The BYD Blade Battery Evaluated: The Hype is Real (Mostly)

In this video, the BYD blade battery will be evalutated. The hype is real (mostly). I'll cover why blade battery cells so safe, cell and pack level energy densities, how BYD turned a prismatic cell into a structural member within the vehicle, BYD’s claims of 1000km of range, pack level cost, and what the blade battery means for Tesla.

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*Timeline*
00:00 Intro
00:52 Safety
04:52 Energy Density
11:13 BYD Han
12:31 Ocean-X
14:23 Interim Summary
15:29 Cost
17:52 BYD vs Tesla Structural Packs
19:13 Summary

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Intro Music by Dyalla: Homer Said

[thelimitingfactor]

Notes:

1) 1000km for NEDC is about 432 for EPA. This wasn't a Typo.
2) Correction from Matt Lacey! "Steel is common for cylindrical, but Al is standard for prismatic (regardless of chemistry) - lighter and better thermal conductor than steel though usually thicker. Can is grounded to +ve electrode to avoid corrosion. Blade cell is Al can, not steel"
3) However, re 2), this doesn't change the fact that they might use thicker aluminum to provide rigidity. However, there might be another thing causing the low Wh/kg in BYD: It has more surface area.
4) Tesla has started putting 60 kWh packs in China Model 3's, which provide 276 miles of range. This means the BYD Blade might provide 300 miles of range.
5) There is no such thing as a safe battery pack, only safer. That's the key takeaway with blade safety. So, yes, you can probably make it explode somehow, but it's less likely to.
6) YouTube wiped the original notes along with all the comments. Not sure why.

[princeding]

As a ower of BYD Qin plus with these blade cells inside, I love this explaination. These are some of my opinions from a cell teardown I made half a year ago:
1. The case is aluminium, not steel. All prismatic cells are aluminium casing, not steel.
2. The gravimetric energy density (specific energy) is low due to large surface area to volume ratio. Ideally, a sphere would have the lowest area to volume ratio thus maximum amount of active material. The thinner and elongated the cells are, the more it is wasted on casing.
3. BYD blade cell pack is not as structurally sound. They are not as strong as cell-module-pack intergration. (I witnessed crush tests on these pack before.)
4. 9:18 The cell you showed is actually a pouch cell for PHEV models. The EV models uses single long blade cell, PHEV uses 8 pouch cells to form a "thick blade". Obviously, PHEV cares more about power while EVs cares more about enery.
5. 10:14 My car has a total pack capacity of 71.7 kWh for a similar size compared with model 3. The NEDC is 600 km while Model 3 LR in China is now 619 WLTP. Tesla wins on whole vehicle efficiency by a lot! However, from battery system's POV, BYD with LFP had an amazing achievement for their first generation product.
6. When comparing battery technology, we really should only look on packs & cells. Vehicle design would have a huge impact on range performance. I wish manufactures should post their vehicle's energy consumption rather than just "Range".
7. 13:00 The Ocean-X model might be the EK series, my vehicle's predessor. It would have an NEDC range of 700 km to start with. That is still based on the current blade cell technology. The next gen would have a pack specific energy of 180 Wh/kg. With the help of 8-in-1 platform control system and even CTC, I suspect 1000 km would be possible but with a catch on the testing standard.
8. 17:30 And cheap labour. BYD has the cheapest labour compared with other cell manufactures. No comment on that.

If you would like to know more about the BYD Qin plus, here is the link to my video:

[thelimitingfactor]

Notes:

1) 1000km is 621 miles nedc and 434 EPA, which is closer to reality. This is explained later in the video. Watch the video before commenting please.

2) There is no such thing as a safe battery. Every mechanism for storing energy is like a bomb. You can only ever be safer. BYD blade will still be flammable under the right conditions...just like every other battery. But the odds should be much lower, and that's what we should always be striving for - few people killed.

3) After publishing this video, I thought of one additional reason why the BYD Blade Cells my have lower gravimetric energy density:

As I mention in the video, they have greater surface area. That is, I think the reduced gravimetric energy density could be either/or due to thicker steel/more surface area.

4) BYD Tang appears to have similar range (EPA) to Han. It's range is often reported in WLTP or NEDC, which are generous.

