Under the general direction of the high-nickel ternary material system, "de-cobaltization" is the unanimous consensus of industrial development. Companies including Tesla, LG Chem, and CATL are brewing their own "de-cobaltization" solutions and products.

On May 18, Honeycomb Energy held an online press conference to release two cobalt-free batteries. It also claims that based on its cobalt-free battery, it can achieve a range of up to 880 kilometers for electric vehicles.

“去钴化”的实现上，业内存在低钴和无钴两条路径，蜂巢能源此次给出的方案是无钴。

In the realization of "de-cobaltization", there are two paths of low-cobalt and cobalt-free in the industry. The solution given by Honeycomb Energy this time is cobalt-free.

Cobalt has two main functions in the cathode material: 1. To reduce the mixing of lithium and nickel; 2. To suppress the phase transition during charging and discharging, and improve the structural stability of the material.

If the amount of cobalt is reduced and the content of nickel is increased, it will lead to the mixed arrangement of lithium and nickel, resulting in the precipitation of lithium, and the phase transition of nickel cannot be suppressed, reducing the cycle performance.

This means that in order to be truly cobalt-free, it is necessary to solve the problems of nickel-lithium ion mixing and cycle life of cobalt-free layered materials.

According to Yang Hongxin, president of Honeycomb Energy, to achieve a breakthrough in the bottleneck of cobalt-free technology, Honeycomb Energy mainly adopts three key technologies, namely cation doping technology, single crystal technology and nano-networked coating.

Cationic Doping Technology：The upper limit voltage of the material can be increased, and the energy density is 40% higher than that of lithium iron phosphate;

single crystal technology：The safety and cycle life of the battery can be improved. Compared with polycrystalline, single crystal has stronger particle strength and more stable structure, which makes the battery life 70% longer than that of polycrystalline high nickel ternary;

Nano-networked coating：SVOLT coats a layer of nano-oxide on the surface of the single crystal, which reduces the side reaction between the positive electrode material and the electrolyte, and effectively improves the material cycle performance under high voltage.

In addition to technical improvements in materials, in terms of cell manufacturing, the lamination technology adopted by SVOLT can also increase the energy density of cobalt-free cells by another 5% and the cycle life by another 10%.

In terms of manufacturing process, SVOLT also focuses on the "vehicle-grade AI smart battery factory". The important processes in the workshop have a cleanliness requirement of 10,000-level, and the core process even reaches 1,000-level.

At the PACK level, SVOLT adopts a matrix PACK design (similar to the CTP scheme of CATL), divides the battery pack into two matrix grids, and arranges thin cobalt-free cells with a length of up to 600mm in the grid regularly. A large matrix module is formed inside the package. Through this design, 80% group efficiency can be achieved.

Based on the above-mentioned technologies, Honeycomb Energy has released two cobalt-free battery products this time, one featuring long lifespan, which can achieve 1.2 million kilometers. The other one focuses on long battery life, which can achieve 880 kilometers of battery life.

The first product is based on the cell design of the 590 module, with a capacity of 115Ah and an energy density of 245wh/kg; the features of this product are based on the generalized cell size design. It can be mounted on most of the current pure electric platforms, and its excellent cycle life and calendar life characteristics enable this battery to achieve a 15-year 1.2 million-km warranty on the vehicle end, and it will be launched to the market in June 2021. .

The second one is the L6 thin cobalt-free long cell with a capacity of 226Ah. This product is being developed in cooperation with automobile companies. With the support of the advanced matrix PACK design, it is the world's first model that can achieve a cruising range of 880 kilometers. Mass production is expected in the second half of 2021.