From 2024, NIO will start producing its own 800-volt traction batteries

Many electric car manufacturers see organizing their own production of traction batteries as a way to achieve better cost control, Chinese company NIO is among them.
Starting in the second half of 2024, it expects to produce 800-volt traction batteries, which will be used in new brand electric cars starting at $30,000.Image source: NIOIn the future, as Reuters explains, citing comments from NIO chairman William Li, the company will combine the use of both third-party batteries and its own.
In the second quarter of this year, NIO had to raise its costs for purchasing batteries manufactured by CATL as the latter raised its selling prices.
NIO has 400 employees working on the development of its next-generation batteries.The switch to 800 volts can speed up charging the traction battery and somewhat reduce the cost of the wiring used in an electric vehicle, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk said during a recent speech that the leading electric-car manufacturer believes it makes sense to switch to the 800 volt standard only for fairly large vehicles like the Cybertruck pickup and Semi truck.Korean carmakers Apparently, for NIO the choice of this standard is more dictated by the desire to achieve savings and improve usability for car owners.
NIO expects to deliver 23,000 to 25,000 electric vehicles in the second quarter, slightly less than the results of the first quarter, as the two-month lockdown in Shanghai undermined the company's ability to produce electric vehicles in the required quantity.

Lightyear is ready to start production of a solar electric car that can drive for months without recharging

Rumors about the expensive and extremely economical Lightyear 0 electric car have been around for years, but only now a global premiere took place and the developer announced that the first \"solar\" model is ready for production.
The company has already employed up to 500 people and signed agreements with over a hundred suppliers - the car is already ready for production.
Unlike competitors the novelty under certain conditions is able to work without external charging for months.Image source: LightyearThe electric car is a family sedan with solar panels with a total area of 5 m2, capable of generating electricity per day, allowing to travel up to 70 km.
The four-door sedan has a range of 560 km on the highway at 110 km/h, even when there is no sunlight.
In WLTP testing, the Lightyear 0 managed to drive a total of 625 km, 4% more than the all-wheel-drive Tesla Model 3 Long Range.
At the same time, the Lightyear model has a traction battery of 60 kW∙h, while the same Tesla - 82 kW∙h.
According to Lightyear, the car is largely due to such indicators low drag coefficient (0.19) - this is the most aerodynamic family car ever built.
Bridgestone tires play a certain role.
It is known that the car accelerates to 100 km/h in 10 seconds and reaches a top speed of 160 km/h.
Although it is inferior to the Tesla Model 3, it charges much faster.
At the same time, although even on a cloudless day the solar cells will not allow to charge the battery fully, their contribution is large enough - during the summer day the car can get enough solar energy to drive up to 70 km.
According to the company, if the driver does not drive more than 50 km daily, he is able to drive for months until he finally needs a charging station.Solar cells are able to add range up to 10 km hourly, charging from the home power grid - 32 km per hour, when using a charging station with fast charging capability - up to 520 km per hour.The interior of the five-seater car is made from artificial vegetable leather, recycled PET bottles and palm wood.
At the same time, for a car made of recycled materials the model will cost obscenely expensive - it is unlikely that such prices will be compensated by savings on electricity.
A total of 946 electric cars will be produced, and deliveries will begin in November of this year.
In case of success, the company promises to present a version with more affordable price of $32,000, production of which is expected to start in 2025.

The Ministry of Transport has proposed measures to stimulate the distribution of electric cars in the regions