5) The was a paper published by Chao-Yang Wang claiming more impressive figures for Wh/l. But, if you check, the references, it appears to reference an article. 👀

6) It appears that Tesla LFP is getting a boost to 60kWh and 273 miles of range. This means that with BYD LFP in a Tesla vehicle, we'd be looking at almost exactly 300 miles of range. However, BYD vehicles are less efficient and it would still be a stretch to hit 300 miles of range. But they'll be there in the next couple of years.

[WillProwse]

Love your videos!!! The blades are fantastic. I plan to test some soon. Really cool technology. Love your breakdown and comparisons.

[UrbanGuitarLegend]

Jordan, my man, you never disappoint sir. Thank your for the amazing video once again. Would love to see a follow up to the Novonix video from last year as this appears to the year of the anodes, Nouveau Monde, Talga, Syrah, Novonix, BTR etc...

[willlauwers]

I had a different take on the blade short claim.
Long cell means relatively long internal distance (lateral) to short location. Further distance to short = delayed current contribution ( I picture an instantaneous voltage well centered on nail puncture location. Prismatic has very steep well that normalizes quickly, while blade has less steep well and takes longer to flatten). Similar to fast charging current inhomogeneities. Long cell intentionally introduces current inhomogeneities at high power (short), extending time of short discharge due to decreased current at short, decreasing heat buildup at point of short.
NOT SURE THIS IS TRUE, . Just laying out my immediate thought when you first mentioned the claim of longer short circuit.
Also, heat buildup of rapid mass transfer is better distributed away from point of short and close to surface for dissipation.
Thanks for producing these!
Note, this is purely personal opinion.

[sandyt]

Such an amazing and comprehensive overview of battery progress. I can’t imagine how much time is involved in assembling all of this information thank you very much for your effort

[ZirothTech]

Brilliant video, I have been waiting for your in depth analysis of these cells! I was fascinated by the thermal engineering that a seemingly 'simple' change to the form factor could make. I didn't realise that their ability to act as a heat sink was also complemented by lower heat generation in the first place! Keep up the great work :D

[klauszinser]

I came back to watch the video again. My, now different questions, are answered. Well done.

[artsnow]

In the LFP cell, the oxygen atom is joined to the phosphorus atom; whereas, in the other formulations, the oxygen atom is joined to a metal atom, Phosphorus has a high thermal stability which would have a slower reactivity rate.

[LewdCustomer]

Look to reality to interpret results? Wow, what a concept! Wall Street analysts and cosmological scientist should try this method.

[joebachmeier]

Hands down the best technical product analysis available for free. Tesla should be employing you.

[cybertrucktruckguy]

I love your videos. Thank you. Very cool stuff. BYD is the Only other EV stock I’ve really considered besides Tesla. Feels like those two are pulling away from the pack.

[RobertHamon]

The best content on youtube is right here! I simply cannot get enough of these videos, need more, more, MORE!!

[juhopeltola]

Some cases, as my bike, lfp does outperform, becouse in my case li-ion is just too much down of the power below 3, 5v cell voltage to enjoy. Lfp battery gives pretty much the same power all the way, so in my case I get much more usefull capacity from pack that weights the same. Whit along of all the other benefits on top of that. Just to say to all of the powerful ebike buiders, car business is not exatly my area. I still enjoy wery much of this information, just giving a diffrent point of view. Thanks man for good work :)

[CarViewer]

Very good video. The issue with the reference to BYDs model Han is that it is based on a ICE platform and not optimized for efficency they took a gasoline car and engineered a battery into it. Of course your video was 2 years ago but the ocean (BYD Seal) seems to have delivered on the promise from BYD and Tesla using BYD Cells is showing that BYDs claims where not to far off back then.

[waynewilliamson]

nice breakdown. one thing to keep in mind is that lion(nmc&nca) both do not want a 100 percent charge nor a 100 percent discharge, where as lifep04 has no problem with it.

[robitmcclain]

Seems like BYD could incorporate the aluminium honeycomb sheet used in airplanes to get the rigidity needed across the width of the vehicle and improve the heat dissipation.

[bobstovall]

You, Sir, via your channel are, Far and Away, the absolute best in providing clear and understandable information on this topic which leads me to this: One unfamiliar with battery chemistry could conclude that the OPTIMUM configuration would be Nickel/Cobalt/Aluminum chemistry in a Blade configuration providing the heat dissipation of the high-aspect ration blade cell with the gravimetric and volumetric energy density of the NCA chemistry. What say ye?

[michaelstarkey]

Ty ty ty Mr Jordan u deserve a Nobel prize money n professional transisionalism