As the auto industry struggles to produce more affordable electric vehiclesThe most expensive component of which are batteries, lithium iron phosphate is gaining popularity as the preferred EV battery material.
The popularity of the chemical compound known as LFP is partly due to environmental and geopolitical concerns. But technological advances have narrowed the performance gap even with more widely used materials such as nickel and cobalt.
Adopted by LFP, the leader of the EV industry Tesla Two years ago, it sparked renewed interest, especially in the US, where a clutch of domestic and foreign manufacturers pledged more than $11 billion (roughly Rs. 90,200 crores) in new production facilities.
Overseas, the world’s two largest automakers, toyota motor And Hyundai MotorBoth have announced plans last week to equip their future vehicles with LFP batteries, but have not disclosed plans for the US.
“LFP is less expensive than cobalt and nickel, and all the minerals can be obtained here in North America (which means) much lower transportation costs and a more secure supply chain,” Stanley, a professor at Binghamton University in New York and a Whittingham said. 2019 Nobel laureate for his work on lithium ion batteries.
The inclusion of manganese, a key component in rival nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) battery cells, has enabled lithium iron phosphate cells to hold more energy than before, giving the EV a range of 450 miles (724 km) on a single charge. Gets more range. , Toyota said recently.
Michigan-based OurNext Energy, which is building a $1.6 billion (about Rs 13,100 crore) battery manufacturing complex in Van Buren Township, is a proponent of LFP, according to founder and chief executive Mujeeb Ijaz, because “the material is more abundant ” and durable, with very little risk of fire.
“We’ve also demonstrated that you can match the range of cobalt cells without compromise,” he added.
Tesla is one of the leading automakers in the quest to provide low-cost EVs in markets outside China – in Tesla’s case, targeting a base price of around $25,000 (roughly Rs. 20 lakh). Experts say that using LFP batteries will help Tesla and rivals achieve that goal.
ford motor The world’s largest EV battery maker aims to open a $3.5 billion (roughly Rs. 28,700 crores) LFP cell manufacturing plant in western Michigan, leveraging technology licensed from China’s CATL. Ford CEO Jim Farley said in February that the goal is to reduce the automaker’s cell cost from $100 (about Rs. 8,000)/kWh for existing NCM cells to less than $70 (about Rs. 5,800 crore) per kilowatt-hour. ,
More than 90 percent of LFP materials and components still come from China, said battery expert Shirley Meng, a University of Chicago professor and head of Argonne National Laboratory’s Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science.
The rapid adoption of LFPs by EV makers including Tesla and Hyundai, Meng said, shows that these companies are “unwilling to separate from China.”
‘tempting offer’
Battery expert Lukasz Bednarski, author of the 2021 book “Lithium: The Global Race for Battery Dominance and the New Energy Revolution,” believes automakers’ interest in making low-cost EVs is behind the growing popularity of LFP. Could be one of the reasons.
“The LFP offers great performance at a low cost, making it an attractive EV proposition for the middle class,” he added.
Bednarski said that the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) “provides incentives for LFP chemistry to develop the entire battery chain (without any prioritization).”
The growing investment in LFP manufacturing facilities in the United States isn’t just coming from domestic companies like Ford and Forest.
Battery makers from Norway, Israel, South Korea and even China have committed to building US facilities to produce LFP materials, components and batteries, some of which will be used not in vehicles but in large energy Will be done in storage systems.
“LFP was invented in the United States and first commercialized here,” Whittingham said. This was before Chinese companies such as BYD and CATL “moved quickly” to improve and deploy the technology, mainly in EVs, he added.
Now, given its continued cost advantage over NCM, he said, LFP should be used “in all grid storage systems and low-cost cars.”
© Thomson Reuters 2023