From knock-off old-man's electric vehicles to industrial giant

Chapter 158 High-Nickel Ternary Composite Soft-Pack Battery Cells: Entering the High-End Mobile Phone Industry
"wrong……"

"How come he only sold it for 60,000? Wasn't the questionnaire supposed to show 65,000?!"

Jiang Ze thought that Xingchen Motors was playing a trick on him, or that there was a problem with their server data.

But upon closer inspection, I almost fainted on the spot.

The level of abstraction in Xingchen Motors' business logic far exceeded his imagination.

The minimum price for the questionnaire is 65,000, but that doesn't mean my new car can't be sold for 60,000.

—The inequality is solved in a flash!
This tactic is actually quite common in the internet industry.

It's simply a matter of raising expectations in advance, and then lowering the price when it's officially announced.

But in today's car manufacturing industry, not many people actually do it this way.

They deliberately conducted a questionnaire survey.

It seems like they are very "concerned about the people's feelings" and are paying attention to the opinions of existing car owners and consumers.

But in reality, the internal prices have already been set, just waiting for consumers to jump in.

Jiang Ze quickly figured out the underlying logic.

For example, regarding the issue of "not including a charger when buying a phone," they first deliberately spread the news that they wouldn't include one, waited until everyone was arguing about it, and then announced that they would give it away for free.

Actually, it was originally intended to be a gift.

Jiang Ze was truly impressed!
But that wasn't what angered him the most.

What upset him the most was that he wanted to grab one himself, but he failed.

"What's going on... Is the female consumer market really that enthusiastic? This doesn't seem to be what I expected."

Face this cruel reality.

Jiang Ze couldn't help but feel a little confused.

He couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong.

……

……

the other side.

Xu Yi stared at the order data sent by the marketing department with a strange expression.

broken.

How come over 90% of the orders are placed by male car owners?
It took less than a minute.

Where is the fighting spirit of my fellow girls?
So, the twice-sized, illuminated vanity mirror was used by the male car owner?

...

"Mr. Xu, it seems that consumers are more enthusiastic about our new Starry Night Mini than we expected!"

"However, some veteran car owners in the community posted and made a fuss, saying that we were playing a trick on them. Some female car owners said that they didn't have time to pay before the quota was gone, and they suspected that there were no 5,000 units available at all."

"How about we publish the order data?"

The marketing department staff were all talking at once.

Xu Yi was having a headache.

I felt as if the title of "Monkey King" had already been placed on my head.

"This result is indeed a bit beyond our expectations. You can decide how to handle it. You can also release some of the order data to prove that we really didn't resort to any fraudulent practices."

Xu Yi was both amused and exasperated.

The only thing to blame is that the girls were too slow.

He truly hadn't expected it to turn out this way.

But it doesn't matter.

The launch of the new Star Mini is a minor matter; the aim is to transfer some technology to lower-priced models and increase profits.

Now that he has achieved both goals, he no longer worries about them.

As for those who couldn't get an order, they'll just have to wait until the second round of pre-orders opens next month.

……

this time.

Xu Yi has indirectly or directly contacted several people who are interested in cooperating with him.

There are two or three companies with very close ties.

The construction projects of Xingchen Battery Factory and Weineng Battery Factory have been expanded to the third and fourth phases, and the relevant industrial land has been approved.

The expansion of Polestar's battery production capacity extends beyond just covering their lower-end models.

The first batch of production capacity will be available to external parties around the third quarter.

Those who want to reserve this batch of batteries include BAIC New Energy, JAC Motors, Chery New Energy, Yutong Bus...

They all expressed great interest in Polestar batteries.

Although Xu Yi set the price of the first batch of Polaris batteries at a high level.

It is significantly more expensive than the procurement price of lithium iron phosphate battery packs from leading companies in the industry.

However, Polestar's technological leadership has forced these cost-conscious manufacturers to lower their heads.

JAC and Shandong are geographically close, resulting in relatively low logistics costs and a strong desire to develop new models.

The manufacturer that is most concerned is Yutong Bus.

As the largest manufacturer of new energy buses, it accounts for 30% of the annual sales of new energy buses in China, firmly establishing its leading position.

Originally, CATL's lithium iron phosphate batteries were used, with Guoxuan High-Tech as a supplementary supplier.

They are all top-notch in China.

After all, the "battery pack for buses" has much higher requirements for cycle life and safety standards than those currently used in passenger cars.

Now that Polestar batteries have appeared, Ning Wang's batteries suddenly seem less appealing!
Moreover, Yutong has plans to further increase its market share.

Following closely in sales is BYD's new energy buses, which currently rank second in the country.

Operating companies are still willing to pay a premium for technology.

Whether it's higher energy density, longer cycle life, or the promotional effect of "needle puncture does not cause fire".

If a large passenger bus catches fire, it's no joke.

Locking down Polestar batteries is like having an extra piece of advertising that puts them ahead of the industry.

Xu Yi also prefers to cooperate with the leading bus company.

This serves as a good publicity opportunity for Polestar batteries.

This is equivalent to obtaining "top-level certification for commercial vehicle batteries".

Collaboration between industry leaders makes it easier to establish Polestar's image as a "high-end benchmark" in the battery industry.

Furthermore.

New energy buses use a huge amount of batteries.

