Recently, EVE Energy announced that its subsidiary Hubei EVE Power Co., Ltd. has obtained the qualification of supplier for large cylindrical batteries from FAW Besturn Automotive Co., Ltd. This marks recognition of its performance and supply capacity for large cylindrical batteries. Previously, Yunshan Power (Ningbo) Co., Ltd. also held a production demonstration line launch ceremony and a seminar on the application of large cylindrical batteries in the industry. These two news reports once again focus the industry's attention on large cylindrical batteries, although their development speed has been relatively slow, the pace of development has recently accelerated.

At Tesla's 2020 Battery Day event, the company launched the 4680 battery and introduced its innovations in product design, positive and negative electrode materials, and process optimization, which sparked interest in large cylindrical batteries in the power battery industry. Despite Tesla's support, large cylindrical batteries have not quickly become popular. Industry experts have predicted that 2024 will be the starting point for the mass production of large cylindrical batteries, but their application progress in the field of new energy vehicles is relatively slow.

However, this does not mean that large cylindrical batteries have no future. Yiwei Lithium Energy's supply to FAW Besturn is a further expansion of its large cylindrical batteries in the field of new energy passenger vehicles, after being matched with BMW, Jianghuai Ruifeng, Changan Qiyuan and other car companies. In 2024, EVE Energy announced plans to issue 6-year convertible corporate bonds of no more than 5 billion yuan to invest in 23GWh cylindrical lithium iron phosphate energy storage power battery projects and 21GWh large cylindrical passenger vehicle power battery projects.

In February of this year, BMW Group released a new generation of electric drive technology, represented by large cylindrical battery technology and an 800V high-voltage platform that supports super fast charging. BMW's 6th generation eDrive electric drive technology was unveiled. BMW's large cylindrical battery will soon be mass-produced with the new generation models, featuring thinner battery packs, faster charging, and longer driving range. BMW's large cylindrical battery solution performs excellently in key indicators such as safety, energy density, charging speed, and cycle life, making it an ideal choice for the new generation of pure electric vehicles. The 6th generation BMW power battery adopts a "module free" approach to directly integrate large cylindrical battery cells into the battery pack, and through the "battery body integration" technology, the battery pack is integrated with the body structure as a whole, which can be flexibly integrated into the body structure of various different car models.

It is reported that BMW is cooperating with Chinese suppliers such as CATL and EVE Energy to steadily promote large-scale production of large cylindrical battery cells. At the 2024 BMW China Sustainable Development Supplier Day in December last year, BMW announced that starting from 2026, CATL will supply large cylindrical batteries for its new generation model architecture of pure electric vehicles. Jason Chen, Regional Operations Director of CATL, revealed that CATL's Hungary factory is expected to start production in the second half of 2025, and will gradually advance the production of 4680 batteries thereafter.

In addition, LG New Energy has signed a battery supply agreement with Rivian, which will provide them with a total of 67GWh of 4695 cylindrical batteries over a period of more than 5 years. These batteries will be produced at a battery factory in Arizona, USA, and will be used for Rivian's R2 models targeting the North American market. In March 2025, Tesla announced that its 4680 battery production capacity had reached 17GWh. Tesla's Texas Gigafactory in the United States has achieved large-scale production of 4680 batteries and plans to further expand production capacity. The Nevada factory will invest in expansion to produce electric heavy-duty truck Semi and 4680 batteries, with a planned production capacity of 100 GWh.

Although large cylindrical batteries have advantages such as high performance, high safety, long lifespan, and low cost, their application in new energy vehicles has not been rapidly popularized. Cao Guangping, a partner at Cheche Consulting, believes that large cylindrical batteries have both advantages and disadvantages in meeting the inherent characteristics of batteries and market demand. Although large cylindrical batteries have significant advantages in energy density and grouping efficiency, they also face the dual challenges of high heat dissipation requirements and difficult mass production. The increase in cell volume and capacity will put higher demands on the consistency of processes such as electrode coating and compaction density. If these problems cannot be solved during the production process, it may lead to low yield and high cost. Therefore, the industrialization progress of large cylindrical batteries has not met industry expectations for a long time, mainly due to the incomplete resolution of process difficulties, which requires a certain amount of research and development process and time.

