In previous articles, we have discussed the structure and application of the RV power system, but in the actual life of the RV, users are more concerned about the safety and size of the battery. Today we will talk about the things about RV life batteries.
The battery of the RV is composed of two parts: the starting battery and the living battery. The starting battery is responsible for the ignition of the vehicle, driving lights and power supply for driving system equipment. Simply put, it is the power reserve and output of the vehicle driving; the living battery is responsible for the support of household appliances, lighting and living equipment in the living area. The two are distinct and related. There are clear specifications and experience in the assembly, use and maintenance of car starting batteries, but life batteries are much more vague.
The opposition between lead acid and lithium battery
There is an essential difference between the living battery and the starting battery in terms of usage requirements. The starting battery requires a large amount of current to be released in a short period of time to realize the ignition function of the car; while the living battery of the RV requires stable current output for a long time to meet the needs of daily life. In China, there are two completely different concepts in the use of RV life batteries :
1. Traditional battery pie. This faction is represented by large domestic RV manufacturers, such as Brilliance, Yate, SAIC Maxus, and Karen Benway. These manufacturers all use lead-acid batteries or gel batteries as the living batteries for RVs. Deep-cycle lead-acid batteries, which are most used in RVs, can store very low power without affecting the life of the battery, but this kind of battery generally has the disadvantage of low power storage compared to the popular lithium-ion batteries.
2. Lithium battery pie. This faction is represented by small-scale RV manufacturers and users. These small-scale RV manufacturers usually directly install or choose lithium batteries for users when they leave the factory, and RV users also like to refit lithium batteries for RVs after purchasing RVs.
There is only one core reason for the differences between the two schools of thought – the safety of lithium batteries. After more than 150 years of development, traditional batteries represented by lead-acid batteries and colloidal batteries have formed a complete battery industry chain, and their safety has been widely recognized. On the other hand, due to the short development time of lithium batteries, there are still various uncertainties in the application of RVs.
Lithium battery questions
What are the hidden dangers of lithium batteries? Why do so many users choose lithium batteries? To answer this question, we must first understand lithium batteries. It has been 27 years since Japan’s Sony launched the world’s first commercial lithium-ion battery in 1991, and Tesla Motors has pushed lithium-ion batteries to the forefront, making people full of confidence in lithium-ion batteries.
Lithium batteries are mainly divided into: lithium iron phosphate (LFP), lithium nickel oxide (LNO), lithium manganese oxide (LMO), lithium cobalt oxide (LCO), and ternary lithium nickel cobalt manganese oxide (NCM) according to different positive electrode materials. , Nickel cobalt aluminate ternary lithium (NCA), the negative electrode material mainly uses graphite carbon material. Lithium iron phosphate batteries are the most used in RVs. Compared with other types of lithium batteries, they are more stable, have a long service life, and have certain cost advantages.
Compared with traditional lead-acid batteries, lithium batteries have obvious advantages in charge and discharge energy efficiency, storage capacity, volume, weight, etc., but also have obvious disadvantages: high price and low stability. The price of lithium batteries is generally 3 to 4 times that of lead-acid batteries, but it is still acceptable to users who buy hundreds of thousands of RVs.
The real concern is its stability. Incidents of domestic RVs using lithium-ion batteries catching fire occur from time to time, which makes many people’s attitudes towards lithium-ion batteries vague. The best operating temperature of lithium batteries is 15~30°C. If the operating temperature exceeds 35°C, its performance will drop sharply, or even “crash”; when the operating temperature is lower than 5°C, the charging power of the battery will be greatly reduced, even at If the temperature is below 0°C, it will fail to charge, and if the charging time is too long, it will lead to lithium precipitation in the battery, which may cause safety hazards such as short circuit in the battery cell.
One point that needs to be specially mentioned here is another reason for the high cost of lithium batteries – the cost of lithium battery protection boards is too high. The high cost of R&D has discouraged many large companies, while many small RV refitting factories have used shoddy or other-purpose lithium battery protection plates on RVs. This is also the fundamental reason why many RV people are afraid of lithium batteries like tigers. Coupled with the auxiliary work of news such as mobile phone lithium battery explosion and lithium battery car fire, the application of lithium battery by large RV manufacturers has stagnated.
Miscellaneous Battery Applications
Compared with the cautious attitude of large RV manufacturers to lithium batteries, small manufacturers are more willing to use lithium batteries. The reasons are as follows: 1. Differentiation. In order to win the market, in addition to lowering product prices, small manufacturers also work hard on differentiation. Lithium batteries provide a lot of power for this purpose. 2. Product stability. Although the previous article has been emphasizing the various instabilities of lithium batteries, as long as they are installed and used properly, the accident rate of lithium batteries is still within a controllable range. This is also the reason why many small RV refitting companies dare to use it, but for large RV manufacturers, even an accident rate of one in ten thousand is a very terrible thing. Most users don’t take that low accident rate seriously.
What is worrisome is the “no external power” caravan that has appeared in the domestic caravan market recently, relying on car generators (12V) and solar energy for charging. Due to its strong reliance on lithium batteries and inverters, lithium batteries accident rate.
Contradiction between retention and investment
Due to the low number of domestic RVs at this stage, the entire industry cannot bear the high R&D costs of lithium battery protection boards. Tesla, which detonated the “lithium electricity wind”, has what is known as the world’s top battery management system to ensure the stability of the battery. Even so, there are still many lithium battery problems that have been reported in the newspapers.
From the “lithium battery revolution” brought by new energy vehicles, it is obvious that lithium battery is the future. In the face of such a situation, some manufacturers have also begun low-key layout actions. According to the author’s knowledge, Karen Benway RV has cooperated with a mature lithium battery company to develop a special lithium battery project for RVs for half a year. More companies tend to choose to wait for the technological storm brought by new energy vehicles to stabilize the accident rate of lithium batteries.
Of course, the problem of RV batteries is not only a technical problem, but more of a secondary charge, and the old as the new. The reason is that the manufacturer is out of economic considerations, and there is insufficient understanding of the product itself. The deep-seated problem revealed here is that in the current lack of supervision, many small manufacturers have insufficient technology accumulation and lack of sense of responsibility. Now that laws and regulations and industry standards are insufficient at the same time, enterprises need to be responsible for their own products and establish their own product review system. Only in this way can we remain invincible in the word of mouth and credit economy. Returning to the issue of RV batteries, it is necessary for all RV manufacturers not to blindly pursue immediate interests, but to focus on the future and use their unique advantages to build their own reputation and credit.
