What are the categories of battery for new energy vehicles?

The present time is a rising period for the development of electric vehicles. The process of electric vehicles replacing fuel vehicles is taking a great leap forward. Nowadays, new energy vehicle batteries are classified mainly by two aspects: battery materials and battery encapsulation types. According to the battery materials, they can be divided into lead-acid battery, nickel battery and lithium battery. In respect of the encapsulation type, they can be divided into cylindrical battery, prismatic battery and polymer battery.

Let's learn the characteristics of different types of batteries.

Classification by battery material

1、Lead-acid Battery

As a mature technology, lead-acid battery is still the only battery for mass production of electric vehicles because of its low cost and high discharge rate. However, the specific energy, specific power and energy density of lead-acid battery are very low, thus the electric vehicles with this power source cannot perform a good speed and mileage.

2、Nickel Cadmium Battery (Ni-Cd) and Nickel Metal Hydride Battery (Ni-MH)

Although its performance is better than that of lead-acid battery, it contains heavy metals, which will pollute the environment after being abandoned. Ni-MH power battery has just been entering the mature stage. It is the only battery system used in hybrid electric vehicles that has been commercialized and scaled up in practical terms. At present, 99% of the market share of hybrid battery belongs to Ni-MH power battery.

3、Lithium Battery

The traditional lead-acid battery, Ni-Cd battery and Ni-MH battery are operated under mature technologies, but there are big problems when being used in automobiles as power batteries. Currently, more and more automobile manufacturers choose lithium battery as the power battery for new energy vehicles. 

4、Lithium iron phosphate battery (LifePO4 Battery)

LifePO4 battery is also a kind of lithium battery. Its specific energy is less than half of that of lithium cobalt oxide battery, but its safety is higher and the number of cycles can reach 2000 times, the discharge is stable while the price is cheaper. It has become a new choice for vehicle power.

Classification by battery encapsulation types

1. Cylindrical battery

The cylindrical battery of electric vehicles is basically the same as the AA battery we see everyday. Tesla, a benchmark in the electric vehicle industry, uses this battery shape. Its production process is very mature and its performance is relatively stable. Tesla chose this battery shape mainly because some pores will be left between the batteries while packing, and these pores provide heat dissipation space for the batteries and effectively avoid overheating of the batteries. However, this kind of battery is heavy because of its metal shells, and the energy density of a single battery is not high.

2. Prismatic Battery

Prismatic battery is also very common. Most electric motorcycles run with this kind of battery. One of the characteristics of the battery is its light weight, high energy density and particularly strong power supply capacity. As for electric vehicles, in addition to the above advantages, it also has a great strength that it can be customized according to different vehicles. Besides, the safety is excellent. The disadvantage of this battery is the difficulty to unify the standards. The battery models of each car are different, which easily causes market chaos.

3. Polymer battery

The most common polymer battery is the battery used in our mobile phone. Because of its one layer aluminum-plastic film as the packaging material, the weight of this battery is the lightest one. In the mean time, the energy density is not low, which can be seen from the fact that a small battery such as a mobile phone is able to stand by for several days. However, for the reason of packaging with aluminum-plastic film, the battery basically has no protection measures, then its safety is a bit poor.