Warren Buffett-backed Chinese electric car company BYD has launched the second phase of its power battery production base with six new production lines for blade batteries, the Chongqing Daily reported Friday.

The first and second phases of BYD's power battery production base will have a combined annual capacity of 35GWh at full capacity and an annual output of RMB 30 billion ($4.6 billion), the report said.

Wang Chuanfu, BYD's founder and chairman of the board, said last week that all of the company's electric vehicle models will use blade batteries and that all batteries will be tested with pinpricks.

Wang highlighted the blade battery's high safety, non-spontaneous combustion, and the fact that the battery can still be used normally after being crushed by a 46-ton truck.

Production capacity for blade batteries is now rising rapidly, and they are already being supplied to Hongqi, a Chinese luxury car brand, and will be used in many mainstream brands of new energy vehicles, Wang said.

In the past few years, China's pure electric vehicle models in the choice of battery will generally choose higher energy density ternary lithium batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries are more often found in commercial vehicles.

In the past two years, the safety of ternary lithium batteries has been questioned as the number of electric vehicle fires has increased.

Last March, BYD released a new lithium iron phosphate battery, the blade battery, which can pass all safety tests, even the most difficult pinprick test.

BYD makes the energy density of the blade battery catch up with the mainstream ternary lithium battery through its unique packaging mode.

Compared with ternary lithium batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries have lower cost and better safety. Driven by BYD's blade battery, there are now several car companies that have chosen lithium iron phosphate batteries.

(Source: BYD)