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The EV Battery of Your Dreams Is Coming
一批静静酝酿多年的电池技术正蓄势待发，这预示着在未来五年中，我们将目睹许多技术飞跃。
宝马使用该公司新电动汽车平台“Neue Klasse”的汽车将采用一种新型电池，能够比以往的电池多储存逾20%的能量。 In the next five years, significant upgrades to the batteries in electric vehicles should finally hit the market. In the works for decades, these changes are likely to mean that by 2030, gas vehicles will cost more than their electric equivalents; some EVs will charge as quickly as filling up at a gas station; and super long-range EVs will make the phrase “range anxiety” seem quaint. 6park.com 6park.com如果你并不知晓这些即将到来的技术飞跃，那可能是因为，它们长期以来一直被试图完全取代电动汽车中现有锂电池技术的更高调举措盖住了光芒。但这些许诺的电池技术“突破”一次次落空，让投资者付出了代价，也让消费者失望不已。 6park.comOne reason you might not be aware of these impending technological leaps is that they’ve long been overshadowed by flashier efforts at replacing existing lithium-ion battery tech in EVs altogether. Again and again, those promised battery “breakthroughs” failed to break through, which has left investors holding the bag and consumers disappointed. 6park.com 6park.com这些即将问世的新技术几乎都是对已得到实践检验的锂电池的升级，而不是试图颠覆锂电池技术。这为它们带来巨大的优势：这些电池可以在现有的设施中生产，而且适合现有供应链。这一点很重要，因为之前对电池制造能力的投资规模极大，据彭博新能源财经(BloombergNEF)估计，仅2023年一年，投资就超过300亿美元，这使得任何需要另建生产设施的技术都更难拥有竞争力。 6park.comAlmost all of these coming developments are upgrades to the same tried-and-true lithium batteries that others have promised to disrupt. This gives them a huge advantage: They can be manufactured in existing facilities, and fit into existing supply chains. This matters because previous investments in battery-manufacturing capacity are so enormous—more than $30 billion in 2023 alone, according to BloombergNEF—that they make it that much harder for any technology that can’t be manufactured in those facilities to be competitive.
在未来五年中，电动汽车电池的重大升级应该会最终面市。这些酝酿数十年的变革可能意味着，到2030年，燃油汽车的成本将高于电动汽车；一些电动汽车的充电速度会跟在加油站加油一样快；超长续航电动汽车将使“续航焦虑”这个词成为过时的老古董。 6park.com
宝马(BMW) 2025年将采用新型电池 It’s possible to optimize many features in a battery, from how fast it can charge to how many years it can last. One of the most important measures of a battery’s performance is how much energy a manufacturer can cram into a given battery cell, which is known as its energy density. Typically, that energy density has gone up a few percentage points a year, and it’s those slow, cumulative, hard-won gains that have gotten us to where we are today. 6park.com 6park.com电池能量密度的大幅跃升很罕见。但宝马最近宣布，将从2025年开始销售首款使用该公司新电动汽车平台“Neue Klasse”的汽车。宝马的发言人表示，这些车将采用一种新型电池，能够比以往的电池多储存逾20%的能量，充电速度和续航能力也将提高多达30%。 6park.comBigger jumps in the energy density of batteries are rare. But BMW recently announced that it will begin selling the first vehicle using the company’s new platform for EVs, which it calls “Neue Klasse,” in 2025. These vehicles will have a new kind of battery which will hold more than 20% more energy than the previous type, and charging speed and range will also improve by up to 30%, says a BMW spokesman. 6park.com 6park.com这些改进之所以能够实现，是因为电池单体采用了新型圆柱形设计，化学成分也有所调整。 6park.comWhat makes possible these improvements are a new, cylindrical shape for the battery cells, and tweaks to their chemistry.
