The key to the competition of power lithium battery companies

BMS is the "brain" of the power battery, which is responsible for managing and maintaining each module of the battery, preventing battery overcharge and overdischarge, monitoring battery status, and prolonging battery life. With the development of new energy vehicles, the market size of BMS has also increased significantly. At the same time, the market shares of professional BMS companies, battery companies and vehicle companies have undergone tremendous changes. For any party, if they want to win the battle for the BMS market, they must master the core technology of BMS.

Small and medium-sized BMS companies will be eliminated if the market share drops to 30%

The market size of BMS is closely related to the development of new energy vehicles. According to the planning of relevant national ministries and commissions, in 2020, my country's new energy vehicles will achieve the goal of exceeding 2 million new energy vehicles, which will undoubtedly bring huge room for growth for BMS. In the future, the scale of my country's BMS market will continue to expand.

According to industry forecasts, from 2018 to 2020, the market size of BMS in my country will reach 11.6 billion yuan, 13.8 billion yuan and 15.7 billion yuan respectively. The tens of billions of market cake is really attractive. In recent years, power battery companies and vehicle companies have also stepped up research and development efforts to participate in the competition in the BMS market.

All three parties competing for the BMS market have advantages and disadvantages. Professional BMS companies have deep accumulation in technology, big data, etc., rich experience, and have advantages such as cost control. However, it has an asset-light attribute, and it is extremely easy to be acquired in the face of the huge volume of power battery companies, especially vehicle companies. At present, the battery giant CATL is valued at 100 billion yuan, while Kelie Technology, a relatively leading domestic BMS company, has recently raised a market value of only 6 billion yuan. BMS companies and power battery companies are not in the same order of magnitude.understand more:48v lithium ion battery 200ah

Vehicle companies have strong financial strength and are familiar with the actual needs of vehicles for BMS, but they still need to understand power batteries. Automobile companies are increasing their investment in this area. For example, since June 2013, SAIC has set up a project to do independent research and development of BMS. It is understood that SAIC has invested more than 6 billion yuan in new energy research and development during the four years before and after the development of the e50. From a global perspective, first-tier car companies such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz pay more attention to the research and development of BMS, especially the intervention of the main control unit of BMS.

Power battery companies are engaged in the research and development and production of batteries, have a good understanding of the electrochemical performance of batteries, and are familiar with BMS research and development. This advantage is unique to power battery companies. The disadvantage is that power battery companies need to have a thorough understanding of the needs of the vehicle.

In fact, the three parties participating in the domestic BMS market competition have changed. The market share of professional BMS R&D companies has been continuously eroded by vehicle companies and power battery companies, and their dominant position may be lost. According to statistics, in 2016, the market share of professional BMS companies has dropped from 60% to 42%. In the first half of 2017, its market share further dropped to about 30%, and the living space of professional BMS companies was continuously squeezed. In this battle for BMS market share, it is difficult for small and medium-sized BMS companies with weak R&D capabilities to escape the fate of being eliminated.

The complexity of the BMS system itself determines that it has strong technical barriers and requires technology research and development time and technical precipitation. Whether it is a complete vehicle company, a power battery company or a professional BMS company, the key to winning the competition is to firmly grasp the core technology of BMS.

So, what is the core technology of BMS? The BMS system generally includes a detection module and an operation control module. The former refers to measuring the voltage, current and temperature of the battery cell and the voltage of the battery pack, and transmitting these signals to the operation module for processing and issuing instructions. . Therefore, the computing control module is the brain of the BMS, which generally includes hardware, basic software, runtime environment (RTE) and application software. Among them, the application software is the core part. The environment developed with Simulink (a multi-domain simulation and model-based design tool for dynamic systems and embedded systems) is generally divided into two parts: battery state estimation algorithms and fault diagnosis and protection. State estimation includes SOC (StateOfCharge), SOP (StateOfPower), SOH (StateofHealth), and balance and thermal management.Also read:72v 100ah lithium battery pack

National and BMS expert Lin Jian believes that a complete BMS requires accurate estimation of SOC, SOP and SOH, an effective dynamic balance control strategy, and an error-tolerant and error-correcting mechanism. The core technology of BMS is battery status monitoring. Estimation strategy. Whether it is a car company, a battery company or a professional BMS company, only an algorithm with high precision and high error correction capability can be regarded as a "killer" and win the competition.

What is the purpose of BMS market competition and power battery companies?

When Lin Jian talked about the core technology of BMS, he once said bluntly that if he cannot master the core technology of BMS, how can he talk about "overtaking on a curve"? It can be seen that the core technology of BMS is of great significance to my country's new energy automobile industry to win the global competition. BatteryChina.com once appealed in the article "Thoughts from BMW Battery Factory: Car Enterprises Control PACK Technology Cell Factory's Right to Discuss?" extremely important.

So, in the context of the growing BMS market, what should power battery companies do? Simply put, they need to get involved in the research and development of BMS. At present, powerful power battery companies have directly invested or bought shares in BMS companies. For example, Sound Group, the parent company of Thornton New Energy, has strategically invested in Youdan Technology, combining the resource advantages of Thornton New Energy with the technological advantages of Youdan Technology. Strong alliance to jointly create a powerful power battery system. This is also a reference method for power battery companies to strengthen their advantages in the BMS field.

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