Voltaiq首席執(zhí)行官表示,北美OEM和電池制造商的學習和技術迭代速度遠不及中國同行。
電池分析公司Voltaiq首席執(zhí)行官Tal Sholklapper在底特律舉行的一次媒體吹風會上警告稱,北美汽車制造商和電動汽車電池公司必須在五年內(nèi)趕超中國同行的電池技術和制造水平,否則在可預見的未來,他們可能不得不從中國進口電池。
Sholklapper指出,“中美電池產(chǎn)業(yè)競爭已進入最終階段。如果北美電池、電動車以及相關應用行業(yè)想要贏得競爭,就必須改變現(xiàn)有的運作方式。”
他指出,這意味著:
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電池制造商必須專注于提高電池生產(chǎn)質(zhì)量、積極引進外部專家(如數(shù)據(jù)分析專家)、加快學習和技術迭代速度,并盡快實現(xiàn)規(guī)?;a(chǎn)。雖然這些要求看似理所當然,但許多電池制造商并未做到。他們往往不了解工廠出品的電池質(zhì)量,直到車輛上路后才發(fā)現(xiàn)問題,這導致了多起代價高昂的產(chǎn)品召回事件和安全事故。
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Sholklapper指出,OEM必須承認自己制造電池存在問題,而且也不能簡單地讓電氣工程師負責電池制造。Sholklapper常把電池比作“會呼吸的生命體,因為電池在充放電過程中會發(fā)生膨脹和收縮。”
Voltaiq提倡在電池制造過程中持續(xù)監(jiān)控數(shù)據(jù),以便及時發(fā)現(xiàn)并解決問題,從而避免延誤或經(jīng)濟損失。Sholklapper指出,目前一些電池工廠仍然在每個制造環(huán)節(jié)使用U盤采集數(shù)據(jù),然后再進行集中分析。這種數(shù)據(jù)采集方式并不實時,Voltaiq的部分業(yè)務就是幫助客戶采集實時數(shù)據(jù)。
Voltaiq首席技術官Eli Leland指出,OEM在擴大超級工廠的電池產(chǎn)能時面臨的一大問題在于使用了錯誤的專家。Leland指出,“特斯拉會請底特律動力總成工程師來設計電池包嗎?顯然不會。”他強調(diào),電池在本質(zhì)上是電化學設備,其化學特性才是最難掌握的。
Leland指出,汽車行業(yè)不同于消費電子行業(yè),后者可在小批量、高價值產(chǎn)品中優(yōu)化電池技術,再實現(xiàn)電池量產(chǎn)。但這種產(chǎn)品在汽車行業(yè)并不常見,類似奔馳G級這種電動車是個例外。
Sholklapper強調(diào),OEM必須加強與電池公司的研發(fā)合作。他指出,“OEM要想取得成功,就必須專注發(fā)展其核心競爭力(如整車集成和電池制造技術等),然后委托一流的供應商來協(xié)助完成其他工作。”他還指出,只要中國電池行業(yè)能在政府補貼的扶持下,將電池生產(chǎn)成本控制在50美元/kWh左右,北美電池行業(yè)就會持續(xù)面臨壓力。
在此次媒體吹風會上,Voltaiq還宣布與加拿大電池材料和測試公司Novonix建立合作伙伴關系。根據(jù)合作協(xié)議,Voltaiq將為Novonix提供數(shù)據(jù)分析和電池正負極材料業(yè)務支持,以助力其實現(xiàn)產(chǎn)品商業(yè)化。此外,兩家公司將共同為使用Novonix超高精度庫侖計設備(用于測試鋰離子電池性能的設備)和研發(fā)服務的客戶提供技術支持。
Novonix總裁Lori McLeod表示,公司已經(jīng)認識到外部專家的重要性。她指出,“大約一年半之前,我們曾投入大量資金,嘗試自主開發(fā)軟件。但在一年半后,我們不得不捫心自問:僅靠自己,行得通嗎?”
Voltaiq CEO says OEMs and battery makers just aren't learning and iterating as fast as China's industry has.
North American automakers and EV battery firms have five years to erase China’s dominance in technology and manufacturing or they may face the reality of buying batteries from China for the foreseeable future. That was the message from battery-analysis company Voltaiq CEO Tal Sholklapper at a media briefing in Detroit.
“We’re in the final innings now,” Sholklapper said. “If the industry around batteries and electric vehicles and all the follow-on applications wants to make it, we're going to have to change the way we play.”
That means, he said:
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Battery manufacturers need to narrow their focus on making high-quality cells, bringing in outside experts on things like analytics. They must learn and iterate faster and get to scale as fast as possible. This might seem intuitive, but many of the expensive recalls and dangers in the industry have been the result of not knowing enough about the quality of a factory’s output until the batteries are already in a vehicle on the road.
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OEMs, Sholklapper said, must admit that making batteries in-house is problematic, and that electrical engineers can’t just switch to making batteries. Sholklapper often refers to batteries as living, breathing beings, since they expand and contract under charge and draw conditions.
Voltaiq advocates constantly monitoring data during the manufacturing process so problems can be addressed quickly before they result in delays or monetary losses. Sholklapper said that some of today’s battery factories even gather data by plugging thumb drives into machines at each step in manufacturing before collecting it in one place for analysis. Part of Voltaiq’s work is helping clients gather that data in real-time.
Eli Leland, Voltaiq’s CTO, said part of the problem OEMs have trying to scale directly to batteries in huge gigafactories is having the wrong experts on hand. “Did Tesla hire a bunch of powertrain engineers from Detroit to come and design their battery packs? We know the answer, right?” He underscored that batteries are electrochemical in nature, and it’s the chemistry part that is most difficult to master.
And unlike the consumer electronics industry, which was able to perfect batteries in low volume, high value products before scaling, those products are rare in the automotive world, Leland said, pointing to examples like the Mercedes G-class EV.
Sholklapper also underscored the importance of OEMs and battery companies taking a collaborative approach to development. “You need to focus on your core strength. And whether it's the vehicle integration, whether it's making cells… One thing that you need to do to be successful is focus on that and then bring in best-in-class providers to help you with the rest.” He also said that as long as China’s subsidized industry can produce batteries for around $50 per kilowatt-hour, it would keep pressure on North American industry.
The briefing also served as an introduction to Voltaiq’s new partnership with Novonix, a Canadian battery materials and testing company. The agreement calls for Voltaiq to handle Novonix’s analytics and support the company’s anode and cathode materials business as it nears product commercialization. Together, the companies will support customers of Novonix’s ultra-high precision coulometry equipment (that tests lithium-ion battery performance) and R&D services.
Lori Mcleod, president of Novonix, said the company had experience in learning the value of outside experts. “About a year and a half ago, we went down this path of trying to do our own thing. We're going to become software makers,” she said. “And after a year and a half of investment, it was hard to ask ourselves the question, should we be doing this anymore?”