The competition of power batteries is essentially a competition of the industrial chain ecology. From equipment, materials to terminal applications, full chain collaboration has become the core challenge for large-scale production of power batteries. Cao Guangping stated that the large-scale production of large cylindrical batteries requires collaboration across the entire industry chain, including material innovation, equipment upgrades, and the establishment of standardized production systems. All of these require breakthroughs in technology, processes, materials, and other aspects, as well as comprehensive trade-offs, multi-party games, and seeking balance. These problems can be solved to a certain extent, so that large cylindrical batteries can usher in a true "spring" in the automotive market.

Some market participants have pointed out that the conductivity of silicon negative electrodes in large cylindrical batteries is poor and needs to be improved by adding conductive agents. The expansion characteristics of silicon anodes impose additional pressure on the lifespan and performance of power batteries. Large cylindrical batteries usually adopt a full pole ear structure, which can significantly improve charging efficiency. However, under high rate charging conditions, the battery capacity decay rate is faster, which in turn affects the battery life. To solve this problem, it is necessary to further optimize the design of the ear structure to ensure that the battery can maintain a longer service life under high rate charging conditions.

At present, the market's game for large cylindrical batteries is another attack on cylindrical batteries after the competition for cylindrical, square shell, and soft pack markets, "said Cao Guangping. According to different packaging methods, lithium batteries can be divided into three types: cylindrical, square, and soft pack. At present, square batteries are the mainstream product form in the domestic power battery market. However, data from Qidian Research Institute shows that in 2024, the installed capacity of domestic power batteries will be 531.5 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 47.82%. From the perspective of battery form, the installed capacity of cylindrical batteries has reached 11.15GWh, increasing continuously for three years. Behind this round of growth, it is mainly driven by the installation of large cylindrical batteries such as 32/40/46/60. Taking 2024 data as an example, the installed capacity of large cylindrical batteries with a size of 32 or above will reach about 4GWh, and companies such as EVE Energy, CATL, and Duofuduo will become the main on-board enterprises. As of mid February 2025, EVE Energy's large cylindrical batteries have been mass-produced and installed in 31300 vehicles, with a maximum mileage of over 185000 kilometers per vehicle.

It is also reported that in the past one or two years, the technology route of sodium battery+solid-state battery has received attention from suppliers. In passenger cars, solid-state+large cylindrical batteries are considered one of the main technological routes for future high-end models. In April 2024, Jianghuai Yttrium and Weilan New Energy officially signed a strategic cooperation agreement on solid-state batteries in Hefei, and will jointly develop semi-solid battery cells based on the 4695 large cylindrical shape.

It is worth noting that 2024 is a crucial year for the mass production of large cylindrical batteries, which have shown outstanding performance in markets such as household energy storage, portable energy storage, and small power. Their shipment growth rate has exceeded 100% year-on-year. A series of emerging application scenarios that have emerged recently, such as industrial and commercial energy storage systems, humanoid robots, electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOLs), and baseband processing units (BBUs) in artificial intelligence data centers, have become incremental opportunities for large cylindrical batteries. The expansion of application fields is conducive to promoting the maturity and cost optimization of large cylindrical battery technology, and feeding back its installation progress.

Qingjiao, Secretary General of Zhongguancun New Battery Technology Innovation Alliance, stated that domestic enterprises have made significant progress in optimizing the production process of large cylindrical batteries, improving production efficiency, and accelerating the pace of large-scale production. I believe that with the gradual integration and maturity of the manufacturing process of large cylindrical batteries and the collaborative empowerment of innovation in the industry chain, as well as the significant cost reduction brought by the high automation of production lines under standard sizes, the application of large cylindrical batteries in emerging markets such as high-end new energy vehicles and eVOLTs will further expand.

Source: China Automotive News Network