从充电速度到使用寿命，电池的许多性能都可以优化。衡量电池性能的最重要指标之一是制造商能够在特定的电池单体中注入多少能量，这就是所谓的能量密度。能量密度通常每年提高几个百分点，正是这些缓慢累积、来之不易的点滴进步让我们达到了今天的高度。 6park.com
2026年电池的化学成分将实现突破 Massachusetts-based battery-component manufacturer SES AI is on track to help automakers deliver vehicles with an additional leap in the energy density of their batteries in 2026, says Chief Executive Qichao Hu. 6park.com 6park.comSES AI已经成为全球首家向汽车制造商交付采用一种特定新技术的高级原型电池的公司，目前正在与通用汽车(GM)、现代汽车(Hyundai)和本田汽车(Honda)合作。SES AI预计，2025年将交付迭代升级的电池，可供一个原型车车队使用。 6park.comSES AI is already the first company in the world to deliver to an automaker advanced prototypes of batteries with a particular kind of new tech, and is working with GM, Hyundai and Honda. In 2025, SES AI expects to deliver the next iteration of its cells, which are suitable for use in a fleet of prototype vehicles. 6park.com
总部位于美国马萨诸塞州的电池组件制造商SES AI的首席执行官胡启朝表示，SES AI有望在2026年帮助汽车制造商交付电池能量密度有更大飞跃的汽车。 6park.com
胡启朝表示，举例来说，如果通用汽车决定将电动版悍马(Hummer)作为首款采用SES AI新型电池的车型，SES AI会帮助通用制造100辆采用新技术的电动版悍马原型车，然后对这些汽车进行一系列严格测试，测试将持续九个月到一年。如果一切顺利，这些电池到2026年应该可以投产。 6park.comIf GM decides that the first vehicles to get SES AI’s new batteries should be, say, electric Hummers, then the company would help GM build 100 prototype Hummer EVs with the new technology, and they would then be run through a gantlet of tests for nine months to a year, Hu says. If all goes well, by 2026 the batteries should be ready to be put into production. 6park.com
SES AI技术的关键是，用固态锂金属替代目前锂离子电池中的石墨。 6park.comThe key to SES AI’s technology is solid lithium metal, which is used in place of the graphite that’s in today’s lithium-ion batteries.
StoreDot的试验性电池生产线包括一台自动堆高机（上图）。生产出的电池可在几分钟内完成充电。
电池小知识 To understand why that matters, it helps to know a little bit about how today’s batteries work. A typical EV battery is like a sandwich made of thin layers. First there’s what’s known as an anode, made of graphite. Suffusing the whole cell is a liquid electrolyte—like Gatorade, but it has lithium salts instead of sodium. Then a thin “separator”—picture something like saran wrap. Finally there’s a cathode, which is a mix of various metals, typically lithium, nickel, manganese and cobalt. 6park.com
要理解这种替代为何事关重大，最好了解一下当今电池的工作原理。典型的电动汽车电池就像一个由薄层组成的三明治。首先是由石墨制成的阳极。充满整个电池的是一种液态电解质——类似运动饮料佳得乐(Gatorade)，只不过里头是锂盐，而不是钠盐。然后是一层薄薄的“隔膜”——不妨想象成某种类似保鲜膜的东西。最后是阴极，这是各种金属的混合物，通常有锂、镍、锰和钴。 6park.com
当电池向汽车电机供电时，锂离子透过塑料隔膜在阳极和阴极之间移动，隔膜上有足够大的微孔供锂离子通过。这些锂离子从电池“三明治”的一侧移动到另一侧，由此产生电流。 6park.comWhen a battery is pushing electricity to the motor of a vehicle, lithium ions are moving between the anode and the cathode, through the plastic separator, which has microscopic holes just big enough for lithium ions to move through. It’s the physical movement of those lithium ions from one side of the battery sandwich to the other that generates current. 6park.com
从理论上说，锂金属阳极可容纳的锂离子数量是石墨阳极的10倍。在其他条件相同的情况下，这意味着如果用锂金属代替石墨，电池的能量密度可以提升多达50%。 6park.comIn theory, a lithium metal anode can hold 10 times as many lithium ions as a graphite one. All other things being equal, this means the energy density of a battery using lithium metal in place of graphite could be up to 50% higher. 6park.com