For mid-to-high-end buses, the battery pack alone can exceed 200kWh-300kWh.

Its scale is several times that of passenger cars.

Yutong alone can absorb a huge amount of production capacity, which helps the new factory quickly reduce costs.

It's safe to say that even just supplying batteries will be enough for Xingchen in the future. Xu Yi replied to the Yutong representative with an email.

They agreed on a time for their next meeting to discuss the matter.

He then set off to deal with another, more pressing matter at hand.

That's right.

To others, these are large annual projects that easily cost hundreds of millions of yuan.

For the stars now.

It's just a minor matter.

……

Star Battery R&D Center.

Laboratory B5 is located on the first floor of the R&D building.

A batch of freshly packaged aluminum-plastic film soft-pack battery cells, which are only the size of a palm, are placed on a performance testing instrument.

It was still warm.

There is no information about the density cycle sequence identifier packaging on the cell casing.

but.

Even any contemporary young person could see the specific purpose of this battery cell.

This shape and size.

It is exactly the same as the current industry standard mobile phone battery cell.

"Charge-discharge tests and energy density tests have been completed... Rated capacity and parameters have basically met expectations, and the internal resistance consistency is quite good."

Stare at the parameters displayed on the system screen.

Chen Tianfu, the R&D engineer in charge of the test, breathed a sigh of relief and smiled with relief.

"Meeting expectations is only the basic requirement. Subsequent research and development must at least exceed expectations, otherwise our research and development during this period will be stalled."

We can't just try to profit from the low-to-mid-end electronics market; that would be completely contrary to our original intentions.

Dong Yuxuan sighed.

three months ago.

Xu Yi proposed a "development roadmap for consumer electronics".

Therefore, a separate R&D team was set up for battery research and development.

We focus on developing small-volume soft-pack battery cells.

That is, the mobile phone battery cell.

Led by Dong Yuxuan, a team of more than 30 R&D personnel are focused on research and development in this field.

The efficiency from R&D project preparation to today's preliminary research and verification is astonishing.

It only took a little over two months.

Besides the fact that the R&D team members are all highly skilled, developing mobile phone soft-pack batteries after completing automotive power batteries is not a particularly challenging task.

The technology reuse rate of automotive power batteries and mobile phone cells is very high.

Most of the patents, such as those for "high-precision lamination process", "silicon-carbon anode", and "cathode material synthesis process", can be reused.

It can be said.

The relevant battery technologies have covered the core underlying technology of mobile phone batteries.

The only difficulty lies in adjusting the formula, which is also no challenge for Xingchen's battery R&D team.

And so, the first batch of prototypes was successfully produced today.

……

When Xu Yi arrived at the B5 laboratory with his assistant.

The first batch of pouch cells has begun temperature control and extrusion testing.

"Mr. Xu, the test reports for the first batch of prototype battery cells are ready. Please take a look. We also have complete samples..."

A test report and a rectangular battery cell about the size of a palm were handed over by Dong Yuxuan.

Xu Yi took the prototype battery cell with its silver-gray casing.

After examining and handling it for a while.

A strange feeling welled up inside me.

As a consumer electronics product.

This is something that all consumers are familiar with.

Even for many professions, they are a "lifelong enemy"!

Especially in his previous life, when he was a food delivery driver, the thing he hated most was the phone battery.

Ever since mobile phone manufacturers adopted the unibody design...

Anxiety about insufficient battery capacity, battery life degradation, and inconvenient replacement.

It's like a "nightmare".

It has always been a part of the minds of all heavy mobile phone users.

To deliver food, he rented an electric scooter with a battery that could be swapped.

Then I prepared two separate mobile phones, and two separate power banks for each of them. One phone was for navigation, and the other was for order grabbing, so I could switch between different platforms...

Running from morning till night.

Only in this way can one earn seven or eight thousand in "humiliation fees".

Insufficient energy density and rapid lifespan degradation of mobile phone battery cells are simply the root of all evil!

Not to mention some live streamers who simply move the camera module to the front and install a separate 20,000 mAh battery, turning their phones into "bricks" for the sake of battery life.

……

"What about the energy density and rated capacity?" Xu Yi asked.

"The energy density of the first batch of trial-produced battery cells is 250Wh/kg. If we convert it to the volumetric energy density commonly used in the mobile phone industry, it would be around 180Wh/L."

With a rated capacity of 2900mAh, it barely reaches the upper-middle level of this year's mobile phone industry.

Dong Yuxuan said.

"Not bad." Xu Yi nodded affirmatively.

It's quite an achievement that the material formula and the first batch of trial samples were completed in such a short time.

"Research and development on the improved high-nickel ternary formula for the medium term is already underway, and it is expected that it will reach the high-end level of the mainstream mobile phone industry by then."

In addition, we have ample R&D funding and are using the latest carbon silicon anode technology in the mobile phone industry. We expect the energy density to exceed that of current high-end mobile phones by 5%-10%!

In addition, our theoretical cycle life is also a major advantage; the high-nickel ternary route is expected to achieve 200-300 more cycles than the lithium cobalt oxide cathode.

Dong Yuxuan continued.

……

　I noticed that Dong Yuxuan, the battery R&D project manager, was mistakenly written as Dong Yuhui in the previous text, so I've corrected it.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)