Humanoid robots have made their debut on the Spring Festival Gala, sparking a craze for robots across the entire industry chain, including lithium battery companies.

As the energy system of robots, the performance of batteries used by humanoid robots directly determines their endurance and load capacity, as well as their operational stability.

With the promotion of humanoid robots in various fields and policy support, the number of humanoid robot orders has increased, and industrial capital continues to support them.

A new trend is brewing, and the battery companies that benefit the most in terms of power will naturally not let it go. After the low altitude economy, multiple industrial chain enterprises are collectively entering the field of robot batteries.

Yiwei Lithium Energy has currently contacted multiple leading robot enterprise customers, and some customers have completed sample delivery and assembly; Blue Lithium stated that its lithium battery products have been applied to Yushu Technology; The positive electrode materials related to Mengguli have been validated in the field of humanoid robots; Xinyu Ganfeng Electronics, a subsidiary of Ganfeng Lithium, has also developed an all terrain robot battery; Ningde Times had already established a robot research and development team and planned to invest in a robot company even earlier.

According to Gaogong Lithium Battery, with the increase in downstream shipments of robots, there has been a substantial boost in orders for humanoid robot batteries, and many industrial chain enterprises have already received bulk orders. Related companies are increasing their production capacity while also intensifying product research and development efforts.

What is the battery increment for humanoid robots?

As a new trend track, the potential for robots to explode is enormous.

Lithium batteries, as the core power source of current robots, have seen a surge in demand with the rapid expansion of the robot market. The lithium battery equipped with robots needs to meet the requirements of high energy density, high power, high rate, high safety, and long lifespan. According to Gaogong Lithium Battery, cylindrical lithium batteries are mainly used for humanoid robots and installed in the center of the torso.

Taking humanoid robots as an example, their system architecture mostly adopts a 48-58V system voltage, with a battery pack structure of 13-16 series and 3-9 parallel, and their charging and discharging rates are mostly above 2-3C. The charging capacity of a single humanoid robot is 0.5-2kWh, which is close to the mainstream charging capacity of two wheeled vehicles in the market.

According to data from GGII, based on an average battery capacity of 2kWh per humanoid robot, it is expected that the shipment of lithium batteries for humanoid robots will reach 2.2GWh by 2025, and the demand will exceed 100GWh by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of over 100% between 2025 and 2030.

In the application field, robot applications have covered multiple areas, including scientific research, medical, industrial and other scenarios, and the number of robot products targeting the consumer end is gradually increasing.

The power bottleneck of humanoid robots

However, the industrialization of humanoid robots also has its own bottlenecks.

From the perspective of power source alone, lithium-ion batteries for humanoid robots still face problems such as insufficient endurance and high frequency of charging and discharging. The main issue with battery life is that the energy density of current lithium batteries is difficult to meet the requirements of robots for long-term operation. If the battery capacity is blindly used, it will increase costs while weakening the lightweight characteristics of robots.

In terms of charging and discharging frequency, due to the high frequency and continuous operation of humanoid robots during the operation process, not only will there be a test for the thermal management of the battery, but also higher requirements for the battery's cycle life.

Although the charging capacity of humanoid robots on the market is similar to that of two wheeled vehicles, their application requirements differ greatly. Due to the complexity of application scenarios and the requirements of appearance design, it is difficult for humanoid robots to carry large "power boxes" like two wheeled vehicles. The lightweight battery system is also a prominent requirement for humanoid robots to use batteries.

As a new trend, energy system issues are one of the key constraints on the development of the robotics industry.

In theory, solid-state batteries have extremely high energy density, safety, and cycle life, which are superior to traditional liquid lithium batteries. This has the potential to become an alternative power source for robot cores. At present, the research and development progress of solid-state batteries by domestic battery and material manufacturers has gradually entered the pilot stage, optimizing processes in advance for large-scale production.

On the production schedule, the mass production of solid-state batteries is mainly concentrated around 2027. It is expected that after the mass production of solid-state batteries, robots will be the first to be equipped with solid-state batteries in cost insensitive fields such as high-end digital and aerospace. At that time, the robot power system will also undergo revolutionary improvements.

Gaogong Lithium Battery also understands that currently, small and medium-sized battery enterprises are more enthusiastic about laying out the robot battery track. On the one hand, the production line transformation and product planning changes of small and medium-sized battery enterprises are relatively easier than those of large battery enterprises. On the other hand, large battery enterprises pay more attention to the deterministic big track such as dynamic storage, and the capacity of the robot battery track is more matched with the shipping capacity of small and medium-sized battery enterprises.

It can be foreseen that in the short term, humanoid robot batteries will bring more significant transformation benefits to small and medium-sized battery enterprises. Against the backdrop of continuous cost reduction and efficiency improvement in the current industry, the humanoid robot race will also bring new profit growth points.