At present, China's two-wheeled electric vehicles are mainly divided into lead-acid battery two-wheeled electric vehicles and lithium-ion battery two-wheeled electric vehicles, with battery costs of 30% -50% range. The lead-acid battery is the main type of battery used in two-wheel electric vehicles because of its low price and high stability, but it is easy to pollute the environment during the manufacturing process.
Breakthrough three-power technology and intelligence will be two-wheel electric vehicles, especially electric motorcycle manufacturers in the competition point. At present, electric motorcycle manufacturers need to overcome technical difficulties, to overcome specific scenarios, temperature, and other application constraints and high-endurance battery system technology is the key.
Now, a new kind of battery has emerged in the industry.
A start-up based in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, is exploring the use of niobium-lithium batteries in two-wheeled electric vehicles. It's a battery innovation that's only moved from the lab to the industry in recent years. The niobium lithium-ion battery is currently used by Volkswagen, Honda, and Toyota, and in the two-wheeler segment, the company is the first to use this technology. With the addition of niobium, the battery's conductivity and stability have been greatly improved, and it can be charged by ultra-high-power Chargers and can be shared with car-grade chargers, it used to take four to six hours for a two-wheeled vehicle to be fully charged, and the niobium lithium-ion battery can be recharged in 10 minutes.
Niobium batteries are currently expected to cost between 25% and 30% more than conventional lithium-ion batteries. At the heart of the high cost of niobium batteries is the high cost of niobium itself as a rare element, explains a battery company founder, but the niobium battery's ultra-high damage resistance, stability, and ultra-long service life can not be compared with the traditional lithium battery. And because the cycle life is much longer than lithium-ion batteries, the overall cost will be lower.
Two years ago, the Brazilian subsidiary of the start-up, as an exclusive partner in the two-wheel industry, began working with Brazilian mining company CBMM and Toshiba of Japan to develop a niobium-lithium battery for two-wheel vehicles. CBMM provides niobium ore resources and niobium technology materials, while Toshiba of Japan produces the cells. The company is responsible for the development and mass production of niobium lithium-ion battery technology and battery management systems.
A typical problem with niobium ions in lithium-ion batteries is the high charging current and the difficulty of matching the charging signal, which requires a lot of early research and development to achieve a revolutionary fast-charging capability.
The niobium lithium-ion battery, which the company is leading the development of, has now completed early testing and product matching, with the first batch of 100,000 planned for the CR6 model, which is expected to be 2024 in the Brazilian market.
