New energy vehicle network

In recent years, with the increasingly popular concept of energy conservation, environmental protection and environmental protection, and the support of relevant government policies, China's new energy vehicles have experienced explosive growth. In 2017, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China were close to 800,000 units, reaching 794,000 respectively. The number of vehicles and 777,000 vehicles increased by 53.8% and 53.3% respectively. According to the data of China Automobile Association, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in the first six months of January 2018 were 413,000 and 412,000 respectively, up 94.9% and 111.6% year-on-year. The performance in the first half was far better than in previous years.

       At the same time that new energy vehicles are advancing, the entire industry is also facing new challenges. “Hourly anxiety” can be said to be the first priority that must be solved.

       There are three countermeasures: one is to increase battery capacity and increase energy density; the other is to apply lightweight technology to “slim down” for car weight reduction; the third is to speed up the replacement of electric pile station layout and alleviate the charging problem.

      According to industry insiders, at present, under the constraints of comprehensive factors such as the difficulty in major breakthroughs in power battery related technologies and the relative lag of the replacement of electric pile stations, carbon fiber lightweight new energy vehicles will usher in spring, and “the scenery is good here. ".

      In January 2016, Wan Gang, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Minister of Science and Technology, said that lightweighting is also an inevitable trend in the development of new energy vehicles.

      Some experts said that there are two things that can subvert the automotive industry or bring the automotive industry to a higher level in the future: one is AI (Artificial Intelligence), and the second is carbon fiber lightweight, which uses carbon fiber composites to subvert metal materials.

      Carbon fiber reinforced composites have excellent physical properties: 30% lighter than aluminum, 50% lighter than steel, and 7 to 9 times stronger than steel. They were first used in high-tech fields such as aerospace, aerospace, and military. It is recognized in the industry that CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced composite material) is the best way to solve the weight loss of new energy vehicles. The application of carbon fiber can reduce the weight of automobiles by 30% to 60%. It is known as the “king of lightweight” and is a new energy source. The leader of the car's "slimming revolution" plays a key role in car lightweighting.

       So, what is the current status and application prospects of carbon fiber lightweight new energy vehicles?

       This article attempts to analyze for industry evaluation.

       Material revolution

       The rule of the automotive materials industry is that when a material monopoly has been formed, it is difficult for the latecomers to completely subvert, only waiting for the next wave of industrial innovation. Nowadays, with the acceleration of the era of new energy vehicles, a brand new, imaginative space for automotive materials is opening. Automotive non-metallic materials such as carbon fiber composites are ushered in an unprecedented historical golden period.

       Related research data show that carbon fiber is a new type of fiber material with high strength and high modulus fiber with carbon content above 95%. It has low density, high specific performance, no creep, high temperature resistance and fatigue resistance in non-oxidizing environment. Good properties, specific heat and conductivity between non-metal and metal, small thermal expansion coefficient and anisotropy, good corrosion resistance, good X-ray permeability. The strength of carbon fiber is more than 2 times higher than that of ultra-high strength steel, 30% lighter than aluminum, 50% lighter than steel, and 7 to 9 times stronger than steel. Because of its light weight, excellent shock absorption and high comfort, the surface is high. The hardness is not good. When the applied external force is higher than the breaking strength, it will cause breakage. For this reason, the carbon fiber has a strong energy absorption performance in the event of a collision. The traditional sheet metal repair work is not applicable to the carbon fiber body, and the deformation parts generated after the collision are also mainly replaced. The complexity of the process can not be compared with the "knit sweater". The processing of "carbon" into a suitable carbon fiber sheet has to go through hundreds of complicated processes and is costly.

       If the analysis is based on 400kg of steel consumption, the weight loss data of different materials can be obtained: high-strength steel needs 320kg, aluminum alloy 240kg, magnesium alloy 220kg, composite material 160kg, weight loss potential: 10%-20%, 40%, 50% and 60% of composite materials.

       Comparison of body quality of various materials

       China has been developing carbon fiber materials since the 1970s, and it has started almost simultaneously with the United States and Japan. However, at present, China's carbon fiber industry has a large gap with the United States and Japan. High-end products appeared late and have not yet been mass-produced; low-end products were also impacted by international carbon fiber giants.

       At present, Japan and the United States control most of the world's carbon fiber production capacity and control the production of high-end carbon fiber. Japan Toray Co., Ltd. started out in the development and production of PAN-based carbon fiber and is the representative of Japanese carbon fiber production enterprises. Hexcel of the United States also followed the pace of Japan's Toray. The Trident II submarine-launched missile and the pygmy small-scale intercontinental missile developed by the United States in the 1980s used Hexcel's IM7 carbon fiber (roughly equivalent to the T800 class). At present, the world's major producers of small tow carbon fiber include Japan Toray, Japan Toho rayon, Japan Mitsubishi Rayon, and the US Hexcel and Cytec companies, although the output varies greatly, but the technology can still be compared with Japan III. The giant is beautiful.

