Super capacitor has a very good prospect in the electrification of Chinese buses
March 29, 2019
From mixed passenger cars to plug-in hybrid passenger cars to pure electric passenger cars, Chinese passenger cars are gradually becoming purely electrified. Will the widespread use of ultracapacitors on mixed passenger cars fade away? The world’s leading manufacturer of supercapacitors, Maxwell’s top executives in China’s supercapacitor market, believes that supercapacitors will also have broad application prospects in the Chinese passenger car market.
On July 30, 2014, Maxwell held a media symposium in Beijing. Michael Everett, Chief Technology Officer of Maxwell, and Chen Ning, General Manager of China, introduced the technology and business progress and responded to the super capacitor. Application prospects, cost reduction space, and battery-related issues.
In the promotion of China's energy-saving and new energy vehicles that began in 2012, hybrid buses are the main models. To date, over 10,000 Maxwell supercapacitors have been used in hybrid buses throughout the country. However, in the new round of national policies for the promotion of new energy vehicles, mixed passenger cars are excluded, and plug-in hybrid passenger cars and pure electric passenger cars can enjoy subsidies. In particular, the pure electric drive has been reiterated by the government as a technical line that will not waver.
In such a technological change, will the fate of a super capacitor change? Chen Ning told reporters that "the super capacitor device has a very important role in the application of these technologies, and some can not be replaced." Chen Ning believes that if the pure electric bus only uses the battery, there are several characteristics needed get over. The first is the limited number of charge and discharge times, which can only reach several thousand times. Secondly, the impact on the battery is very high when the vehicle starts and stops. In particular, there are many bus start-stops, that is to say, there is the problem of peak and valley power supply. “If the Valley’s power supply goes to a supercapacitor and the battery makes a long-term, stable supply of energy, this combined application will extend the life of the battery and reduce the number of installed units. Although electric vehicles will gradually become mainstream applications, With the addition of a super capacitor, the stability and safety of the battery will increase." He believes that the super capacitor and the battery make up each other and there is no competition. "One provides instantaneous power supply and one provides continuous power supply. The cooperation between the two is critical."
In the many technical routes of pure electric drive buses, CSR and CNR are all developing fast-charging pure electric buses. “This type of bus stop time is very short, and it needs to be quickly charged. Which kind of equipment can be quickly charged? Or a super capacitor.” Chen Ning introduced, Maxwell is also working with domestic car companies to provide customization Products to promote the use of this model. He also believes that there are large, medium and small cities in China, and the demand for new energy buses is also multi-dimensional. Small cities may also need large numbers of mixed passenger cars. "Supercapacitors have to be done throughout the industry because supercapacitors can effectively recover energy, which means that the absolute energy consumption is really reduced."
Due to cost issues, domestic bus manufacturers and powertrain manufacturers have attempted to reduce the use of supercapacitors or find suppliers other than Maxwell. Chen Ning said that in the past three years, the price of Maxwell super capacitors has dropped by nearly half. With regard to the continuous price reduction space, he believes that it is necessary to master the balance. "Reducing prices cannot be done at the expense of reliability and quality."
Michael Everett said in this regard that there is less room for cost reduction in ultracapacitor technology itself. In addition to technological innovation, Maxwell is also committed to helping car companies to further reduce costs from system solutions, "because systemic costs are the ultimate cost."
In this symposium, Maxwell also introduced its newly developed 2.85V single body and the latest DuraBlueTM technology. Taking into account the pressure of the Chinese market on integrated system costs, this new generation of products can effectively reduce the total system cost.
Unlike previous 2.7-volt cells, the new cell voltage reached 2.85 volts. "This means that passenger cars can build as many super-capacitor modules with fewer cells," explains Chen Ning, and the corresponding costs have also been reduced. In addition, the single-use DuraBlueTM technology also has a corresponding increase in performance for the Chinese market. Its impact resistance is four times higher than that of its predecessor and its competitors, while its vibration resistance is the same for its predecessor and its competitors. 3 times, more suitable for the application of road transport vehicles such as buses in China, has taken an important step for the localization of Maxwell's super capacity products.
Outside the passenger vehicle industry, two Maxwell executives believe that there is still a broad application space for supercapacitors in China, including wind turbine pitch technology, smart start-stop systems for cars, energy recovery systems, and rail transit Station energy recovery, internet access and energy storage applications in power grids, etc.
Compared with batteries, supercapacitors have a much longer service life, use wider ambient temperatures, and have higher power densities, but are much lower in energy density than batteries. However, there have been research institutions or companies claiming that supercapacitors will replace batteries, especially the now popular lithium-ion batteries have become the new king of energy storage. But Michael Everett said that super capacitors and batteries are good partners. "Supercapacitors are power devices and batteries are energy devices. Most applications that require energy have both continuous, stable energy demand, and power demand. In such applications In China, the combined use of super capacitors and batteries will work best."
"Supercapacitors will replace batteries in some applications with peak power supply requirements, but they will not replace any one battery as a whole." Everett said, "The lithium-ion battery industry will have a very long life, probably more than you and me. I must live long."
The above is the Super capacitor has a very good prospect in the electrification of Chinese buses we have listed for you. You can submit the following form to obtain more industry information we provide for you.
You can visit our website or contact us, and we will provide the latest consultation and solutions
