Ternary Lithium Battery Controversial - Electric Vehicle Durability and Safety Difficult to Balance

TSLA is a staunch "supporter" of ternary Lithium Battery technology, if for no other reason than that ternary Lithium Batteries can bring longer battery life to electric vehicles. TSLA's electric vehicles are reported to have a range of more than 300, 400 and 500 kilometres, depending on the model. In contrast, the range of many pure electric vehicles in China is difficult to exceed 300 kilometres, and there is still a large gap.

However, ternary lithium batteries have always been controversial in the industry. Although it can provide longer battery life, it is not as stable as lithium iron phosphate battery, and it is prone to spontaneous combustion or explosion under high temperatures and violent impacts.

In particular, TSLA ternary lithium battery, it boldly uses 18650 lithium battery - that is, the lithium battery used in the mainstream notebook computer, a TSLA electric car has more than 7,000, more than 8,000 notebook batteries, thousands of lithium batteries gathered in a car, hidden safety risks to attract attention.

It should be noted that TSLA's boldness is not "irresponsibly" putting owners at risk. For example, the same 18650 lithium battery that TSLA and Panasonic do is a custom automotive grade version, they have been rigorously tested, the standard is much higher than notebook batteries. In addition, TSLA also has excellent BMS (Battery Management System) technology to protect the safety of lithium batteries.

Nevertheless, the frequent fires of the TSLA have put it in the spotlight. The industry believes that in the context of lithium battery technology is difficult to balance vehicle safety and durability, improving BMS technology to protect lithium battery safety will be the key to reducing new energy vehicle fire accidents and promote the continued development of new energy vehicles.

BMS takes advantage of a large $700 million market for domestic companies to compete.

BMS aims to ensure that new energy vehicles and power lithium batteries have good communication and that the battery pack operates within a safe range. If the battery pack is abnormal, the BMS will respond in time. In addition, the BMS can also adjust the charging and discharging power of the battery according to the ambient temperature, battery status and vehicle needs.

As sales of new energy vehicles and safety concerns continue to grow, BMS technology has attracted increasing attention and the BMS market has developed rapidly.

Estimated global automotive BMS production 2013-2019

According to the data chart, the global automotive BMS output value is expected to exceed $700 million in 2017 and continue to grow thereafter.

According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, there have been 17 new energy vehicle safety accidents in China since 2015, four of which were battery system accidents.

In August this year, Li Dong, director of the Equipment Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, told the media that standards such as the technical conditions of battery management systems and the coding specifications and dimensions of power lithium batteries are being prepared and revised, and should be introduced as soon as possible.

The domestic BMS market is about to introduce favourable policies, and affected by this, relevant enterprises will introduce development opportunities.

The industry said that it is difficult to identify which company's BMS products can truly "tame" lithium battery packs (TSLABMS is slightly ahead, but should continue to optimise in cost and technology). It can be said that the global BMS technology is almost at the same level, and China's local BMS companies should seize the development opportunity to overcome this technical difficulty, so as to achieve the corner overtaking of the automobile industry.