The Russian Ministry of Transport has sent recommendations to regional authorities to \"stimulate\" the distribution of electric cars and rechargeable hybrids.
Owners of environmentally friendly vehicles could be entitled to free travel on toll roads and transport tax could be abolished for them.
It is also proposed to develop a system of storage and disposal of waste batteries.Image source: Kindel Media / pexels.comThe document was prepared within the framework of the government-approved concept for the development of electric transport until 2030.
A significant part of the recommendations concern the organization of parking lots: here the opinions of electric car owners are taken into account, as well as the possibility of connecting recharging stations at parking lots to the network and the climatic aspect - in the northern regions there will be fewer specialized facilities for electric cars than in the south.In areas of public and business development at least 10% of all parking spaces for electric cars will be equipped with charging stations, and in residential areas all parking spaces will be equipped with slow chargers - such stations will provide 80% of the charge.
It is proposed to mark the fast charging stations (up to 20 minutes) with signs limiting the time of parking.
When installing charging stations at parking lots it is also proposed to place information boards with an indication of the number of free spaces.
As financial incentives for owners of electric cars it is proposed to reduce the rate of car tax or cancel it completely, as well as to allow them to travel for free on toll roads.
Finally, it was recommended to create \"zero-emission\" zones, where vehicles with internal combustion engines would not be allowed.The first candidates for implementation of the measures proposed by the Ministry of Transport will be regions with heavy traffic and places with high environmental requirements.
Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Trade updated the requirements for state-subsidized charging stations for electric cars - the Chinese GB/T connector became mandatory.

Chinese electric car maker NIO resented the actions of AMD, which announced the cooperation

The transition of the dynamic Chinese electric car maker NIO to the server systems based on AMD EPYC generation Milan processors this week was referred by the Chinese representative office of AMD to the achievements of the company itself.
At the same time representatives of the automaker a couple of days later rebuked AMD, claiming the illegality of its use of this fact for advertising.Image source: CnEVPost explains with reference to the director of corporate relations NIO Ma Lin (Ma Lin), the company is not working with AMD and does not discuss such a possibility.
In addition, NIO has not given AMD's Chinese representative office the right to use such information for promotional purposes.
As explained by the representative of the automaker, as a result of the appeal to the Chinese representative AMD of the latter company has agreed to remove the press release from its website, but at the same time left a video on its page in Weibo, which talks about the cooperation between the two companies.
NIO representatives insist on the removal of this video, which has already gathered over a million views.In fact, as explained by NIO's director of corporate affairs, the company purchased third-party server systems that contained AMD processors, but the deal was formalized without the direct participation of the latter company.
Nevertheless, the Chinese representative office of AMD used the fact of the deal purely in its own interests, reporting on direct cooperation with NIO, which irritated the representatives of the latter.

Samsung SDI has decided to make its new batteries the same size as the Tesla 4680

The traction battery market has already passed the stage of development when it was possible to endlessly experiment with the cell sizes used.
Samsung SDI first wanted to increase the diameter of its cylindrical lithium batteries to 40 mm, but now Korean sources say that the reference point is the diameter of similar cells from Tesla, which reaches 46 mm.Image source: Samsung SDI If you consider that the cylinder height was originally supposed to be 80 mm, then Samsung SDI can achieve full unification in size with the cylindrical cells 4680, which begin producing Tesla and its close partner, Panasonic.
However, LG Energy Solution is also experimenting with the creation of such batteries, so all three third-party manufacturers could eventually become suppliers of cells like 4680 to the Tesla assembly line.According to Business Korea, Samsung SDI now produces cylindrical lithium batteries in two sizes: 2170 and 1865, where the first two digits define the diameter of the cylinder and the second two define its height in millimeters.
Work on the standardization of the third size is coming to an end, and Samsung SDI is inclined to choose the diameter of 46 mm as a basis.
What will be the height of the cylinder, has not yet been decided, but for the purpose of unification, it will probably reach 80 mm, inherent in the products of Tesla, Panasonic and LG Energy Solution.According to SNE Research, now the cylindrical batteries account for 19% of the traction battery market, but by 2030 they will reach 26%.
The alternatives are either prismatic hard-shell batteries or packaged soft-shell batteries.
Samsung SDI is going to ramp up production of cylindrical-shaped batteries at its facilities in South Korea and Malaysia.