      Before and after the development of carbon fiber by Toray, China began to independently develop carbon fiber. However, unfortunately, after nearly 40 years of development in the mid-1970s, China's carbon fiber industry's overall development and production level is still very backward, and it is unable to compete with the US and Japan companies in the market.

       The most intuitive example is that Japan Toray and American Hexcel developed high-strength carbon fiber of T800/IM7 grade in the 1980s, and China completed the breakthrough of T1000 grade carbon fiber production technology in 2018, and finally the quality of mass production and The cost remains to be seen, and it can be said that it has been behind the United States and Japan for nearly 30 years.

      In recent years, with the continuous guidance of policies and the continuous injection of capital, the domestic carbon fiber industry has ushered in rapid development. The efforts of Chinese enterprises have not only narrowed this gap, but also greatly reduced the price of imported carbon fiber. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "Petrochemical and Chemical Industry Development Plan (2016-2020)" proposes to accelerate the development of high-performance carbon fiber and composite materials, focusing on high-carbon fiber low-cost, continuous and stable, large-scale production technology, and accelerate high-strength medium-mode, high-strength and high-mode carbon fiber. Industrialization breakthrough. At the same time, the special support fund is gradually complete. Kangdexin, Blonde Technology, Hebang Bio, Haiyuan Machinery, Jinggong Technology and other listed companies or their shareholder group capital are continuously injected to lay out the carbon fiber industry chain. Relying on the listed companies and the shareholder group platform, it is conducive to the integration of resource technology advantages, providing financial security and accelerating the development of the domestic carbon fiber industry.

       At present, China has gradually mastered the more advanced dry-jet wet spinning raw silk preparation method, T700 grade carbon fiber to achieve stable mass production, and T800 grade carbon fiber breakthrough technology blockade. The independent production of high-performance carbon fiber provides the basis for the transformation of China's carbon fiber application from low-end sports and leisure to high-end industrial market. The focus of domestic enterprises has gradually shifted from the focus on carbon fiber production to the development and application of high value-added downstream composite materials.

       With the technological breakthrough of the rapid prototyping process of carbon fiber composite materials, carbon fiber composite materials have been able to meet the needs of large-scale industrial production of automobiles. In addition, with the maturity of the carbon fiber raw material production process, the cost of carbon fiber has also dropped considerably in recent years.

       In particular, it is worth noting that in the aspect of molding technology and automobile lightweighting, Kangde Composite Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Kangde Composite Materials”) is ahead. Since 2011, the Kangde Group and the Kangdexin Group have integrated high-quality resources to create the world's only carbon fiber lightweight ecological platform and become a service provider for providing system solutions for automotive carbon fiber lightweighting. At the JEC International Composites Exhibition held in Paris, France, Conde Recycled Co., Ltd. developed a full carbon fiber composite body. After successfully solving the problems of carbon fiber composite body-in-white structural design, precision manufacturing and body-in-white assembly, A modular design of the body structure is achieved.

       From April 25th to May 4th, 2018, the biennial Beijing International Auto Show was held grandly. The leader of domestic carbon fiber composite materials, Kangde Composite Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Kangde Composite Materials”) carried all carbon fiber. The latest developments in body, fiberglass leaf springs and Surface-RTM parts are on display, demonstrating the highest level of lightweighting of China's automotive carbon fiber composites. For the first time, Kangde Composite Materials has brought the full carbon fiber body completely designed, developed and manufactured by the industrial ecological chain enterprises. Kangde Composites Vice President, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and General Manager of Kangde New European Composites R&D Center and Dr. He Peng, General Manager of KDXRoding European Automotive Design Center, said that Kangde Composites has concentrated on the development of the past two years. The results indicate that China has the ability to design, develop, manufacture and mass produce automotive composite materials. Driven by Kangde Composites, China's automotive carbon fiber composite materials achieved a major breakthrough from 0 to 1. At present, the first phase production capacity of Kangde Composite Materials in Langfang has been completed, and the construction of the second phase of 1.5 million pieces of capacity is underway. At the same time, the construction of the capacity of 6 million pieces of Changzhou carbon fiber composite material base has begun.

       At present, Kangde Composite Materials has established business partnerships with 59 auto companies such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, Beiqi, Changan and Weilai. The products cover automotive structural parts, covering parts, automotive decorative parts, carbon fiber body-in-white, and many The project has entered or will enter the mass production phase.

