Abstract:
According to Pole Piece Lab, the large cylindrical battery independently designed by Weilai will be manufactured by Yiwei Lithium Energy and Guoxuan High-tech, and a very small batch of cells will be rolled off the production line by the end of the year. According to reports, NIO’s large cylinder project has been around for a long time. In 2021, Weilai established a battery R&D team; in 2022, Li Bin stated in the financial report that it has established a battery team of more than 400 people and plans to launch an 800V high-voltage platform battery pack, namely 4680 battery, in 2024.
In February 2023, NIO announced the launch of the first phase of construction of the Hefei industrial base, with a planned production capacity of 40GWh; however, half a year later due to financial pressure, the purchase of 40GWh production line equipment was shelved. At NIO Day at the end of 2023, NIO officially announced its self-developed 46105 large cylindrical solution, equipped with a 900V high-voltage platform, a battery energy density of 292Wh/kg, a whole package of 120kWh, and supports 5C fast charging. According to the original plan, the battery would be installed in ET9, but when ET9 was launched, it was replaced with a square battery pack from CATL.
In September this year, Li Bin said that Weilai has invested more than 2 billion yuan in battery research and development. The main line of self-development is large cylindrical long-life batteries, adopting the "self-research + OEM" model. Yiwei Lithium Energy selected this time is BMW's large cylindrical battery supplier and has the most experience in mass production of large cylindrical batteries; Guoxuan Hi-Tech is a Hefei company in the large cylindrical field and has a higher degree of adaptability.
The report also pointed out that large cylindrical batteries are still a niche product. Except for Tesla and BMW, there are very few external motorcycle models. Square batteries are still the absolute mainstream in the industry.
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