The market demand for high-end new energy vehicles is growing, and the large cylindrical battery industry has broad development prospects.

​ ​According to different cell packaging forms, new energy vehicle power batteries can be divided into soft pack batteries, square batteries and cylindrical batteries. Cylindrical batteries are mainly steel-cased cylindrical lithium iron phosphate batteries, which have the advantages of wide operating environment temperature, long cycle life, and high capacity. As the new energy vehicle industry develops towards high-end, large cylindrical batteries represented by 4680 cylindrical batteries are expected to become the mainstream of the market.

Large cylindrical batteries mainly use dry electrode technology. The electrode powder needs to be mixed with a binder first, and then the finished product is made through processes such as extrusion, molding, and lamination. Compared with the traditional wet electrode process, the dry electrode process has the advantages of low production cost, simple process, and low environmental pollution. Although my country’s cylindrical battery production technology has matured, large cylindrical batteries still have technical difficulties in laser welding, liquid injection, slitting and other aspects, resulting in a low yield rate. This is the main challenge facing the development of the large cylindrical battery industry.

The 4680 cylindrical battery refers to the large cylindrical battery with a diameter of 46 mm and a height of 80 mm first launched by Tesla. The 4680 cylindrical battery uses high-nickel positive electrode and silicon-carbon negative electrode materials, and uses all-lugs, CTC technology and dry electrode technology to greatly improve battery energy density, wide temperature range and safety. In the first half of 2022, the yield rate of 4680 cylindrical battery cells produced at Tesla’s California factory has exceeded 90%, and it is expected that this product will be mass-produced by 2024.

According to statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, my country’s new energy vehicle sales reached 6.887 million units, a year-on-year increase of 93.4%. New energy vehicles are the main demand side for large cylindrical batteries, but compared with soft pack batteries and prismatic batteries, my country’s large cylindrical batteries have a lower market share. As national living standards continue to improve, the demand for high-end new energy vehicles is becoming increasingly strong, which will bring a broad market space for large cylindrical batteries.

According to the “2023-2028 Large Cylindrical Battery Industry Market In-depth Research and Investment Prospect Forecast Analysis Report released by the Industrial Research Center, Major players in the global large cylindrical battery market include Tesla, Envision Power, Everview Lithium Energy, CATL, Panasonic, Guoxuan High-Tech, LG New Energy, BAK Power, etc. In recent years, the prosperity of the large cylindrical battery industry has continued to increase, attracting many battery companies in my country to lay out R&D and production tracks. In January 2023, BAK Power’s Changzhou production base project planned a total investment of 13 billion yuan, and the first phase planned to build three large cylindrical battery production lines.

Industry analysts said that currently, due to factors such as high technical barriers, my country’s large cylindrical battery industry is still in its infancy, with product market share relatively low. In the future, as the market demand for high-end new energy vehicles grows, the large cylindrical battery industry will usher in broad development prospects. Many battery companies in my country have begun to lay out the R&D and production tracks for large cylindrical batteries. In the future, domestically produced large cylindrical batteries will gain greater market space.