I am devoted to scientific research, but you want to trick me into having a love relationship?

Chapter 594 I Still Believe in Solid State Batteries

The sanctions imposed by Europe and the United States have indeed impacted China's battery industry, and major battery companies are discussing coping strategies.

While Xu Qingzhou was giving his report, CATL was holding a meeting.

In the conference room.

Chen Rongxuan started swearing: "These bastards can't outmaneuver us, so they're resorting to these underhanded tactics again."

CEO Bai Mingzhe said in a deep voice, looking at the middle-aged man wearing glasses to the side: "It's no use talking about this now, Mr. Zhang. You tell us about our response."

In fact, they had already heard a lot of rumors before this.

Zhang Zefeng nodded: "We have successfully acquired a stake in the Australian lithium mining company Pilbara, securing our lithium resource supply. In addition, we are establishing a full life-cycle carbon footprint management system to meet the requirements of the EU's new Battery Law ahead of schedule."

Although China's battery technology has developed rapidly, its advantages mainly lie in manufacturing efficiency and cost control, while the global industrial chain's rule-making, resource allocation, and market access are still dominated by Europe and the United States.

The essence of sanctions is to bridge the technological gap through political means.

Bai Mingzhe turned to Chen Rongxuan, who was standing to the side, and said, "Old Chen, tell me about the situation in your technical department."

"Before the end of October, we plan to launch CTP (module-less) battery technology, which will increase energy density to over 200Wh/kg and reduce costs by 15%."

Chen Rongxuan continued, "High-nickel ternary batteries are also being developed simultaneously."

The current market focus for lithium-ion batteries is on lithium iron phosphate batteries and high-nickel ternary batteries. The former has high safety, long cycle life and low cost, and is the mainstream battery at present. Its disadvantage is that the energy density is relatively low. The latter is mainly used in high-end models such as Tesla and NIO.

A series of measures have been finalized.

In the battery field alone, after years of development, we have a strong enough foundation to cope with sanctions from Europe and the United States.

Someone in the conference room sighed, "I have a feeling that within five years, the world's batteries will belong to China."

There are policies and measures to counter.

The same principle applies to international competition. When the United States raises tariffs, these companies can directly invest in and build factories in the United States, re-establish themselves through shell companies, or circumvent tariffs through countries like Mexico.

Chen Rongxuan began, “Currently, solid-state batteries still face technical challenges such as low conductivity, slow charging and discharging speeds, rapid capacity decay, and poor interface stability. However, solid electrolytes and positive and negative electrode materials are undergoing rapid iteration. I have done some model estimations and predict that all-solid-state batteries will achieve industrialization between 2028 and 2030, which will accelerate the replacement and even disrupt the gasoline vehicle market.”

"Yes, we are under a lot of pressure to maintain our leading position in the field of solid-state battery research."

Zhang Zefeng paused for a moment, then continued, "Actually, I've recently seen a lot of experiments related to lithium-sulfur batteries going on internationally, and there's even been a technological dispute. Should we consider increasing our investment in lithium-sulfur battery research?"

Chen Rongxuan shook his head: "No, our top priority right now is to consolidate our current achievements. If we get distracted, we could easily lose our advantage."

The others nodded.

Now that they have the advantage, they are pressing their advantage and seizing market share, so they basically have no way to devote more energy and funds to lithium-sulfur batteries.

In particular, something with such an uncertain future seems like a bad deal no matter how you look at it.

Time flies like an arrow; days pass by in a flurry of activity.

On October 30th, at Peking University's science building, Xu Qingzhou went directly to Gu Zhizhong's office after finishing her class. Before she even entered, she heard hearty laughter coming from inside.

Academician Chu Jiangfeng and Gu Zhizhong were both there, and they seemed to be having a pleasant conversation.

He then knocked on the door.

"Qingzhou has arrived, please have a seat."

Gu Zhizhong greeted them with a smile and had already started pouring tea for Xu Qingzhou. "Professor Chu, Professor Gu."

Xu Qingzhou didn't stand on ceremony and sat down in the chair opposite the two of them, smiling, "I could smell the aroma of tea as soon as I entered the office."

"Thanks to you this time, Old Gu is finally willing to take out this box of Da Hong Pao tea."

Chu Jiangfeng stroked the teacup and said jokingly.

Gu Zhizhong pretended to be angry: "You old man, you snatched half a can from me last time, and now you're saying I'm stingy?"

Chu Jiangfeng coughed lightly, sipped his tea, and changed the subject.

Xu Qingzhou said thank you, took the teacup from Gu Zhizhong, and wisely refrained from getting involved in the struggle between the two old gentlemen.

Today I'll smuggle some tea leaves from you, and tomorrow I'll come over and mooch some more tea.

Gu Zhizhong couldn't help but laugh: "You manage a research institute, and you seem to have more leisure time than the two of us old guys."

"It's about combining work and rest."

Xu Qingzhou smiled and said, "The recent experiments have been going quite smoothly, and there haven't been many opportunities for me to be involved. With Lao Ji handling the administration, I've taken it easy and been a hands-off manager."

Chu Jiangfeng said, "Last time, Lao Nie complained that he had been trying to poach you from the Physics Department, but in the end, you poached several talents from the Physics Department instead."

Speaking of this, Xu Qingzhou couldn't help but laugh. This was probably a case of losing both his wife and his army.

He could only say, "The group of senior professors from the Physics Department often come to borrow equipment; consider this an apology to Dean Nie."

After Xu Qingzhou finished his tea, Gu Zhizhong asked, "By the way, you mentioned the supersymmetric zeta function theory last time. Have you made any progress lately?"

"It's still in the first step, the prime number gap dynamic sieve method, which can be considered a small start."

Xu Qingzhou briefly explained his ideas on this new screening method to the two elderly people, who were deeply moved by what they heard.

"You young people are really quick-witted."

Gu Zhizhong sighed. Young people naturally possess the ability to question existing rules and have an open mind, which makes them much better than these old guys.

He thought of something else and asked, "I remember you're going to Oxford University soon for a seminar, right?"

"The flight is tomorrow afternoon."

Thinking about tomorrow's journey, Xu Qingzhou already had a headache. The flight was at 2 pm tomorrow, arriving in London at 5:45 pm, a flight of about 10 hours.

Without Song, the school beauty, by myself, I would be incredibly bored.

Gu Zhizhong said, "Kewei is over there. You can ask him for help anytime you want."

Xu Qingzhou smiled and said, "Don't worry, Senior Brother Su has already contacted me. He said he will pick me up at London Heathrow Airport."

A few days ago, Su Kewei suddenly called and asked if Xu Qingzhou was coming to Oxford to attend a seminar, saying that he saw Xu Qingzhou's name on the list.

Professor Maynard also sent an email inviting him to visit.

There are no direct flights to Oxford University from here; it takes about an hour to drive there from London.

(End of this chapter)