Easy Car News On March 1, Ideal Auto pure electric flagship MPV model - Ideal mega arrived as scheduled amidst a lot of attention. This futuristic-looking Ideal's first pure electric vehicle has a resounding slogan - "500 kilometers of range after 12 minutes of charging", and has achieved a 5c charging speed that is a leap forward. So for the first time, it is equipped with a vehicle jointly developed by Ideal and CATL. What are the unique features of the Kirin 5c battery?
01 From initial cooperation to joint research and development, three years of sharpening the sword
Talking about the origin of the cooperation between Li Auto and CATL, Dr. Liu Zhimin, senior director of Li Auto’s power battery, said with emotion that he has been partnering with CATL for a long time. Since its establishment in 2015, Li Auto has been jointly developing the first-generation Li Auto One and the second-generation L series with CATL. CATL, which has the world's largest market share for seven consecutive years, is a leader in the industry and an excellent partner. At present, most of the 680,000 vehicles that Li Auto has delivered are batteries supplied by CATL for Li Auto. When talking about these delivered vehicles, Liu Bo eloquently stated the achievements worthy of praise - "Currently, the Li Auto brand maintains a record in the entire industry. None of the vehicles delivered to users caught fire due to the battery itself. This is also very rare data and cannot be separated from the joint efforts of both parties and the R&D capabilities of CATL."
In 2020, Li Auto and CATL launched a more in-depth joint engineering development. Both parties gathered the best scientists and engineers and invested a lot of money. resources, and jointly embark on the long journey of supercharged battery research and development. The three-year development cycle is at least twice as long as the normal project cycle. Unsurprisingly, it encountered many technical difficulties. To ensure a cruising range of 700 kilometers, the high density of the battery must be taken into consideration, and the safety of the battery must be ensured. It also needs to provide long life... More than 1,000 people have been invested in the entire project cycle, which is 5-8 times more than the investment in ordinary battery development projects. Judging from the results, all difficulties have their value. After three years of joint efforts, 5c battery cells, 5c battery thermal management, and 5c battery safety architecture were finally created.
02 The achievement of Kirin 5c battery What is the differentiation of CATL?
CTO of CATL Domestic Passenger Car Division Gao Huan said that the first is the customized service of Kirin battery, which is provided based on the differentiated needs of the vehicle. CATL is divided into different matrices based on the super performance of Kirin batteries. For example, the Kirin batteries currently installed on other models on the market - the world's only large-scale mass-produced Kirin ultra-long-life battery equipped with Ji Krypton 001, such as discharge capacity The , which has strong and zero-to-100 acceleration in two seconds, is equipped with the battery of the fr and so on. In the future, Kirin Battery will also develop different performance matrices to meet needs based on the super attribute positioning of the entire model by the OEM to achieve precise services.
The second is the accumulation of big data and a huge proportion of R&D investment. CATL’s power battery usage has ranked first in the world for seven consecutive years, and the number of vehicles it has served has reached 11.67 million. This is an absolute advantage in battery operation big data, which can feed back very detailed battery usage information, such as the use of batteries in certain Based on the specific needs of the situation and what kind of problems occurred, the product is optimized through the closed loop of the entire algorithm and deficiencies are identified and filled. This data is the unique premise and advantage of CATL over the entire industry. In addition, CATL continues to invest in R&D, with annual R&D investment accounting for approximately 5-7% of turnover. In the first three quarters of 2023, it invested nearly 15 billion in R&D, which is used for product development iterations and to enhance the understanding and promotion of power batteries.
