At present, with the rapid expansion of China's new energy vehicle industry, the power battery industry as a core component is also showing a trend of competition.

The industry's cutting-edge SVOLT power battery has been approved by Li Auto, and is equipped with Li L7 Air model. Its performance, quality and warranty policy are consistent with the CATL battery of Pro and Max models. Sales of the car are particularly gratifying these days.

In the past five years, CATL has been the only supplier of power batteries for Li Auto. And this time SVOLT and "Ning Wang CATL" simultaneously "boarded" the ideal L7, which is not only a tooth extraction, but also a demonstration of strength.

What is the unique ability of SVOLT? Dare to compete with CATL on the same stage and change its "dominant" situation, let us find out.

1. The gorgeous transformation of new energy unicorns

In 2018, in order not to be abandoned by the times. Under the auspices of Wei Jianjun, Great Wall adjusted its internal organizational structure, established an independent company and sought to go public, and SVOLT came into being.

As an important technical fulcrum of Great Wall's new energy transformation, it is used to leverage the new energy market structure, and its birth is a arduous mission.

Fortunately, it has lived up to expectations. After just 5 years of development, SVOLT has completed the gorgeous transformation from a newcomer to a rising star in the industry. It has broken through the siege and become a dark horse, ranking among the Top 10 in the power battery industry.

According to data from the Power Battery Innovation Alliance, SVOLT's power battery installed capacity from January to June was 2.04GWh, ranking eighth.

As a new energy "unicorn", SVOLT has attracted much attention and has made great strides on the road of A-share IPO and stood out.

On June 30, the official website of the Shanghai Stock Exchange showed that SVOLT had updated and submitted relevant financial information and entered the stage of issuance and listing review.

Wu Feng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, pointed out that SVOLT has obtained more than 500 authorized invention patents, and has made bold innovations in high-speed laminated batteries, long-thin-short-blade batteries, new battery systems and intelligent manufacturing, and is at the forefront of the industry.

2. Innovative technology - the key weight to participate in the involution industry

"Ten years ago, battery companies won by product technology; five years ago, they won by differentiated positioning; but in the TWh era, they win by technology + manufacturing." Yang Hongxin, chairman and CEO of SVOLT, said "golden "Sentence", behind it is SVOLT's strategy in terms of innovative technology and scale cost.

In terms of technology research and development, SVOLT has demonstrated outstanding technical strength and performance advantages in the fields of cobalt-free batteries, high-speed laminations, and dragon scale batteries. The high-speed lamination 3.0 technology has made a disruptive breakthrough, with an efficiency as high as 0.125 seconds per piece. In addition, the "Fengyun Platform" monitoring system is also at the forefront of the industry.

(1) Cobalt-free - work in the present, benefit in the future

The cobalt-free battery uses self-developed cobalt-free materials as the positive electrode. Through electrochemical system optimization and laminate design, the performance of the battery is greatly improved to meet the needs of environmental protection and sustainable development.

The main reason for the development of cobalt-free batteries is that the metal cobalt is scarce and unstable. According to relevant materials, 66% of the world's cobalt is produced in the unstable Congo (Kinshasa), while China's cobalt reserves only account for 1% of the world. Once the price of cobalt fluctuates, it will have a major impact on power batteries.

Facing the challenge of scarcity of cobalt resources, SVOLT took the lead in developing cobalt-free battery technology, and achieved mass production in July 2021.

Honeycomb cobalt-free batteries have core advantages such as high safety, high energy density, high cycle life and low cost, and are considered to be an important breakthrough in the power battery industry. Included in the 2021 "Science and Technology China" list of the China Association for Science and Technology (leading technology in the field of advanced materials).

In the macro sense of the industry, cobalt-free battery technology is gradually getting rid of its dependence on the scarce resource cobalt. The development of cobalt-free batteries is a measure that benefits the present and benefits the future.

(2) Technology product matrix - high-speed lamination technology + short knife battery

The current consensus in the industry is that the lamination process can better leverage the advantages of long batteries, making them perform better in terms of energy density, safety, and consistency. In order to better play the battery performance, the solution chosen by SVOLT is the combination of lamination technology + short blade battery.

lamination technology

Lamination technology is a key link in the battery production process, which directly affects production efficiency and product quality.

In 2019, SVOLT released the first-generation lamination technology, achieving a lamination speed of 0.6 seconds/piece. Now, its self-developed high-speed lamination 3.0 technology has made a disruptive breakthrough, with an efficiency as high as 0.125 seconds/piece, which has been mass-produced on the production line.

Compared with the traditional lamination scheme, the 3.0 technology can greatly save investment and floor space, effectively improve safety, and solve the pain points of defect control and monitoring such as diaphragm folds and poor alignment in the industry. In addition, the internal stress distribution is more uniform during the charging and discharging process, and the cycle life of the battery cell is longer.

SVOLT takes the lead in adopting thermal compound lamination machine, which perfectly solves the problems of easy deformation of diaphragm and low efficiency of single station of Z-type lamination machine. At present, the production efficiency of thermal laminating machine has reached 12PPM, which is comparable to the winding efficiency, and is moving towards 16PPM.