BMW and Ford will get Solid Power solid-state battery samples for electric cars by the end of the year

In 2017, German automaker BMW invested in the capital of a young company called Solid Power, which aims to develop and mass produce solid-state electrolyte batteries that can be used in electric cars.
Ford Motor later joined the investors, and now by the end of the year both automakers could have the first samples of Solid Power batteries for further testing.Image source: Solid PowerThis will become possible, according to a press release, with the launch of a pilot Solid Power solid electrolyte battery production line in Colorado.
This line will be able to produce 300 battery cells per week, with an annual production capacity of 15,000 units.
This should be enough to supply key customers with enough batteries for qualification tests.
BMW and Ford will start receiving samples of Solid Power cells later this year.Solid Power partners also include Hyundai, Samsung and SK On.
The latter two will certainly be able to set up mass production of corresponding batteries if necessary - all the more so as the developers point to the possibility of using existing technological equipment.
The cells developed by Solid Power contain 50% more silicon in the anode, increasing the density of energy storage and increasing the range of the electric car without changing mass.
The absence of liquid electrolyte in the cell increases operational safety and allows the battery to be charged faster.Solid Power cells can be used to create batteries with a capacity of 60 to 100A‧h.
The cost of the new batteries should be lower than that of traditional batteries, which will also contribute to the growth of their popularity.

GM expects to reduce the cost of traction batteries for electric cars by 60%

It is generally believed that this year, for the first time in the history of mass production of lithium batteries, their cost will stop decreasing, and this will have a negative effect on the rate of expansion of electric cars.
Experts explain that this effect will not be long-term, and for the foreseeable future, savings in mass production of electric cars will allow to override the impact of rising prices for traction batteries.Source image: GMS Beginning this year, as explained by Barron's, the cost of the most popular metals used to produce traction batteries has increased by 50%, which itself has caused an increase in prices of electric cars on average by $ 1500 per unit.
Tesla raised its product prices even more dramatically, counting on further cost increases throughout the year.Tim Grewe, General Motors' director of electrification, refers to the existence of the so-called Wright curve, which describes the tendency for production costs to fall every time output doubles.
GM Corporation of America aims to reduce the cost of producing traction batteries by 60% by the end of 2026 or 2027.
In a couple of years, it is possible to reduce the cost of production by 30%, but to do this, it will be necessary to double the production of batteries.
The effect will be achieved not only due to economic dependencies, but also as a result of introducing a new composition of cathodes and electrolyte.
Local companies in the U.S.
and suppliers of raw materials close to them will be counted on to develop production.
Taken together, all this will reduce the cost of electric cars by $5000 or $6000 by the end of the forecast period, more than offsetting the possible impact of rising raw material prices.
In addition, the cost of electric cars could equal the cost of cars with internal combustion engines, and this would serve as a tipping point in the transition of consumers to electric power.
At least theoretically, this is what the future scenario for the industry looks like.

In April, BYD managed to break into second place in the ranking of the largest lithium battery suppliers

Chinese company BYD developed in parallel with Tesla, but started producing electric cars after it mastered mass production of lithium batteries.
The shutdown of Tesla's assembly line in Shanghai allowed BYD to become the world's second largest producer of traction batteries in April.
The first place is still occupied by CATL with 33.7% of the market.Image source: BYDThe statistics of SNE Research presented by Business Korea traditionally focuses on the business dynamics of Korean battery manufacturers, considering the period from January to April of this year inclusive.
Korean manufacturers have made significant progress in the annual comparison, but Chinese CATL still surpassed them, increasing the volume of supply by 114.1% and securing a little more than a third of the world market.
BYD is in third place with a 224.5% increase in supply volume and has almost doubled its market share to 12.1%.
LG Energy Solution managed to increase battery sales by 19.1% in the first four months of this year, but its share has dropped from 22.9% to 14.1%, although it is still in second place in the world ranking compared to its Chinese competitors.
Korean SK On was awarded only the fifth place, although its sales increased by 141.3%, and market share grew from 5.3% to 7%.
Samsung SDI is on the sixth place with a sales increase of 26.9%, but its share for the year decreased from 5.8% to 4.0%.
Total for the first four months of this year was released by manufacturers of traction batteries with a total capacity of 122.9 GWh.
This represents an increase of 83.4% over the same period last year.
Shipments have grown steadily since the third quarter of 2020.
Japanese manufacturers, including Panasonic, have also reduced their market share this year amid the progress of Chinese and Korean competitors.