03 Exploring the road that combines large power and high-rate charging capabilities
The mileage anxiety of pure electric models has been a common topic. In recent years, intelligent driving of pure electric models has become more and more practical, and the updates and iterations of technological configurations have become more and more popular. Skilled and standardized, but the energy replenishment efficiency has not actually undergone disruptive changes. It seems that driving a pure electric MPV with a family full of energy and starting a long-distance journey without replenishment has become an empty talk. Why is it equipped with Kirin 5c? Before the ideal mega battery is launched, cannot the pure electric MPVs on the market take into account both longer cruising range and faster energy replenishment efficiency? The physical characteristics of
batteries have determined that the higher the energy density, the lower the charge and discharge capacity. Taking into account high energy density and high power charging at the same time, this poses a huge challenge to the structure and materials of the battery. The 5c mentioned above refers to the multiple of the battery charging current divided by the battery capacity. Under the 5c peak rate capability, the peak charging current of the battery can reach 5 times the battery capacity. Some high-energy-density batteries currently on the market have a cruising range of up to 800km, but the peak charging rate cannot even reach 2c. Even if such a speed is achieved, it is difficult to maintain high-power charging for a long time. On the contrary, some batteries with a 4c rate have a battery life of only 200 or 300 kilometers, which also has obvious shortcomings.
The unique feature of the Kirin 5c battery installed in the ideal mega is that the 5c recharge speed of 500 kilometers of battery life after charging for 12 minutes makes it the fastest recharge battery in the world. It can sustain high-rate fast charging for more than 10 minutes. The high-rate fast-charging batteries currently claimed in the industry usually only last about 5 minutes. At the same time, the Kirin battery equipped on the Ideal mega can also achieve a long battery life of more than 700 kilometers. Combined with the Ideal thermal management control algorithm and 5c super recharge network, it can achieve faster recharge in a wide temperature range.
04 Charging speed is a requirement and battery safety is fundamental
For pure electric vehicles, battery safety is the top priority. News about battery spontaneous combustion and collision fires are always worrying. How does the Kirin 5c battery, which is superimposed with multiple buffs such as 800v high voltage, more than 100 kilowatt hours of electricity, 5c overcharge, etc., ensure safety?
Normally, in order to verify the thermal failure control ability of the battery cell, an external trigger is used to cause a battery cell to fail to evaluate the thermal diffusion state of the battery, which is a thermal diffusion test. The current national standard is that after a heat diffusion alarm is issued, it will take five minutes before an open flame or even explosion occurs, giving users enough time to escape. Some excellent products on the market currently operate at a normal temperature of 25°C. Under water-cooled working conditions, heat diffusion does not occur in the entire battery pack. Mega's Kirin 5c battery raises the room temperature from 25°C to 50°C, simulating more For extreme working conditions, ensure that there is no open flame in the battery so that users can leave the vehicle safely. For emergencies in the event of a collision, the national standard is: no fire or explosion in the event of a lateral collision. In an ideal mega, when a side collision occurs, the battery core will always maintain zero deformation, zero leakage of coolant, and all energy-bearing areas cannot have any contact.
's extremely high safety standards undoubtedly place more stringent requirements on the manufacturing process. Since the Kirin 5c battery is produced in the Lighthouse Factory of CATL, the Lighthouse Factory represents the world's highest level of digitalization and power battery manufacturing. At present, the global lithium battery industry The only three lighthouse factories are all from CATL. High-standard standardized production undoubtedly provides strong support for mega's battery safety. At the same time, all process data will be stored in the entire system for ten years, and the data can be traced. The production data of these batteries uses a large number of AI algorithms, which can capture any abnormal values in the manufacturing process of a battery. In addition to the requirements of the original safety standards, redundancy is also made for the safe use boundaries of the battery, plus After delivery, we will supervise the safety of the battery at the vehicle end, charging station and cloud, and provide all-round protection for battery safety.
is written at the end
In recent years, CATL has used rapidly iterative battery performance and sophisticated customized services to have great advantages in many product competitions, especially in mid-to-high-end intelligent models. The results have become increasingly significant. With Kirin, With the launch of Shenxing super-chargeable batteries, CATL’s complete product matrix will further consolidate its global leading position. Iterations of charging speed are always on the way. Together with the resounding slogan of Ideal Mega - "charging in 12 minutes and a range of 500 kilometers", the 5c era has arrived.
