BYD has officially introduced its new Blade battery pack, which it claims will mitigate concerns about battery safety in electric vehicles. The pack will first be used in the company’s upcoming Han EV that is slated to be launched in June this year, boasting an EV range of up to 605 km and an acceleration time of just 3.9 seconds from zero to 100 km/h.
The Blade battery has been in development by BYD for several years, and sees the singular cells arranged together in an array before being inserted into the pack. The automaker says its design also allows for space utilisation to be increased by over 50% compared to conventional lithium iron phosphate block batteries.
In the company’s internal testing, the Blade battery did not emit smoke nor catch fire while undergoing nail penetration tests. The same couldn’t be said of ternary lithium batteries, which exceeded 500 degrees Celsius and violently burned when subjected to the same test.
Conventional lithium iron phosphate block batteries fared better, as they did not openly emit flames or smoke, although its surface temperature reached dangerous levels of between 200 to 400 degrees Celsius. Based on these results, BYD implied that EVs equipped with the Blade battery would be far less susceptible to catching fire – even when they are severely damaged.
Other extreme forms of testing include crushing, bending, heat testing in a furnace at 300 degrees Celsius, and overcharging the battery by 260%, all of which did not result in the Blade battery catching fire or exploding.
“In the past few years, many EV manufacturers have fallen into a competition for ever-greater cruising range. When the range becomes the prime factor to consider, this focus is then transferred to power battery makers, leading to unreasonable pursuits of energy density in the battery industry,” BYD stated in its official release.
“It is due to this unpractical focus on energy density that safety has been sidelined from power battery development. BYD’s Blade battery aims to bring battery safety back to the forefront, a redirection from the industry’s tenuous focus on this crucial aspect,” it continued.
The company isn’t keen on hogging the Blade battery for itself, and is willing to work with global partners to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes for all industry players.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
