I asked you to save a bankrupt factory and you became the richest man in the world.

Chapter 398 097-098: Choice of battery control system! (5000 words)
After determining the goal, we naturally entered the most difficult stage of tackling the tough challenges of Hillhouse Song PLUS.

During this period, Gao Huaijun rarely ran around, but stayed mainly in Xicheng.

There are no major problems in the research and development of Hillhouse Song models.

The key now is the research and development of Hillhouse batteries!
Hillhouse Battery is now concentrating its efforts and temporarily suspending the research and development of all batteries in other fields, focusing only on the research of ternary lithium batteries.

High energy density is the biggest advantage of ternary lithium batteries, and voltage platform is an important indicator of battery energy density.

This determines the basic performance and cost of the battery.

The higher the voltage platform, the greater the specific capacity, so for batteries of the same volume and weight, and even the same ampere-hours, ternary material lithium batteries with a higher voltage platform will have a longer battery life.

The discharge voltage platform of a single ternary lithium battery is as high as 3.7V, that of lithium iron phosphate is 3.2V, and that of lithium titanate is only 2.3V.

Therefore, from the perspective of energy density, ternary lithium batteries have absolute advantages over lithium iron phosphate, lithium manganese oxide or lithium titanate.

Of course, poor safety and short cycle life are the main shortcomings of ternary lithium batteries, especially safety performance, which has always been a major factor limiting its large-scale assembly and large-scale integrated application.

However, there is a way to solve this problem.

In Gao Huaijun's previous life, large-capacity batteries generally had to introduce more manganese elements, and were even mixed with lithium manganese oxide. As a result, it was difficult for larger-capacity ternary lithium batteries to pass safety tests such as puncture and overcharging.

Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, Gao Huaijun reluctantly gave up the cheapest lithium iron phosphate battery and instead adopted the more expensive but higher unit energy ternary lithium battery as the main energy system for the Hillhouse Song pure electric vehicle.

Gao Huaijun made an appointment with Wang Shichong and others to meet at Hillhouse Battery today.

However, when he arrived, he heard Wang Shichong and his team already discussing technical issues intensely.

He checked the time on the phone in his hand.

It’s not even eight o’clock in the morning!
I couldn't help but nodded with satisfaction.

Which boss doesn’t like this kind of working atmosphere?

This has nothing to do with work, it has to do with the efficiency of labor utilization.

He did not walk over rashly, but listened carefully to their discussion from the side.

"...The cathode material of this ternary lithium battery is compared between lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM) or lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA). These materials are prone to thermal runaway when exposed to high temperature, overcharge or physical damage, leading to safety hazards. Therefore, improving its thermal stability and safety is one of the key challenges, but I have adjusted this ratio many times and have not been able to achieve the best balance."

"The preparation of lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide is too difficult, and now it involves some patents. We can wait until later to upgrade!"

"Yes, we will focus on lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide. This time I estimate that we can achieve the sixth series. Although it is difficult to increase the voltage of high nickel in the eighth series and above, it is simple and can be slowly upgraded within five years."

"It would be better to use lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide directly. Although the voltage of this product is a little lower now, it has great potential for future upgrades!"

While everyone was in a state of confusion and hesitation, Gao Huaijun walked over slowly.

"Use lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide first! Our goal this time is to launch a product with a range of 300 kilometers. We cannot use lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide. Otherwise, the first product will fail, and I won’t give you the opportunity to make subsequent products." Gao Huaijun said lightly as he took off the gloves on his hands.

The core members of Hillhouse Battery who were present were surprised when they saw Gao Huaijun coming.

Gao Huaijun generally does not participate in their detailed product discussions and only considers large-scale decisions. Naturally, they were shocked to see Gao Huaijun coming today.

In this era when Gao Huaijun appears less and less frequently at the grassroots level, these ordinary employees of Hillhouse have always believed that Gao Huaijun is a true god!
The business god that belongs exclusively to Hillhouse!

This phenomenon, which is somewhat similar to nature worship, has become even more serious after Hillhouse Technologies went public.

