Can soft-pack batteries break through the bottleneck and achieve CTP in addition to having the long-term advantage of high energy density? In fact, the answer has already been announced. Data show that in 2020, there have been reports in the industry of a domestic new power battery company poly innovation energy (hereinafter referred to as poly), has been in the soft pack battery integration layout related patents, the soft pack battery technology for LBP (Laminated-BatteryPack). Through searching relevant patents, it was found that by April 2020, Juchuang Energy had distributed more than 100 related patents in this technology level, and 43 patents have been authorized.

What is a LBP? According to the patent and research, the LBP soft pack cell adopts direct connection design, which can be composed of basic connection units of different lengths according to different needs, and then stacked layer by layer to form large modules or directly assembled into battery packs, which can save a large number of copper bar connections and regular size group structural accessories. The volume integration efficiency of the soft-pack battery system can be increased from 30~40% to 50~60%, and the number of structural parts can be reduced by about 20% at the same time, thus greatly reducing the cost of components and manufacturing.

At the same time, the patent shows that the Juchuang LBP method has many bright spots in terms of safety design. Compared with the traditional soft package module, a module is basically a thermal runaway isolation unit, which generally contains 12 or more cells. Once a soft package cell is out of control, all the cells in a module will basically quickly thermal runaway. The more cells, the greater the heat release in a short time.

LBP further meszes the thermal runaway isolation unit to 3~4 cells per unit, and sets the explosion-proof valve structure similar to the square cell for each unit, which can not only improve the volume group efficiency, but also greatly improve the thermal runaway safety of soft pack battery packs. At present, with the popularity of new energy vehicles, as well as stronger power system and intelligent configuration than fuel vehicles, new energy vehicles are more prominent cost-effective and driving experience.

Therefore, the competition for energy density, cost and safety will be the mainstream of the power lithium battery industry for quite a long time. Due to its higher energy density, the soft-pack cell is generally considered by the industry to be the first packaging form that is likely to be equipped with solid-state battery, which has great potential in the future market. However, the group efficiency of soft-pack battery is lower than that of square battery and the design is more challenging, which also restricts the further development of soft-pack battery to a certain extent. The efficient integration technology based on the soft package proposed by Juchuang may provide a new opportunity for the development of the soft package battery.