In 1991, Japan's Sony (SONY) developed a commercialized lithium-ion batteries, in 1995, Toyota application of nickel-metal hydride batteries in the Prius (PRIUS) hybrid car, where parallel to the vision of lithium-ion batteries applied to the car, for which the industry opened up the unremitting exploration and attempts. So far, nickel-metal hydride battery in-vehicle applications have been more than 20 years, by Toyota has been developed to the extreme, and lithium-ion battery in-vehicle applications have begun to commercialize.

In just over a decade, lithium-ion batteries to achieve automotive, in fact, has been and is going through several stages: exploration and accumulation stage, the wild blowout stage, adjusting and reflecting on the stage, the three countries and the orderly development of the stage of the melee. Each stage of the trigger and start and stop are due to the policy changes, technical disputes and the death of the market. As a witness and participant of the industry, we are actually in a worried mood about the past and the current status quo, but we have a happy and eager heart for the future development prospect. In order to sort out the rights and wrongs of the past, we would like to review and summarize the past, understand the reality from the industry's history and technology, and look forward to the future from the special characteristics of lithium-ion batteries. There are two articles in total, and this article is the first one: the development history of power battery - from the barbaric growth to the orderly development.

Follow the national policy ("Tenth Five-Year Plan" plan to determine the development of electric vehicles, in 2001 to start the study of power batteries for vehicles; "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period to achieve the demonstration operation; "Twelfth Five-Year Plan During the "12th Five-Year Plan" to determine the pure electric-based route, new energy vehicles as a national strategy; "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" should be the depth of technology, market scale), the power battery development meandering forward, summarized in the following periods:

Phase I (2001 ~ 2008)

From a comprehensive point of view, this stage of lithium-ion power battery belongs to the start-up and accumulation period, only a few companies in the deep plowing, persistence, perseverance. It should be said that this stage, especially before 2006, there is not much experience to learn from (can learn from the 3C lithium-ion battery technology), really belongs to the technology of the "original" period, some companies are shallow, stopping.

The only demonstration is the Beijing Olympic Games (595 energy-saving and new energy vehicle applications, 50 lithium-ion batteries Olympic bus), so that we see the possibility of industrialization, some companies began to transition to dabble in power batteries, rubbing their fists, eager to try.

Phase II (2008~2011)

2010 Shanghai World Expo, Guangzhou Asian Games, and later the implementation of the national "ten cities, one thousand vehicles" program, a few attractive "cake" has spawned a lot of battery factory such as "sprouting"! The company has embarked on a short and quick development path: homogeneous technology and poor quality control. But the market's "hunger" urged their brutal growth, while the market's immaturity and technology development time "short" encouraged the survival of these enterprises. This stage of the battery factory technology can not be divided into high and low, how deep the foundation has not yet seen the difference, there is a "Glen Helm phenomenon" (the value of things will not be high value of things out of circulation).

Phase III (2012~2013)

Should be characterized by the saying: "only when the tide fades, we can know who is swimming naked". The national subsidy policy delay, route transition adaptation, resulting in short-term market demand is not stable; at the same time, the first demonstration of battery operation problems have been revealed, the technical problems come to the fore, which comprehensively affects the demand for weak and technical wait-and-see, wavering. This makes a lot of "halfway out" of the enterprise "know the difficulties and retreat", "take the opportunity to return to the common people"; part of the pure power battery companies lack of funds, unsustainable, exit the stage of history. Let everyone feel that the cumulative sales of 500,000 new energy vehicles in 2015 is out of reach.

This phase has actually precipitated some technically solid companies.

Phase IV (2014~2015)

The problems encountered in the third phase were short-lived in the overall historical context, but it was indeed a permanent winter for some enterprises, which failed to see the arrival of spring. The country from the macro level of new energy vehicles again repositioned, rising as a national strategy (General Secretary Xi Jinping's speech on new energy vehicles in 2014), which injected a powerful agent for the development of new energy vehicles, the development of new energy vehicles into the fast lane, thus bringing a strong demand for power batteries. Especially in 2015, a single year of lithium-ion power battery production and sales reached 17GWh, each power battery manufacturers can be said to be full capacity, performance satisfaction, while many manufacturers have accelerated the expansion plan. Part of the enterprise "resurgence", salted fish turnaround, at the same time there are some outsiders to decorate the facade, become a member of the industry.

It can be estimated that this wave of blowout and the second stage has similarities, battery factory mixed, uneven quality, there will inevitably be quality, performance problems; the difference is that there are several companies technology has been precipitated over the years, with the role of the industry leader.

Phase V (2016-)

Abnormal fluctuations in the development, brought about by the quality of the products into the market; the sword to go off the edge of the enterprise to take advantage of the policy gap to cheat the state subsidies; the past 2015 electric vehicle safety accidents occurred in a number of cases, caused by the rapid development of the market and the actual technology does not match the contradiction between the concern. Comprehensive factors, regulation, management, standardization and other measures are bound to be applied, in this process, will inevitably be a big wave of sand, from the product technology, after-sales service and other aspects of the three, six, nine and so on, and gradually produce a few "oligarchs" enterprises, to lead the industry in the direction of the development of a healthy.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology began the implementation of the "new energy vehicles to promote the application of recommended models catalog" and "automotive power battery industry norms" at the end of April in a new round of instructions for battery companies and vehicles to re-requirements and constraints, conducive to the healthy development of the industry. According to incomplete statistics, the current total of more than 150 power battery companies, but our analysis shows that more than 10 years less than 5, most of which were established in the last 3 years to develop. The development of technology needs competition, but also need precipitation, so appropriate policy guidance is necessary.

It seems that the application of all technologies in our country can not escape the law of innovation, marketization, disorderly competitiveness, savage growth, market elimination and standardized management, and orderly development, power battery is also.

Happily we are already moving past the stage of wild growth and walking towards the stage of orderly development.