       On November 7, 2017, Lin Boqiang, director of the Energy Economic Research Center of Xiamen University, told the media that the development of carbon fiber in China is still good. In addition to electric vehicles, carbon fiber can be used in other fields. In addition, the development of carbon fiber in China and abroad The gap is gradually narrowing.

       Some experts pointed out that in 2016, the carbon fiber accounted for 12% of the global application of carbon fiber, of which China is 3%. It is estimated that the global carbon fiber demand will reach 130,000 tons in 2020, and the domestic demand will reach 29,000 tons in 2020. Import substitution needs are urgent.

       With the launch of the automotive and civil aviation carbon fiber lightweight market, China will become the world's largest carbon fiber market. The further localization and scale of carbon fiber will become one of the key factors supporting the development of China's high-end industry.

       Application status

      Relevant research found that the R&D and application layout of multinational car companies in the field of carbon fiber vehicles has been far in the forefront.

      The history of carbon fiber used in automotive materials dates back to 1953, and the world's first fiber reinforced composite vehicle, GM Corvette, was successfully manufactured.

      In 1992, General Motors exhibited an ultra-light concept car made of carbon fiber composite material. The body quality was 191.0 kg, the overall vehicle quality was reduced by 68%, and the fuel economy was 40%.

      In 1993, Lamborghini launched the Murciélago replacement, which features a full-carbon composite single-shell body with a mass of only 145.5 kg.

      With more than a decade of in-depth research and experience in the optimization of processes, materials, equipment and tools, and the use of carbon fiber reinforced composites (CFRP) in production cars, the BMW Group is now the only company to use carbon fiber reinforcement in large-scale production. Automotive manufacturers of composite materials (CFRP) technology will have an annual production capacity of 9,000 tons of carbon fiber for vehicles, which has an absolute advantage in this field. In 2011, BMW officially released the BMW i sub-brand of the new era. The body is made of lightweight and high-strength carbon fiber reinforced composite materials, which indicates that luxury cars will enter the era of “carbon fiber”. The commercialization of the BMW i3 equipped with a carbon fiber composite body has opened the door to lightweight applications for carbon fiber vehicles. Its total carbon fiber-loaded body has a total weight of only 112.2 kg. Known as "the most technologically advanced model in BMW's history," the BMW i series will lead the trend of automotive development in the industry. The four-door and two-cover of the model are also made of composite materials (outer board - engineering plastic, inner reinforcing board - glass fiber carbon fiber reinforced). At present, the body structure parts made of carbon fiber composite materials have been widely used in the Z-9 and Z-22 series developed by German BMW. It is predicted that BMW will continue to lead in the application of CFRP (carbon fiber reinforced composites) in the future.

       Major European car manufacturers outside of BMW will also adopt CFRP on production cars of 20,000 to 50,000 production scales per year. Germany Volkswagen's "2L car" CC1 research project, carbon fiber composite materials used in the body of up to 45%. The hood of the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 commemorative sedan made of carbon fiber composites from General Motors is only 9.3 kg. Ford and Porsche hoods are also made of carbon fiber composite material, which achieves extremely high weight reduction without sacrificing safety.

       Undoubtedly, the breakthrough of carbon fiber rapid prototyping process, the decline of raw material cost, and the urgent need for quantification of new energy vehicle body, the three factors jointly promote the rapid growth of global lightweight energy carbon fiber vehicle body application.

       Major auto companies have cooperated with carbon fiber giants to deploy carbon fiber lightweight business. In 2015, the global carbon fiber vehicle market demand is about 8,700 tons. It is estimated that the average annual growth rate will be 21% in the next few years. By 2020, the demand will exceed 20,000 tons, which will become one of the fastest growing and most demanding areas.

       Compared with foreign giants, the application of domestic car companies in the field of carbon fiber is still in the stage of initial research and development and small-scale application. At present, the high cost of carbon fiber composite materials, the lack of mass production processes and equipment and other factors seriously restrict its Large-scale application in the automotive field.

       However, there are still a growing number of domestic new energy auto companies and carbon fiber composite materials companies are accelerating the layout of automotive carbon fiber materials.

       In 2014, Chery Automobile took the lead in launching a new energy vehicle in the Beijing market. This is a new energy vehicle product jointly developed by Chery and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The model made of carbon fiber composite material is very smooth and humanized.

       Beiqi and Kangde Group have always had deep strategic cooperation: BAIC's pure electric vehicle ARCFOX-1, its body is the first domestically-formed integrated carbon fiber composite body on the body of Kangde composite material; BJ80SUV adopts The carbon fiber front cover has created a precedent for the mass application of domestic automotive carbon fiber lightweight components. In April 2017, Kangde Composite Materials and Beiqi Collection