Energy conservation and the development of new energy vehicles are inseparable from the updates of battery, motor and electrical control technologies, and among which the battery technology is the key factor. At the recent Seminar on the Development of the Power Battery Industry for China's Energy Saving and New Energy Vehicle, enterprise representatives and experts jointly call on the disposal of current predicament between the energy saving and new energy vehicle's industrialization by full use of the market based on mature technology.
Vehicle power battery is developing rapidly
Han Zuoliang, Director-General of China Battery Industry Association said, during the "11th Five-year Plan" period, China's battery industry have achieved great progress. According to preliminary statistics, in 2010, total output of China's chemical batteries is about 37 billion units, more than half of global battery production; solar cell production is about 5635MW, more than 40 percent of the total global output; the gross battery production in China is about RMB 430.6 billion Yuan. China has become the global center of battery production, processing and trade.
"Especially vehicle power battery is developing fast, and its application field expands unceasingly." According to Han Zuoliang, lead-acid battery, after technical renovation and upgrading of products, is developed quickly and widely used in areas of the airport shuttle buses, golf carts, community shuttle buses and other specialized fields. Through technical progress, the specific power of Ni-Mh batteries is further optimized; meanwhile, its specific energy gets great breakthrough with various performance indicators reaching constant maturity, and it is already applied in hybrid cars on scale level. Through technology innovation, new lithium electricity systems are developed constantly and lithium ion batteries have made new progress in the trial development of pure electric vehicles.
"According to industry expert evaluation, China's automobile power battery has become a member of leading group in the world's power battery industry." Nevertheless, the rapid development, in Han Zuoliang's opinion, is not equal to the international leading technologically. "In this respect, we still lag behind the United States and Japan; it comes forth the industry predicament that there is still none company across China can produce electric vehicle in large-scale."
In early 2009, four ministries of China, namely the Ministry of National Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance and the National Development and Reform Commission, jointly launched a demonstration and promotion application engineering project - "Ten Cities & Thousand Vehicles��- for energy saving and new energy vehicles. The project conducted pilot program in 13 cities, and promulgated a financial subsidy policy. Currently, the number of pilot cities has already increased to 25, with an initial demonstration effect achieved.
"Energy saving" and "new energy" strengthened simultaneously
The so-called pure electric cars generally refer to cars using a single battery as the source of energy-storage power. The battery provides energy to the motor, driving the motor to work and then propelling the vehicle to go. There is no much difference between electric cars and traditional cars, which are mainly distinguished in the power source and the drive system. To put it simply, the electric motor of pure electric vehicle is equivalent to the engine of traditional vehicle, while the storage battery is equivalent to the gasoline tank of traditional vehicle.
A hybrid car has two "pedigree", namely, its driving force comes from the traditional gasoline engine or diesel engine, and electric motor respectively. By using electric motor in hybrid cars, the power system can adjust itself flexibly according to the vehicle's actual operation condition requirements, and the engine can work to its best comprehensive performance, thus reducing oil consumption and emissions.
According to Wang Binggang, leader of the Supervision and Consulting Experts Group of the Major Project of Energy Saving and New Energy Vehicles under China's National 863 Plan, stressed that saving energy and new energy vehicles should be emphasized simultaneously. "Hybrid power" is not a transition strategy, as long as the traditional automobile exists one more day, various forms of hybrid technologies are excellent ways for traditional automobile to achieve energy saving and emission reduction, and these technologies will be applied more and more widely.
Although the newly published "Twelfth Five-year Plan" has clearly stressed that, in the development of the strategic emerging industries, new energy automobile industry will focus on developing technologies of plug-in hybrid cars, pure electric cars and fuel cell vehicle, it also stressed to promote common hybrid technology and auto energy-saving in the upgrade of manufacturing industry. Based on this, Wang Binggang thinks that, during the period of the "Twelfth Five-year Plan", all kinds of hybrid power technologies will be applied widely to traditional vehicles, the action which is not contradictory to the development of new energy vehicles. Experts attending the Seminar hold that, in regard to developing pure electric car, we can realize the leaping development by building battery charging stations vigorously and accelerating the development of lithium battery technology. However, we should also bear in mind that so far fuel-cell-based electric vehicle is the development trend worldwide recognized, that the current hybrid vehicle is the transition product of electric vehicle, therefore, it should also be supported by positive policies.
Mature technology needs industrialization urgently
Dong Yang, the Standing Vice-Chairman and Secretary General of China's Auto Industry Association, said that in fact we needn't miss opportunity for development in discussions of strategic and technical route to the development, rather, we should focus more on hybrid technologies in developing energy saving and new energy vehicles, "because this technology is more likely to be widely used, and achieve large scale fuel-efficiency effect."
As introduced, take Jinan city for example. Jinan is one of the experimental cities operating energy saving and new energy vehicles demonstratively. In 2010, the city bought and put into operation 100 hybrid buses. Test results showed that the fuel consumption was 42 liters per 100 kilometers when hybrid mode is closed, while the number was 28.5 liters when the hybrid power mode works. Hence, the hybrid car saves 13.5 liters of fuel per 100 km than the traditional one, with fuel-efficient rate reaching as high as 30 percent.
"If the pure electric is the strategy, hybrid is the tactics." said Professor Wu Feng from Beijing University of Science and Technology. In fact, during the current exercise of project "Ten City & Thousand Vehicles" for energy saving and new energy vehicles, the buses are basically running by hybrid power, while pure electric ones are not enough. In his view, "hybrid power is the only way out in current phase of development to pure electric technology, and it provides a lot of valuable experience to the development of pure electric technology."