Reflections on "Cooperation Crisis" between Toyota and Tesla

Why is Toyota and Tesla "cooperation crisis"?

Sales of RAV4 electric vehicles have been low. Toyota's RAV4 electric vehicle project with Tesla began in 2012. Toyota plans to purchase battery packs and motors from Tesla for the next three years to produce approximately 2,600 RAV4 electric vehicles. This model is mainly sold in California, USA, in order to meet the state's requirements for large-scale car companies to sell a certain amount of zero-emission vehicles. Although Toyota provided RAV4 electric vehicles with promotional measures such as price cuts, leasing and loan concessions in the United States, sales of RAV4 electric vehicles remained low. As of April this year, the sales volume was only 1,594 units, and it sold 2,600 units at the end of 2014. There is still a big gap in goals.

Toyota's new energy vehicle strategy has changed. Recently, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles continue to heat up, Toyota, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, SAIC and other car giants have laid out one after another, and some experts believe that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are the ultimate goal of new energy vehicles. On the Toyota side, due to characteristics such as zero-emission of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, strong endurance, and fast fueling, the new energy vehicle strategy began to shift to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. At the 2014 Beijing Auto Show, Toyota launched the hydrogen fuel cell concept car and plans to launch a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle in North America, Europe and Japan in 2015. The annual sales target is 5,000 to 10,000 vehicles. Now planning to end the production of RAV4 electric vehicles is enough to explain the changes in its new energy vehicle strategy.

"Cooperation Crisis" Leads to Three Problems in Lithium-ion Battery Electric Vehicles

First, indirect pollution can still not be avoided. By contrasting with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, the pollution problem of traditional lithium-ion battery electric vehicles is even more prominent. First of all, at present, the source of electricity for charging lithium-ion batteries still relies mainly on thermal power generation methods. The conversion of fossil energy into electrical energy will cause environmental pollution; Second, the positive and negative electrode materials, electrolyte solutions and other substances of lithium-ion batteries for the environment and the human body Health also has a great impact. The United States has classified lithium-ion batteries as a type of battery that includes flammability, leaching toxicity, corrosiveness, and reactivity. Therefore, electric vehicles running on lithium-ion batteries still indirectly cause some pollution.

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can achieve true zero pollution. The principle is to input hydrogen into the fuel cell. The electrons of the hydrogen atoms are blocked by the proton exchange membrane and are conducted from the negative electrode to the positive electrode through an external circuit to become an electric energy driving motor. Proton can pass through the proton exchange membrane and oxidize into a pure water mist. discharge. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles use hydrogen and oxygen as their fuel. Instead of using combustion (gas and diesel) or energy storage (batteries) to release energy, the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles produce only clean water, effectively reducing carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. The emission of gases that can cause pollution to the environment, such as compounds, nitrogen oxides, and greenhouse gases, realizes true zero pollution.

The second is the general lack of endurance. The lack of endurance is a major drawback of electric vehicles. The endurance of electric vehicles is mainly limited by the energy density of the battery. At present, the main electric vehicle used in China is a lithium iron phosphate battery, and its actual specific capacity only reaches about 140 mAh/g. Taking the example of several cars entering the "Beijing Demonstration and Application of New Energy Minibus Manufacturers and Product Catalogue", the cruising range of the Beijing Auto E150EV is 130 kilometers, the SAIC Roewe E50 is 180 kilometers, and the Jianghuai is 200 kilometers, the best performing BYD. The e6 also reached only 300 kilometers, which is far from the traditional vehicle's battery life. At present, the Tesla Model S, which represents the world's most advanced electric vehicle, has an endurance of 502 kilometers, but the industry is not optimistic about its future improvement.

There is no shortage of battery life for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Since the hydrogen fuel cell can directly convert chemical energy into electric energy, there is no need for intermediate conversion of thermal energy and mechanical energy (generator), so the power generation efficiency is high and can reach 50% or more. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can easily reach 500-600 kilometers.

The third is long charging time. Long time charging of electric vehicles is also an important factor affecting consumer interest. Take BYD e6 as an example. It takes 2 hours to be fully charged at high-power charging stations, and it takes 38 hours to use ordinary AC power to fill up. The box of gasoline should not exceed 5 minutes. The fuel-fueled time of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is almost the same as that of traditional gasoline vehicles. It takes only 3-5 minutes to fill up the fuel.

Advice for the development of electric vehicles

Develop clean electricity and reduce indirect pollution of electric vehicles. The first is to build solar energy and wind energy charging stations to achieve true zero pollution. At present, China's solar charging stations have made certain progress. In 2010, the photovoltaic roof vehicle charging station invested and built by the Jiangxi Provincial Electric Power Company was completed and put into operation in Yichun, Jiangxi, which laid the foundation for the development of photovoltaic charging stations; The advanced experience of Ecotricity in the United Kingdom has made great achievements in building wind power charging piles. The second is to vigorously develop solar energy, wind power, nuclear power and other power generation projects, improve China's power structure based on fossil fuel power generation, and reduce indirect pollution of electric vehicles.

Increase research and development efforts to enhance the performance of power lithium batteries. Focus on strengthening the lithium battery cathode material research and development, especially the development and utilization of ternary materials, etc., to enhance the power lithium battery energy density. The theoretical specific capacity of traditional lithium iron phosphate materials is only 170mAh/g, and the theoretical specific capacity of ternary materials is 278mAh/g, which is a big gap. At the same time, compared with the actual specific capacity, the ternary material lithium battery can reach 170 mAh/ Above g, it is more than 30% higher than traditional lithium iron phosphate battery, and has broad space for development.

The combination of fast charging and power exchange increases operating efficiency. For non-operating vehicles, the construction of high-voltage fast charging stations and technological breakthroughs have been stepped up to further shorten the charging time. Investigation shows that only when the charging time of electric vehicles is reduced to less than 10 minutes can they be accepted by consumers; for taxis and buses Such as operating vehicles, vigorously develop the exchange technology, unified planning and construction of the city for the station, so that a reasonable layout, and further increase the time for the exchange.