According to reports, after a long period of brewing, Sony finally decided to enter the electric vehicle battery market and will provide battery service for electric formula cars.
In 1991, Sony successfully produced the world's rechargeable, commercially available lithium-ion battery, which made the birth of popular mobile electronic devices possible. Now Sony is also preparing to enter the field of electric vehicle batteries.
Although Sony entered the electric car industry late, the timing was very good. Worldwide, electric vehicle battery giants, including South Korea's LG, Samsung SDI, and Japanese Panasonic, Sanyo and other companies' battery capacity will be locked more or less in the next few years, providing Sony with an excellent entry into electric vehicles. Market opportunities.
Because electric cars need better batteries, Sony has lost the sponsorship of the FIA ​​Formula E Championship, but despite this, Sony has high expectations and hopes that Sony can showcase in the field of electric vehicles. skill.
The shape of the electric car may eventually become standardized, but the voice for the core, especially for improving battery performance, is growing. For the electric formula championship, Sony is enough to be a qualified supplier. However, Panasonic has also shown strong interest in the battery agreement for the 2018 Electric Formula Championship. For which company's battery model can provide better performance for the car, further investigation by the relevant agencies is needed. One of Sony and Panasonic will replace Xalt Energy, which is currently providing battery packs for the Electric Formula Championship.
At the same time, the outside world also particularly expects Sony to provide more performance information about its battery components. Although Sony has just released a VCT 6 battery (3000 mAh, 18650), the VCT 7 battery will be available next year. The VCT 7 battery will have a capacity of 3,500 mAh, which can reach the current capacity of Sanyo, LG and Samsung SDI batteries.
By 2020, Sony hopes to commercialize its new battery in the smart phone field and hopes to continue to expand its battery business in other industries, such as electric vehicles. According to reports, Sony's new battery will be high-capacity lithium-sulfur and magnesium-sulfur batteries, although the use of lithium may cause short-circuit problems.
Sony is confident that it will increase the performance of the new battery's volumetric capacity by 40%. By then, the new battery's volumetric heat can reach 1000 watt-hours per liter. Since other companies have also developed batteries that use sulfur as an electrode, Sony's lithium batteries need to overcome their own problems while surpassing other companies.
In addition, when Sony enters the electric vehicle industry, there may be more pouch cells on the market, because these ultra-light batteries have 90% to 95% packaging efficiency compared to conventional batteries. Of course, for the automotive industry, Sony is still famous. Sony is accelerating its market promotion of its electric and autonomous driving technologies, especially its image sensors.