This is an example of someone starting from scratch and building such a huge industrial empire without any connections.

The number of Chinese people can be counted on one hand!
And their boss is one of them.

Now that he appeared at the site of Hillhouse Battery, he naturally felt that the research and development of Hillhouse Battery's lithium batteries was extremely important, which boosted morale!
"Mr. Gao!"

"Hello, Mr. Gao!"

"Hello, Chairman!"

The executives present stood up and greeted Gao Huaijun.

"You guys just chat about your things, don't bother me." Gao Huaijun waved his hand and said casually.

Since Wang Shichong had reached this position, he naturally knew what Gao Huaijun wanted to say.

He continued the previous topic, "I agree with what Mr. Gao just said!"

"Although the amount of mobile phone batteries used by Hillhouse Technology is increasing sharply, mobile phone batteries are not vehicle batteries after all. The GMV used is too small, resulting in our current product sales volume not being able to cover the R&D costs!"

“This is a very big test for us.”

"We can't wait any longer. We need to launch a product first and use it first."

Gao Huaijun nodded after hearing this.

Although Hillhouse Battery is now an inconspicuous subsidiary, it supplies the battery business of Hillhouse Technology and Hillhouse Vehicles.

But now Hillhouse Technology is not one of the top five giants in the future, and the electronic products it produces are limited.

Now Hillhouse's lithium batteries happen to be the focus of Hillhouse's research and development, which has led to extremely high R&D costs for Hillhouse's products, to a level that even surprised Wang Shichong.

Although Hillhouse can afford such an awesome R&D team, this is too much!

When he learned that Gao Huaijun wanted to build a pure electric car, he understood Gao Huaijun's ambition.

What a good guy!

This is going to directly kill fuel vehicles!
As they were talking, a battery engineer brought Gao Huaijun a copy of the latest research and development materials, which detailed the recent research and development progress of Hillhouse Battery.

Gao Huaijun glanced at it and nodded.

In order to increase the energy density of the battery, it is usually necessary to increase the nickel content in the positive electrode material, but high nickel content will reduce the cycle life and stability of the battery.

Therefore, how to find a balance between energy density and lifespan is a difficult problem in the research and development process.

Now Hillhouse Battery has conducted thousands of tests on nickel metal content!

Only now have they gradually stabilized into several relevant ratios.

This is why there is the route dispute I just mentioned.

This kind of money-burning exhaustive method is simply not feasible at this point in time for ordinary battery manufacturers without the support of a large company like Hillhouse that is willing to spend money!

Currently, both BYD and the Japanese companies are still in an experimental stage and cannot invest on a large scale like Hillhouse.

This also reflects the advantage of Gao Huaijun's golden finger.

There is no internal friction, and the energy is exerted in one place. The efficiency is unmatched even by the world's most powerful battery company.

“The safety margin can be higher this time.”

“You don’t need to push the limits of the product too much, otherwise there will be big problems when using it.”

"Although ternary lithium batteries have advantages in safety and stability, their performance in fast charging and discharging still needs to be improved. Especially in high-power applications such as electric vehicles, fast charging may cause the battery temperature to rise, affecting battery life and safety. How do you consider this?"

Gao Huaijun asked.

He was worried that in order to pile up indicators, the people at Hillhouse Battery were taking too many risks on some extreme issues.

Hillhouse Capital can’t afford to take the risk with its first pure electric car.

The small amount of batteries in Zengcheng car cannot compare with the large-scale series connection of pure electric vehicles.

Under high-density series connection, the accident rate is only 0.1 per thousand. Under the amplification of series connection, as long as there is a problem with one battery, the entire battery will be burned!

In this case, 0.1% will become 1% or even higher!
A one in a thousand chance of one car may seem completely insignificant, but what about tens of thousands of cars?

What about the inventory level of hundreds of thousands or even millions of vehicles?
This has to be considered!

Wang Shichong looked at an engineer standing by and the engineer said, "Mr. Gao, the idea we are considering now is to have two battery monitoring systems. One is SOC, which stands for State of Charge. This is to accurately estimate the remaining charge of the battery, which is crucial for vehicle range prediction, but it is affected by factors such as changes in battery chemistry, temperature, and aging effects."

