Tesla Takes Cobalt-free Battery Technology As Its Core Development Direction

Although the market share of electric vehicles is increasing, they are still unable to become mainstream vehicles. One important reason is price. If you compare an electric vehicle with an internal combustion engine (ICE) of the same specification, you will find that the former is at least £10,000-15,000 (approximately RMB 88,000-132,000) more expensive than the latter. Although electric vehicles will be much cheaper when used after purchase, it is undeniable that the high initial premium is a considerable inhibitor to the early widespread adoption of electric vehicles.

Although some of these additional expenditures are due to the company's attempts to recover the development costs of the new technologies involved, most of it comes from one factor-the high price of rechargeable batteries. This is why Tesla has recently made cobalt-free battery technology its core development direction in the battery field.

To understand this better, let's take an example. In the UK, Tesla ModelSLongRange starts at 77,980 pounds (about 690,000 yuan). The cruising range of this car is 379 miles (about 610 kilometers, according to the WLTP cycle test standard), and the cruising range of the Plus version is 402 miles (647 kilometers).

But in order to achieve these high numbers, ModelS needs to be equipped with a 100 kWh lithium-ion battery. Tesla has not publicly stated how much of the ModelS price comes from these batteries, but you can get a rough idea by buying second-hand Tesla batteries and looking at its price. A 5.3 kWh battery pack costs £1,440 (about RMB 13,000).

The current ModelS requires 19 such battery packs to reach a capacity of 100 kWh. If you multiply the unit price, the total is 27,360 pounds (about 240,000 yuan). In other words, more than one-third of the price of Tesla ModelS may be just the cost of the battery. More common entry-level electric cars still have at least 40 kWh (such as Nissan's basic Leaf), and most have 50 kWh or more.

Therefore, most electric cars cost more than £10,000 (88,000 yuan) for the battery alone, which explains why they are so expensive. Bloomberg New Energy Finance (Bloomberg New Energy Finance) confirmed these calculations, predicting that battery costs will account for 30% of the cost of electric vehicles in 2020. In contrast, a diesel locomotive only needs a metal box to hold fuel.

Li-ion battery cost as a percentage of the total cost of electric vehicles

Back to some recent news from Tesla. The company has made a big bet on rechargeable battery technology that does not use cobalt. Cobalt is one of the important reasons why lithium-ion batteries are so expensive. It is also fraught with political issues, because mining may be in conflict areas such as Congo, and its production is considered to be quite environmentally polluting. But cobalt is used because it can supply the energy density required by the battery, allowing the battery to last hundreds of miles per charge.

A few months ago, it was revealed that Tesla is cooperating with CATL to develop lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which may be a real game changer. LFP batteries do not use cobalt, and there is a magical trend of pushing it to less than US$100 per kilowatt-hour (wholesale price). This price is considered to be the threshold for electric vehicles to be cheaper than diesel vehicles.

According to James Frith, head of the energy storage department of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the price of batteries per kilowatt-hour exceeded US$1,000 (about 7000 yuan) in 2010, and was US$381 (about 2670 yuan) in 2015. , Now about 147 US dollars (about 1030 yuan). Fries estimates that LFP batteries will reach US$100 (approximately RMB 700) per kilowatt hour in 2023 or 2024 and only US$61 (approximately RMB 427) by 2030.

Li-ion battery price per kilowatt hour

Tesla also recently obtained a patent for cathode technology, which greatly increases the number of charging cycles. The current lithium-ion battery technology allows 1,000 to 1,500 recharges, which may not seem like a lot, but you can’t charge the car every day like a mobile phone, and smart management will allocate the charging cycle among different batteries. You only need to charge an electric car about once a week, which means that 1,500 charges can last for 25 years.

The Tesla battery team led by Jeff Dahn has obtained a patent for Tesla’s new technology, which can increase the charging cycle to nearly 4000 times. If it is charged once a week, it will take about 75 years. Hence the so-called million-mile battery.

Recently, the Tesla team led by Jeff Dahn applied for some new metal lithium/anode battery patents, which can greatly increase the energy density and thus greatly reduce the cost. If these technologies are commercially feasible, they will bring revolutionary changes to the durability and price of batteries.

A former senior researcher at Nissan is developing another upcoming technology called an all-polymer battery, which he claims can reduce the current price by 90%.

These developments may not happen in the future, but cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate batteries have now appeared. After obtaining government approval, Tesla will use LFP as a battery in its Chinese version of Model 3. It is estimated that the use of LFP batteries can reduce manufacturing costs by 15%-20%.

Taking into account the proportion of batteries in the cost of cars, electric cars are only 10% more expensive than diesel cars, not 30%, which can easily regain cheaper operating costs within one to two years of owning an electric car. This will also give electric vehicles a greater lead than fuel-powered lithium battery technology, and hydrogen energy is unlikely to become the future of electric vehicles.

Electric vehicles are not only more environmentally friendly and lower operating costs than diesel locomotives, but also the era of lower purchase costs is quickly approaching, and cobalt-free batteries are a key step in this direction. This is why it is so important for Tesla to switch to low-energy vehicles-this may be a fatal blow to fossil fuel vehicles.