胡启朝说，这样一来，汽车制造商有朝一日便能够以低廉的价格提供续航里程与今天的高端汽车相同的电动汽车。这意味着即使是入门级电动汽车，每充一次电也可以行驶300英里（约合483公里）。配有更大电池的高端电动汽车则能够创造新的续航里程记录，突破目前约为500英里（约合805公里）的续航记录。 6park.comThe result, says Hu, is that automakers could someday offer affordable EVs that have the same range as today’s high-end ones. That would mean even entry-level EVs might go 300 miles on a charge. High-end EVs with bigger batteries could, in turn, set new records for range, besting current record-holders which top out at around 500 miles. 6park.com
SES AI电池中的锂金属仅仅替换了电池中的一个部分，因此可以接入现有的装配线。目前，电动汽车电池主要有两种类型，一种是经过优化的电池，针对高端汽车，另一种电池则针对特斯拉(Tesla)的Model 3等低成本汽车和即将来临的中国平价电动汽车浪潮。SES AI的锂金属技术对这两种类型都适用。 6park.comBecause the lithium metal in SES AI’s batteries replaces just one part of the battery cell, it can be incorporated into existing assembly lines. Currently, there are two dominant types of batteries for EVs, one optimized for high-end vehicles, and the other for lower-cost ones such as Tesla’s Model 3 and the coming tidal wave of affordable Chinese EVs. SES AI’s lithium metal technology works in both.
到2028年将实现超高速充电 SES AI is hardly the only company promising significant upgrades to today’s batteries within the next few years. StoreDot, a battery startup based in Israel, is working on new battery tech for making EVs charge so quickly that filling them up could someday be comparable to stopping at a gas station in a conventional vehicle. 6park.com
SES AI并不是唯一一家许诺要在未来几年内对现有电池进行重大升级的公司。总部位于以色列的初创电池公司StoreDot正在开发新的电池技术，这种技术可以大大提升电动汽车的充电速度，使速度有朝一日快到跟在加油站给传统汽车加油差不多。 6park.com
StoreDot的投资者和合作伙伴包括英国石油公司(BP)、Daimler Truck、沃尔沃(Volvo)和越南电动汽车制造商VinFast。StoreDot已经宣布， 首家采用其电池进行“超快充电”的汽车制造商将是吉利(Geely)旗下的极星(Polestar)。 6park.comStoreDot counts BP, Daimler Truck, Volvo and Vietnamese EV maker VinFast as investors and partners. StoreDot has announced that the first automaker to incorporate its batteries for “ultrafast charging” will be Geely-owned Polestar.
StoreDot 软包电池 Like SES AI, StoreDot aims to replace the graphite anode in a typical battery with something different. Instead of lithium metal, StoreDot is using silicon in order to increase both the energy density and the charging speed of a battery. 6park.com
与SES AI一样，StoreDot的目标是用另外一种材料取代普通电池中的石墨阳极。只不过StoreDot使用的不是锂金属，而是硅，目的是提高电池的能量密度和充电速度。 6park.com
多年来，电池制造商一直尝试在电池中添加硅，而硅也是过去十年中电池容量得以逐步提高的关键。StoreDot技术的不同之处在于，该公司正在研究如何用一种硅含量高达40%的物质完全取代电池中的石墨。 6park.comAdding silicon to batteries is something battery makers have been doing for years, and has been key to some of the incremental gains in capacity that have already happened in the past decade. What’s different about StoreDot’s tech is that the company is figuring out how to replace the graphite in batteries entirely, with a substance that is up to 40% silicon. 6park.com
StoreDot已经向汽车制造商交付了原型电池，目前的技术（极星正在测试）能够使汽车电池在充电短短五分钟后增加100英里（约合161公里）的续航里程。该公司工程师的目标是，到2028年，也就是SES AI的电池初次运用于量产汽车仅两年后，向汽车制造商交付一种只需3分钟就能增加100英里（约合161公里）续航里程的电池。 6park.comStoreDot has delivered prototype batteries to automakers, and its current tech—which Polestar is testing—can enable a car’s battery to add 100 miles of range in just five minutes of charging. By 2028—just two years after SES AI’s batteries are set to debut in production vehicles—the company’s engineers aim to deliver to automakers a battery that can add 100 miles of range in just 3 minutes, says Chief Executive Doron Myersdorf.