"The other one is SOH, or State of Health. This will accurately assess the health status of the battery, that is, its remaining energy capacity and power output capability, to predict the battery life and performance degradation."

"But this requires adding two corresponding battery chips, and the cost is expected to increase slightly."

The engineer was talking eloquently, naturally explaining some of the results he was currently working on.

It was a rare opportunity for Gao Huaijun to come to Hillhouse Battery. As a major financial sponsor, it was natural for him to report some important gains to him.

Otherwise, how can you continue to get the money in the future?
Gao Huaijun frowned slightly and said, "This is just passive defense. It is completely unable to prevent the so-called spontaneous combustion of the battery under extreme circumstances!" Battery spontaneous combustion was more common in the first few years when pure electric vehicles began to develop. This is a manifestation of immature battery management.

As a business that makes a living from its business, Hillhouse Capital naturally cannot turn a blind eye to this situation.

"If you want to consider spontaneous combustion..."

"That's complicated. The air cooling system, the internal circulation system, and so on, all require a disruptive design of the battery."

Wang Shichong frowned and said.

Generally speaking, the battery is mostly under the car or in the trunk.

It can avoid direct sunlight, and the bottom of the car is an open space, so the heat dissipation condition is also provided by the wind passing through the bottom of the car.

The key is to avoid direct sunlight and have an open space with natural heat dissipation conditions.

This is actually almost enough.

If the car is parked, the battery temperature rises, mostly from heat conduction from the car body and heat radiation from the ground. These two types of heat are several orders of magnitude different from direct sunlight, not to mention the heat dissipation from natural convection under the car.

Therefore, as long as the bottom of Hillhouse's pure electric vehicle is not a furnace, there is generally no need to consider the battery heat dissipation problem.

What is more critical is that the optimal operating temperature of the battery is 25 degrees Celsius, but the temperature resistance must be at least 55 degrees.

This kind of extremely extreme climate usually only occurs near the Country of Turbans, the Sahara Desert, and the superpower country, yes, that is it, the Country of Elephants!

It’s not that their team has not considered extreme situations, but they have to design a complete battery cooling system for such extreme situations, rather than simply using the air cooling airflow caused by high-speed driving. The cost of the entire vehicle will increase significantly, and the battery cost will have to be further controlled later.

This is another sleepless night of intense work!
To be honest, this is really unnecessary.

“Don’t take chances with vehicle battery management when the number reaches millions!”

"This is not the small battery of a range-extended vehicle. The parallel connection of a pure electric vehicle is not at the same order of magnitude at all, and the danger is much greater!" Gao Huaijun scolded.

Even if there is a problem with the battery of the extended-range vehicle, that small battery will at most emit smoke, and there will not be much danger if it is properly isolated.

But pure electric vehicles are completely different.

That degree of connection is absolutely fatal.

at this time.

Some of the executives present turned pale with fright.

From Gao Huaijun's perspective, the strategy he makes must be foolproof and cannot have any loopholes!

Like the Sansang battery fire in later generations, there were actually tens of millions of batteries, but only one or two caught fire.

But the social effects formed are extremely bad.

Will you recall all the vehicles by then?

Does Hillhouse want to continue playing?

In the Qing Dynasty, Chen Danran's "Wu Yan II: On Moving the Capital and Establishing a Feudal State" says: Those who are not capable of planning for eternity are not capable of planning for the moment; those who are not capable of planning for the overall situation are not capable of planning for a region.

Wang Shichong can only be a general, while Gao Huaijun is a commander!

A general only needs to consider local battles, but a king must consider the actions of the entire chess game.

It's like someone, he just needs to take Tashan!
Doesn't he know that taking Tashan would cost huge casualties?
But these sacrifices seemed insignificant in the context of the great battle.

For Hillhouse, the battery pack must and must be maintained well, otherwise when the hidden danger occurs, it will be the end of it.

