Date: 2025-05-08 hits: 115
BMW Group has officially confirmed that its upcoming sixth generation electric vehicle platform will adopt large cylindrical battery technology. The company's executives recently publicly disclosed for the first time the considerations behind this key decision:
The sixth generation platform of BMW aims to become the core of its electrification transformation, expected to bring significant production growth (with pure electric vehicles accounting for half of its global sales by 2030) and become the mainstream product line of the group in the future. The expectation of large-scale production places extremely high demands on the scalability, cost-effectiveness, and overall performance of battery technology.
The company representative revealed that as early as around 2019, BMW initiated an evaluation of the next-generation platform battery solution, examining various battery forms including cylindrical, square, and soft pack, as well as 27 Hong Kong suppliers.
During the evaluation process, several key factors made cylindrical batteries stand out:
Safety: BMW's internal tests have shown that even with high energy density chemical systems (such as the early evaluated 8 Series high nickel system), large cylindrical batteries can still perform outstandingly in suppressing thermal spread. At that time, only cylindrical batteries could help us achieve the termination of thermal spread, "the company representative pointed out.
The company stated that its current large cylindrical battery system demonstrates a high level of safety performance. Recent tests have confirmed again that cylindrical batteries release relatively less energy during thermal runaway at the same capacity.
In the rigorous needle puncture test, the battery cells showed directional and controllable exhaust through the bottom safety valve, avoiding dangerous situations such as the top cover flying out or the side wall breaking. The battery pack is equipped with a dedicated exhaust channel to safely direct the released gas outside the vehicle. The collaborative safety design of this battery cell and battery pack provides effective thermoelectric separation, ensuring the safety of the entire package.
Cost and production scalability: Given the huge expected output of the "new generation" platform, the replicability and automation level of the production line are crucial. BMW believes that the standardized form of cylindrical batteries is most beneficial for rapidly replicating production capacity in different regions around the world and achieving high automation. Only cylindrical batteries can replicate this in various countries and regions around the world Capacity, "the company stated.
By significantly reducing the battery cell specifications from six in the fifth generation to three standard sizes in the sixth generation, BMW is taking the risk of simplifying supply chain management and reducing the difficulty of suppliers adjusting production capacity, thereby supporting its goal of reducing powertrain costs by 40% -50%.
By significantly reducing the battery cell specifications from six in the fifth generation to three standard sizes in the sixth generation, BMW aims to simplify supply chain management and reduce the difficulty for suppliers to adjust production capacity, thereby supporting its goal of reducing powertrain costs by 40% -50%.
Integration and performance potential: The rigid structure of cylindrical batteries is considered more suitable for applications in advanced chemical systems with higher energy density, such as high nickel cathodes and silicon-based cathodes. At the same time, by adjusting the number of series and parallel connections of battery cells, it is relatively easy to achieve different configurations of range and power versions on the same platform.
This means that BMW can develop and produce an electric vehicle product portfolio covering a wide range of performance and range on its "new generation" platform with higher efficiency and more optimized cost structure.
The upcoming "new generation" model of BMW will adopt an 800 volt high-voltage platform, achieving a 30% increase in charging speed. Thanks to the optimization of the vehicle's energy efficiency, including the battery, which has increased by about 20%, the expected range will increase by 30%.
To meet the huge battery demand of the "new generation" platform, BMW has established partnerships with three core suppliers: CATL, Yuanjing Power, and EVE Energy. These three suppliers will produce cylindrical battery cells of three standard sizes for BMW at nine planned production bases worldwide,
The construction of supplier factories is progressing according to plan: Far East Power's 30GWh factory in South Carolina, USA is expected to start production in 2027; EVE Energy's factory in Shenyang is about to begin trial production, and its Hungarian factory has also been approved for construction, which will directly support BMW Debrecen's vehicle factory.
BMW emphasizes the requirement for localization of the supply chain, which means that suppliers need to establish production bases and corresponding supply chain systems in major markets (Europe, China, North America). It believes that this is relatively easy in Europe and China, but still challenging in North America.
To this end, BMW has partnered with Umicoda, which will supply positive electrode materials for BMW projects in Ontario, Canada, with a planned annual production capacity of approximately 30GWh.
Looking ahead, BMW plans to build a battery product portfolio in three levels: high, medium, and low. In addition to the high nickel ternary system used in high-performance vehicle models, the company is actively exploring alternative solutions for mid to low end vehicle models. Its main directions include studying the bonding potential between lithium iron phosphate and silicon negative electrodes, as well as evaluating the feasibility of new manganese based positive electrode materials such as lithium manganese iron phosphate.
For the next generation of solid-state batteries, BMW is still exploring various technological paths, including evaluating the potential for combining manganese based positive electrode materials such as 5V spinel with solid-state electrolytes and negative electrode free designs, with the goal of achieving further breakthroughs in cost, safety, and energy density, but acknowledges that the specific roadmap has not yet been fully determined.
Meanwhile, BMW also acknowledges the challenges it faces in the development of large cylindrical batteries, such as the impact of silicon negative electrode expansion on electrolyte distribution uniformity, which may lead to lithium evolution and performance degradation in the later stages of cycling. The company and suppliers have improved the cycling performance by optimizing the electrolyte dosage and other engineering methods, meeting the design requirements of 1200 cycles.
In addition, the potential impact of gravity on the distribution of electrolyte inside large cylindrical cells is also a topic of ongoing research, and a near feasible solution is currently being sought through engineering optimization,
BMW's comprehensive exposition and firm investment in the large cylindrical battery route not only reveals the core pillars of its next-generation electric vehicle strategy, but also provides important references for the technological route selection and development trends of the entire power battery industry.
