‘Blade’ battery sets safety standards

BYD says its new ‘Blade’ battery will mitigate concerns about EV battery safety.

The development reflects BYD’s determination to resolve issues in battery safety while also redefining safety standards for the entire industry, BYD chairman and president Wang Chuanfu says.

An online launch event was themed “The Blade Battery – Unsheathed to Safeguard the World”.

BYD showed a video of the Blade battery successfully passing a nail penetration test, seen as the most rigorous way to test batteries’ thermal runaway.

“In terms of battery safety and energy density, BYD’s Blade battery has obvious advantages,” Tsinghua University professor and Chinese Academy of Sciences member Ouyang Minggao says.

The Blade battery’s singular cells are arranged together in an array and then inserted into a battery pack. Due to its optimised battery pack structure, space is increased by more than 50% compared to conventional lithium iron phosphate block batteries, BYD says.

During nail penetration tests, the Blade battery emitted neither smoke nor fire after being penetrated, and its surface temperature only reached 30 to 60°C.

Under the same conditions, a ternary lithium battery exceeded 500°C and burned, and while a conventional lithium iron phosphate block battery did not openly emit flames or smoke, its surface temperature reached 200 to 400°C.

This implies that EVs equipped with the Blade battery would be far less susceptible to catching fire – even when they are severely damaged, BYD says.

It also passed other extreme test conditions, such as being crushed, bent, heated in a furnace to 300°C and overcharged by 260%. None of these resulted in a fire or explosion, BYD adds.

The Blade battery has four distinct advantages, including a high starting temperature for exothermic reactions, slow heat release and low heat generation, as well as its ability to not release oxygen during breakdowns or easily catch fire, BYD vice president and FinDreams Battery Co. chairman He Long says.

BYD claims increasing battery range has become a key factor in recent years so that focus has fallen on power and energy density.

“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.”

Long says many vehicle brands are in discussion with BYD about partnerships based on the Blade battery’s technology. He says BYD will gladly share and work with global partners to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes for all industry players.

Meanwhile, BYD’s flagship sedan the Han EV scheduled for launch in June will include the Blade battery.

The new model will lead the brand’s Dynasty Family, having 605km range and accelerating from 0 to 100km/h in 3.9 seconds.