The Battery Management System (BMS) is a management system for lithium batteries in electric vehicles. System architecture is the foundation and key of BMS, which determines the performance, life, safety and cost of the battery management system. The protection board of the lithium-ion battery can be understood as a BMS with a simplified design. It implements overvoltage, undervoltage, overcurrent and other protection functions through hardware solutions without software control.
BMS (Battery Management System) Classification
According to the structure, BMS can be classified into three categories: decentralized, centralized and integrated. Due to the high reproducibility of the distributed management architecture, it can be applied to battery packs of many different models, which is expected to help the sustainable development of new energy vehicles. Passive balance management is widely used by enterprises due to its low cost, complexity and low failure rate.
However, active equalization management has higher efficiency, large equalization current, and less energy dissipation. As thermal risks and circuit complexity are gradually overcome, BMS is expected to transition to active equalization management. In addition, integration, generalization, and intelligence are also the future technological development trends of BMS.
BMS (Battery Management System) Industry Chain
The BMS is the communication bridge between the battery and the vehicle controller and the driver. It controls the charging and discharging of the power battery pack through the control contactor, and reports the basic parameters and fault information of the battery system to the VCU. Upstream materials include PCB boards, chips, electronic components, wire harnesses, LED displays, etc. The software algorithm relies on the data accumulation of each link, which is the key core of BMS. The downstream applications of BMS mainly include consumer batteries (3C digital), power batteries (electric vehicles) and energy storage batteries (defense, renewable energy, communications, medical health, etc.).
Benefiting from the rapid advancement of vehicle electrification in the Chinese and European markets, the global sales of new energy vehicles have risen rapidly since 2016, and the installed capacity of power batteries has increased simultaneously. In 2021, the global installed capacity of power batteries reached 296.8Gwh, a year-on-year increase of 102% . China’s power battery installed capacity reached 154.5Gwh, a year-on-year increase of 144%, faster than the global average growth rate. In the first half of 2022, the global power battery installed capacity was 202GWh, a year-on-year increase of 76%; China’s power battery installed capacity was 110.1GWh, a year-on-year increase of 110%.
Analysis of the Global BMS (Battery Management System) Industry Status
In recent years, the global production of new energy vehicles has grown rapidly, driving the explosion of demand for BMS products. From 2014 to 2018, the global BMS market scale increased year by year. In 2019, due to the sharp decline in subsidies and the decline in the overall growth rate of the new energy vehicle market, the installed capacity of BMS declined for the first time . Due to the decline in the price of BMS products, the market size also dropped to US$1.376 billion.
In 2020, as new energy vehicles returned to growth, the BMS market grew accordingly. In 2021, the global automotive battery management system market reached US$3.341 billion, an increase of 94.36% over the previous year.
Analysis of China’s BMS (Battery Management System) Industry Status
Driven by the rapid development of new energy vehicles in China, China’s BMS (battery management system) market has grown rapidly. According to statistics, the scale of China’s automotive battery management system (BMS) reached 10.308 billion RMB in 2021 , a year-on-year increase of 138.78%.
China’s BMS market is rising rapidly, from 81,000 sets in 2014 to 3.545 million sets in 2021, with a CAGR of 71.57% during the period.
China’s BMS (battery management system) has shown a downward trend in recent years. In 2021, the average price of China’s automotive battery management system (BMS) was 2908 RMB/set. At present, due to the low price of BMS but the high development cost, and some core components are limited, except for some car companies with high sales who tend to make their own, they will basically choose third-party suppliers.
BMS (Battery Management System) Industry Trends
At present, BMS is still one of the core technologies of electric vehicles. Various OEMs, component suppliers, and scientific research institutes are continuing to increase research and development efforts. In the future competition of electric vehicles, having a battery management system with reliable performance and low price is one of the core competitiveness of electric vehicles.
Among many BMS architectures, distributed is undoubtedly the trend of future development. The distributed BMS system connected by daisy chain has a higher cost advantage, and it will be more and more widely used in the future.
With the rapid iteration of electric vehicles, it is not feasible to redevelop BMS for each model project in terms of time and cost. On the basis of platformization and modularization, developing a generalized BMS that meets strategic needs is an effective way to enhance product competitiveness.