SVOLT released the L500 laminated cell for energy storage, which has a single capacity of 325Ah and a long cycle life of over 12,000 times. Compared with the current mainstream 280Ah energy storage cells, the new product can achieve a PACK-level cost reduction of over 10%. This will become another important design for SVOLT to capture the battery field.

Knife Battery

SVOLT's short-blade battery is a relatively ingenious product innovation, which can better solve a series of problems faced by the current industry's long and thin batteries: yield control and mass manufacturing efficiency.

Dagger products can reduce connectors and structural parts, reducing the overall cost of the battery system. Moreover, shortening the battery can improve the safety of the battery, because the thickness of the battery has a great influence on the safety, and the thinner the battery is, the safer it is.

SVOLT pushes short knife products to a new level, realizing the characteristics of extreme cost, extreme safety, extreme battery life and high integration. The high integration of thermal management achieves a maximum space utilization rate of more than 76%. The low-cost iron-lithium system can meet the long battery life of more than 700km, and can be expanded to a low-cost system with higher energy density to achieve ultra-long battery life.

The short knife battery has a very broad application prospect. It can cover the market above A0-B level, and the power can meet the demand range of 50-100kWh. It is widely used in the energy storage and light power market.

(3) Dragon Scale Battery

Due to the huge growth potential of Longlinjia battery, SVOLT has high hopes from top to bottom.

Yang Hongxin said, "In the future, SVOLT's technology and production line will be built around the dragon scale battery."

In December 2022, SVOLT released the Dragonscale battery at its third "Battery Day" event. It is based on Honeycomb's second-generation short blade battery, and enhances safety through structural innovation at the battery pack level.

The Dragon Scale Battery is not only a technological innovation, but also greatly improved in terms of performance. It mainly has three optimization measures:

1. Transfer the explosion-proof valve of the short knife battery from the position of the battery cover to the bottom of the battery shell, so that the internal gas transmission path of the battery is shortened when the heat is out of control;

2. Adopt "thermoelectric separation" design, that is, the thermal runaway pressure relief area and the electrical connection area are independent of each other;

3. The upper and lower double-sided water cooling scheme is adopted, so that the large area of the battery cell is in contact with the cooling plate, and the heat exchange capacity is increased by 70% compared with the general level.

When the explosion-proof valve is transferred to the bottom of the cell, the battery pack can truly achieve "thermoelectric separation", and the original exhaust channel can be narrowed by 30-40 mm. Based on this design, the Y-direction space of the battery pack can be compressed, and the length of the battery cells can also be increased, which can also improve the space utilization of the battery pack.

(4) Patents—Promoting strength with research and development

According to the information from the Global Automobile Patent Big Data Platform of China Automobile Center, SVOLT's power battery patent disclosures will rank first in China's power battery patent disclosure innovation subject list in 2020 and 2021.

In 2022, SVOLT ranks second in the TOP20 patent disclosures of China's new energy vehicle power battery system with 1049 published patents, which is enough to show its strong research and development capabilities!

3. Differentiated product strategy, independent development attracts the favor of multi-level customers

Facing market opportunities, as a cutting-edge battery company, SVOLT has been adopting a differentiated product strategy to participate in market competition.

"If you can't be number one in terms of total volume, you should be number one in the field of differentiation." Yang Hongxin concluded in many interviews.

Specifically, it mainly competes with lamination and winding in terms of manufacturing process; in terms of positive electrode materials, it competes with cobalt-free and ternary; in terms of battery structure, it competes with short knives and traditional sizes. This unique development strategy has attracted many domestic customers.

In China, SVOLT has established cooperative relations with Great Wall Motors, Geely Automobiles, Leap Motors, Dongfeng Motors, Lantu Automobiles, Xiaopeng Automobiles, Ideal Automobiles, and Celes Automobiles.

In addition, Huaneng Jiangxi Clean Energy, Ryefield Energy, etc. have also expressed their intention to cooperate with SVOLT.

In April of this year, the SVOLT power battery was equipped with the ideal L7 Air model. In May, Geely Galaxy's heavyweight model L7 was officially launched, and SVOLT's battery cells were also selected.

Being able to enter the supply chain of Ideal and Geely's mid-to-high-end new energy brand Galaxy also reflects from the side that SVOLT gradually has the confidence and strength to compete with leading power battery companies.

In 2022, SVOLT will be included in the list of "Forbes China's Top 50 Innovative Companies", which is very valuable. The authoritative list released by MIT truly represents the strength of innovation. In China, only two companies, SVOLT and CATL, were selected.

Today, as the heart of the new energy vehicle supply chain, the power battery industry is moving from the G watt-hour era to the T watt-hour era. In front of the enterprise are both opportunities and challenges.

CATL and BYD occupy a dominant position, and the pursuers are making great strides. How far can CATL's "dominant family" situation go? No one dared to say.

It is foreseeable that SVOLT, as a fast-rising rising star and a dark horse in the industry, can innovate more technologies and products in the battery industry and lead the battery industry to a more efficient, safe and reliable future.