"Our battery project team needs to study the relevant battery cooling/heating thermal management system. The battery cell modules inside the battery pack need to be integrated with liquid cooling plates. The liquid cooling plates connect the pipes to the heating/cooling system outside the battery pack to form heat conduction. During this period, a water pump may be used to control the switching between cold and hot liquids. You all need to consider this carefully."

"For example, when the car is parked, the owner can choose whether to turn on the constant temperature control function in the passenger compartment according to the owner's settings. So even in the hot summer, when entering the cab, you can feel like entering an air-conditioned room."

"At this time, you need to contact Hillhouse Technology and install a battery temperature alarm system on our existing Hillhouse vehicle control app. When the battery temperature exceeds a critical point, the owner will be notified to turn on the constant temperature control function to cool the battery accordingly."

"Through dual control, we can reduce the incidence of battery spontaneous combustion."

Gao Huaijun ignored the expressions of these executives and continued talking to himself.

When the executives present heard Gao Huaijun say this, they suddenly realized.

In fact, this system can be connected with the Hillhouse vehicle control APP.

If it is not self-starting, but a combination of control and self-starting by the car owner, the cost of research and development will be greatly reduced!
The key R&D personnel present suddenly realized what was going on.

They couldn't help but admire Gao Huaijun very much.

Everyone has a feeling in their hearts, that is, Boss Gao is worthy of being Boss Gao.

He is worthy of being called Hillhouse’s business god!
Even for such a professional project as batteries, they can give advice, and it is very effective.

It’s really awesome!

Although Gao Huaijun is not really familiar with batteries, he still has a general idea of ​​some of the detours and actions taken in later battery research and development.

And these actions are actually just walking in a straight line on the road!

Hillhouse's batteries and R&D efficiency are truly unmatched by ordinary battery manufacturers.

. . . . . .

After checking the battery, Gao Huaijun did not go back to the office directly.

Instead, he unexpectedly came to the secluded little villa where Shang Yayan lived.

This small villa is right next to Li Lake.

The environment is elegant and quiet.

And almost no one in the business knows that this position exists.

Therefore, Gao Huaijun was very relieved to place Shang Yayan here.

"Oh! Mr. Gao... Mr. Gao, you are here!" At this time, Shang Yayan's mother saw Gao Huaijun walk in and said in a panicked tone.

She didn't even know how to address Gao Huaijun.

This is the richest man in Xicheng!
Oh no, to be precise, they are all among the top 100 richest people in China!

Although she is a son-in-law, she is also self-aware and knows her own importance as a daughter. She does not have the dream of eating a swan.

It can be said to be an ordinary relationship between superiors and subordinates, but Gao Huaijun got his daughter pregnant and now she has given birth to a son, so the relationship has become delicate.

Although she was very opposed to the fact that her daughter was a woman of a rich man with no status.

But my daughter has made her choice, and the other party is the famous Gao Huaijun, so I can only let her do what she wants.

"Hello, Auntie!" Gao Huaijun nodded with a smile and handed over the nutritional supplements he had brought.

In fact, Gao Huaijun has specially assigned a nutritionist to Shang Yayan, so these things are unnecessary. However, I thought I should come here and bring something to express my gratitude.

"Hello, Mr. Gao!"

"Please sit down. I'll let Yayan come down."

Shang Yayan's mother rubbed the skirt on her hands, wiped the water off her hands, laughed awkwardly, and then walked upstairs.

Gao Huaijun also knew that she was embarrassed.

In addition, Gao Huaijun has been the boss for a long time, and he naturally has a kind of majestic aura. Ordinary people can't hold it back and will get nervous just standing in front of him!

I waited about five minutes.

He was just looking at the lake in the distance and feeling bored when he heard a soft voice behind him, "Mr. Gao, why did you have time to come to see me?"

As he was speaking, a young woman with her hair tied up walked towards Gao Huaijun with a baby in her arms and a faint smile.

Gao Huaijun saw Shang Yayan and said with a smile, "Don't be so polite to me, just call me Huaijun."

(End of this chapter)