low temperature, and environmental protection. The most important thing is that the self-discharge rate is very low, which is one of the most prominent advantages of lithium batteries. At present, the penetration rate of lithium-ion two-wheeled vehicles is only about 23%, but when the trend of lithium-ionization is determined, this can better explain its considerable growth space.

In addition, the vigorous development of express delivery, takeaway, sharing and other industries in recent years has not only brought about an increase in the sales of electric two-wheelers, but also promoted the development of the battery swap model, which has increased the demand for lithium batteries.

Construction machinery electrification

In 2021, the penetration rate of domestic new energy passenger vehicles has exceeded 10%, and even exceeded 20% in some months, but the penetration rate of construction machinery and heavy trucks is less than 5%. At present, there are about 15 million heavy construction machinery and heavy trucks in my country, most of which use high-power diesel engines. The pollution emission of one heavy truck is about equal to 100 small cars. In the context of the "dual carbon" goal, the electrification of construction machinery is imminent. .

Starting from 2020, the government has intensively issued a number of policies to promote the electrification of construction machinery and heavy trucks. According to industry agency data, the power consumption of construction machinery vehicles is relatively large, and the average installed capacity of single-unit lithium batteries is about 5 times that of ordinary new energy vehicles. By 2025, according to the 30% lithium battery penetration rate, the demand for lithium batteries for construction machinery vehicles will exceed 30GWh.

Intelligent Terminal

At Xiaomi's 11th anniversary conference last year, Lei Jun brought Xiaomi's first bionic quadruped robot, CyberDog, which attracted the attention of many technology enthusiasts. Presumably everyone's focus is on its intelligence, but another point that cannot be ignored is that IoT intelligent terminals including intelligent robots will be one of the next growth points of lithium batteries. After all, in the past, many smart terminals have achieved success with the support of lithium batteries.

Image source: Internet

For example, AGVs (handling robots) in the industrial field and service robots in the catering service industry; and sweeping robots, which are representative of the popular products in the home appliance industry. According to Euromonitor data, the share of retail sales of sweeping robots in my country has increased from 2.4% in 2010 to 26.2% in 2020. %.

energy storage

At present, my country is building a new power system with renewable energy as the main body, and the importance of energy storage is becoming more and more prominent. At present, the energy storage of the power grid is mainly pumped storage. Although the technology is mature, the cost is low, and the scale is large, the response time is long, and it is highly dependent on the geographical location, which makes it difficult to meet the future requirements of the new power system.

In contrast, the flexibility and convenience of electrochemical energy storage has always been unmatched by other energy storage methods. Among all electrochemical energy storage, lithium batteries inherently have the advantages of high energy density and high cycle efficiency. In addition, the vigorous development of consumer electronics and new energy vehicles has cultivated a complete lithium battery industry chain, which has reduced the cost of lithium batteries to With the conditions for large-scale development.

On July 23 last year, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of New Energy Storage", which for the first time proposed at the national level the target of the installed capacity of new energy storage to reach more than 30 million kilowatts by 2025, and the installed capacity of energy storage in the next five years. will expand 10 times.