Introduction: There are industrial chain research shows that BYD intends to use aerogel for all products; The aerogel market is getting more attention. How much aerogel can be hidden in a car?

First, why can aerogel gradually open the new energy vehicle market?

Recently, the Secretary general of the China Automobile Circulation Association Automobile Market Research Branch said that in the next two years, the state will further increase the consumption of new energy vehicles, and promote the rapid development of the industry through various measures such as issuing consumer coupons.

With the promotion of various policies and industries, new energy vehicles have gradually monopolized a world in the automobile market. However, although new energy vehicles are an inevitable direction for the development of the automotive industry, the industry is still in the stage of constantly breaking through core technologies. For example, in terms of power batteries, several key factors such as high-specific energy batteries, high-safety batteries, and long-life batteries need to be improved.

On one side is the growth of supply and demand brought about by the vigorous development of the industry, and on the other side is the urgent breakthrough of technology. How to balance the conflict between the two? How to master their own core technology, reduce the dependence on foreign imports? Now, some car companies are gradually writing the right answer.

According to Tianfeng Securities industrial chain research shows that BYD intends to use aerogel for all products. Aerogel is known to be used in vehicle structures and automotive batteries, in addition to the well-known BYD, as well as Ningde Times, SAIC and other familiar enterprises have adopted aerogel.

2. What are the applications of aerogel in a car?

A common problem of new energy vehicles is battery safety, which is closely related to the core technology of power batteries mentioned in the first paragraph.

In June 2022, the Ministry of Emergency Management released new energy vehicle fire data for the first quarter of 2022, which was higher than the average 8.8% increase of ordinary transportation fires. The main reasons for the fire are aging battery components, thermal runaway battery, high load and so on.

One of the major reasons behind spontaneous combustion and fire is the insufficient insulation level inside the battery. When there is a short circuit inside and outside the power battery, the battery will release a lot of heat in a short period of time, resulting in a sharp rise in temperature, and a single thermal runaway battery will cause a larger thermal runaway of the adjacent battery through thermal conduction and flame, resulting in a hot accident caused by the entire battery module/battery pack due to thermal runaway.

Due to the advantages of low thermal conductivity, A1 non-combustible, wide temperature range, light weight and long service life, aerogel is considered to be a new material with high safety performance that can be applied to the power battery of new energy vehicles.

By processing and packaging into aerogel pads and applying them between battery cells, between battery modules and shells, and between the outside of battery packs and carriages, the low thermal conductivity and flame retardant performance of aerogel can prevent the spontaneous combustion of batteries or delay the spread of combustion to a certain extent, providing higher and more stable safety performance for new energy vehicles. It can also provide more time for on-site personnel to escape in the event of an accident.

The module performs two main functions, one is linking and the other is isolating. According to public information, between modules, BYD's security design at the module level is mainly isolation, that is, "divide and rule" through isolation of the problem monomer. This is the fire insulation design of the module. Module thermal runaway management mainly relies on aerogels between single cells: aerogels are encapsulated in PET, and the overall thermal conductivity is less than 0.04w/(K.m), which can delay the heat transfer between monomers. By isolating individual problem cells, prevent the impact on other individual cells, thus ensuring the safety of the battery module level.

Iii. Summary

Wang Binggang, director of the Technical Expert Committee of the Strategic Alliance for technological innovation in the electric vehicle industry, said that the power battery is the most important component of new energy vehicles and the key to the development of the entire industry.

In the situation that Ningde Era, BYD, SAIC and other heads have successively entered the aerogel track, the late new energy vehicle track has become one of the important growth poles of aerogel in the future, which seems to be foreseeable.