极星正在测试一种只需充电5分钟就能增加100英里续航里程的电池。
2030年及以后——电池技术的“圣杯”？ Briefly a darling of the 2020 to 2021-era SPAC boom, publicly traded solid-state battery maker QuantumScape has since had a rough time, in terms of its valuation. But the company is on track to deliver its first batteries suitable for testing in vehicles by sometime next year, says Quantumscape’s chief technology officer, Tim Holme. From there, it’s up to automakers to determine how quickly they’ll incorporate these batteries into new vehicles. 6park.com宝马的发言人表示，宝马目前正与QuantumScape的竞争对手Solid Power合作开发固态电池，但 “全固态电池距离大规模生产还有几年时间”。 6park.comBMW is currently working with QuantumScape competitor Solid Power on developing solid-state batteries, but “all-solid-state batteries are still several years away from large scale production,” says a BMW spokesman. 6park.com
在2020年至2021年的SPAC（特殊目的收购公司）热潮中，制造固态电池的上市公司QuantumScape一度风光无限，但之后却陷入了低谷，估值一直低迷不振。不过，QuantumScape首席技术官蒂姆·霍尔姆(Tim Holme)表示，公司有望在明年某个时候交付可在汽车上进行测试的首批电池。之后，将由汽车制造商来决定何时将这些电池应用于新车。 6park.com
固态电池被称为电池技术的“圣杯”，因为从理论上说，固态电池的每一项指标应该都能超过现有电池，包括充电时间和能量密度。但固态电池也面临许多挑战，包括充电和放电时的物理膨胀和收缩。 6park.comSolid-state batteries have been called the holy grail of battery tech because, in theory, they should be able to beat existing batteries by every measure that counts, including charge time and energy density. But they come with a number of challenges, including the way they physically expand and contract when they are charged and discharged.
QuantumScape的员工在该公司一间实验室内工作。该公司有望在明年某个时候交付可在汽车上进行测试的首批电池。 QuantumScape Chief Marketing Officer Asim Hussain says the company has solved this problem, and many others, and that unlike many of its competitors, it regularly releases test data showing the performance and durability of its batteries. 6park.com
QuantumScape的首席营销官阿西姆·侯赛因(Asim Hussain)说，公司已经解决了这个问题和其他许多问题；与许多竞争对手不同，QuantumScape定期发布显示其电池性能和耐用性的测试数据。 6park.com
在电动汽车领域，新电池技术的推出存在很多不确定因素，一直要到通过汽车制造商的大量内部测试，才算尘埃落定。即使走到这一步，也还是有可能存在问题，比如，通用汽车曾因电池组存在起火风险而不得不召回数以万计的雪佛兰Bolt。 6park.comIn EVs, no rollout of new battery tech is a sure thing until it has passed automakers’ extensive internal testing. Even then there can be problems, like when GM had to recall tens of thousands of Chevy Bolts on account of the risk of fires in their battery packs. 6park.com
这意味着，电池制造商提出的所有时间表都有可能发生变化，而且确实也发生过变化。即便如此，在未来五到十年内，新的电池技术应该会不断涌现，电池性能由此获得的提升将超越过去几十年中累积的渐进式改进。这可能会对电动汽车的普及和电动汽车制造商的成败产生深远影响。 6park.comThis means all of the timetables battery makers have proposed can—and do—slip. Even so, the next five to 10 years should see a steady drumbeat of new battery technologies that yield performance gains beyond the incremental improvements we’ve seen over the past couple of decades. That’s likely to have profound implications both for adoption of EVs, and for which EV makers win and lose.
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