BMS (Battery Management System), also known as the battery management system, is the key link between the "battery", the core component of electric vehicles, and the entire vehicle.

　　As a control system that protects the safety of power lithium-ion batteries, BMS monitors the usage status of the battery at all times, takes necessary measures to alleviate the inconsistency of the battery pack, provides guarantee for the safety of new energy vehicles, and extends the service life of the power battery.

　　Development Trend of BMS

　　BMS is an indispensable and important component in power and energy storage battery packs, and its cost accounts for about 20% of the total cost of the battery pack on average. Benefiting from the development of the new energy industry chain, the market size of BMS is growing rapidly. It is predicted that the compound annual growth rate of the global BMS market brought by new energy vehicles will reach 21.1% from 2015 to 2025.

　　The reporter learned that BMS as a subdivision has only developed in just four or five years. In 2012, the market size of the entire BMS field was only about 100-200 million. At that time, some OEMs even believed that the BMS system was just an accessory of the power battery. It is difficult for professional BMS companies to survive.

　　In recent years, with the popularity of the new energy vehicle industry, the BMS industry has finally come to the forefront of national policies. Related industries in the industry chain have continued to pay more attention to BMS, and the competition among BMS has become increasingly fierce. In addition, in November 2015, the Ministry of Science and Technology released the 2016 national "new energy vehicle" pilot special document, in which BMS was listed as a key research task.

　　With the expansion of application scale, the replacement speed and mass production scale of BMS circuit boards and chips are rapidly increasing, and the price of BMS is also slowly declining, and is expected to drop to about 80% of the current level in 2020. But even after the price reduction, the BMS demand brought by domestic new energy vehicles will exceed 25 billion yuan by 2020.

　　The driving force behind the rapid development of the BMS market is Tesla. In fact, among the "three major parts" of Tesla cars, the battery comes from Panasonic, the motor comes from Taiwanese suppliers, and only the battery management system is the core technology independently developed by Tesla. From 2008 to 2015, most of the core intellectual property rights applied by Tesla were related to battery management systems. This shows the importance of battery management systems for new energy vehicles.

　　Domestic BMS market has three pillars

　　The core of traditional fuel vehicles is inseparable from the so-called "three big parts": engine, chassis and gearbox. In these "three big parts", it is a consensus that China's technology lags behind that of foreign automakers led by Germany, Japan and the United States. There are also what are commonly known as the "three big parts" in new energy electric vehicles: batteries, motors and electronic controls. Since new energy electric vehicles are still a relatively new industry globally, the starting points of companies in various countries are not very different. This is also This gives Chinese companies the conditions to compete with foreign companies in the field of new energy electric vehicles.

　　In China, the R&D and production of battery management system BMS are mainly concentrated in these three types of enterprises:

　　1. New energy vehicle companies,

　　2. Battery PACK company,

　　3. Professional BMS enterprise.

　　New energy vehicle companies: my country's first-tier vehicle companies more or less have BMS teams, among which SAIC and BYD are the representatives. In April last year, SAIC Zhu Jun made it clear that "the battery management system should be left to the OEM."

　　Most of today's new energy vehicle companies have huge size and strong R&D capabilities. It is often not a problem for them to cultivate a complete BMS team and invest a lot of R&D expenses. For example, in 2009, SAIC established Jieneng, which is specifically responsible for new energy development tasks. In June 2013, SAIC established a project to conduct independent research and development of BMS. In the four years before and after developing the e50, SAIC invested more than 6 billion yuan in new energy research and development. . Looking at the world, most first-tier car companies at least develop their own BMS master control units, while suppliers only provide them at the slave control level.

　　However, the biggest determinant of a good battery management system is to understand the battery itself. In-depth understanding of the battery is often linked to the design system of the battery itself, which is not what OEMs are good at. Establishing its own battery technology research center, building a battery laboratory and having a completely own evaluation and calibration system is not something that all OEMs have the patience to do. This limits its depth of understanding of batteries.

　　Battery PACK company: The change in the new energy vehicle industry originated from power batteries, and the main object of BMS system management is also the battery. This is the unique advantage of battery PACK company in the BMS market.

　　However, if battery PACK companies do not invest enough in R&D for BMS, the cost of their independent development will often be greater than the cost of directly purchasing a third-party BMS, and it is difficult to guarantee the reliability of their own development under the premise of restricted conditions. .

　　Professional BMS companies: Most third-party BMS companies are asset-light operations and are relatively professional and complete. Although the overall number of such companies is small, they are all very specialized in BMS. This neat team structure often includes BMS software and hardware development, testing, battery calibration and other teams. Even more detailed, the software is further divided into different groups such as architecture, driver, application layer development, etc., and the hardware is also refined. In order to include schematic design, layout and other teams, the product also has product managers, functional safety analysis, battery modeling experts, etc. Professional people do professional things, and such a professional and sound team, This is often something that the BMS teams of general car companies or battery companies do not have.

　　Third-party BMS companies target more complex customers. In addition to the automotive field, they also include energy storage, communications and other fields. The large amount of data they have accumulated during the development of different cases has provided information for the design of their core algorithms. A lot of experience; the standardized BMS products they design can often be applied to a wider range of scenarios, so their ability to respond quickly to projects in different fields has also become a major advantage for them.

　　However, due to its asset-light nature, third-party BMS companies are more likely to be acquired in the capital market than the other two parties. As of May 2017, SAIC's A-share market value was 320 billion yuan, and CATL's valuation was nearly 100 billion yuan. As one of the leading third-party BMS companies, Kelie Technology's latest round of financing had a market value of only 6 billion yuan. Compared with the other two parties, The leading companies are indeed not of the same size. In the capital market, third-party BMS companies are often prone to become acquired parties.

　　The BMS market needs regulation

　　Compared with Sanden technology, BMS is not very mature yet. As one of the key technologies of electric vehicles, BMS has made great progress in recent years, and many aspects have entered the stage of practical application. However, some parts are still not perfect, especially in terms of data reliability, SOC estimation accuracy and safety management. Needs further improvement and improvement.

　　In addition, there are currently hundreds of BMS companies in China, while there are only a few in developed countries in Europe and the United States. Large new energy vehicle manufacturers either choose their own battery management systems or adopt internationally competitive BMS manufacturers led by Germany, Japan and the United States. .

　　The domestic BMS market lacks technical parameters and standards, and there is no authoritative organization to conduct authoritative testing of BMS produced by manufacturers. This results in BMS products being mixed, making it difficult to promote them on a large scale. At the same time, many domestic automobile manufacturers and battery PAC companies currently do not have enough understanding of the importance of BMS. They believe that as long as each single battery core can be connected, the vehicle operation can be guaranteed. They are not optimistic about its safety and blindly purchase BMS. In the pursuit of low prices and in order to sign contracts, some unscrupulous BMS suppliers only reduce BMS functional indicators or simply castrate some functions, thereby burying safety risks. This is also irresponsible and harmful to the entire industry.

　　Only by establishing unified industry standards as soon as possible, suppressing manufacturers that do not meet market requirements, and establishing a sound testing system can battery management systems and new energy vehicles have a sustainable future. This is also the demand of many manufacturers and consumers.

　　In general, the BMS market is developing rapidly, and whether the BMS market develops healthily is related to the smooth development of the new energy vehicle industry.

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