Meet the new batteries unlocking cheaper electric vehicles

“This is a big deal,” mentioned Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer in a press convention unveiling plans for the manufacturing facility. Expanding battery choices will permit Ford to “build more EVs faster, and ultimately make them more affordable,” mentioned Bill Ford, Ford’s government chair. 

Also referred to as lithium ferrous phosphate (LFP) batteries, the kind to be produced at the new plant are a lower-cost various to the nickel- and cobalt-containing batteries utilized in most electric vehicles in the US and Europe right this moment. While the expertise has grown in reputation in China, Ford’s manufacturing facility, developed in partnership with the Chinese battery large CATL, marks a milestone in the West. By chopping prices whereas additionally boosting charging pace and lengthening lifetime, LFP batteries may assist increase EV choices for drivers. 

Lithium-ion batteries all comprise lithium, which helps retailer cost in part of the battery known as the cathode. But lithium doesn’t do that job alone: it’s joined in the cathode by a supporting solid of different supplies.

The most typical form of cathode utilized in vehicles right this moment comprises nickel, manganese, and cobalt along with lithium. Some automakers, like Tesla, use one other cathode chemistry made with nickel, cobalt, and aluminum. Both these cathode varieties have risen to prominence partly as a result of they’ve excessive vitality density, that means the batteries might be smaller and lighter than others that may retailer the identical quantity of vitality.

While these two was the default selections for cathodes in EV batteries, lithium iron phosphate, an older chemistry, has seen a comeback in the previous few years, largely pushed by large development in China.

These iron-containing batteries are typically about 20% cheaper than different lithium-ion batteries with the identical capability right this moment. This is partly as a result of LFP doesn’t comprise cobalt or nickel, costly metals which have seen large value swings in recent times. Battery makers are additionally working to scale back cobalt content material as a result of mining the steel has been tied to notably dangerous working circumstances. 

Making cathodes with out cobalt and nickel may assist automakers minimize prices, and a few have already begun to shift battery chemistry utilized in vehicles offered in the US. Tesla imports LFP cells from China right this moment for some fashions, together with its Model 3. Ford beforehand introduced that it might begin utilizing the expertise in its Mach-E in 2023 and in the F-150 Lightning in 2024. 

With its newly introduced manufacturing facility, Ford would turn out to be the first automaker to provide LFP batteries in the US. The new facility, which can use expertise from CATL, may assist kick-start LFP manufacturing in the US extra broadly. “It’s a pivotal point for the North American manufacturing landscape,” says Evelina Stoikou, a battery expertise analyst at BloombergNEF, an energy-focused analysis agency. 

Several smaller LFP manufacturing services may additionally come on-line round the identical time as the Ford plant. 

In October 2022, the US federal authorities introduced a virtually $200 million funding to assist an organization known as ICL-IP America construct a manufacturing facility in Missouri. The plant will make materials for LFP cathodes, which can then be used to make batteries. It ought to start manufacturing in 2025. 

Meanwhile, a Utah-based firm known as American Battery Factory is planning a manufacturing facility for LFP batteries in Tucson, Arizona. That facility is anticipated to price about $1.2 billion and will come on-line in 2026. 

While the rising availability of different battery chemistries may considerably increase choices for automakers and drivers, LFP in all probability gained’t absolutely change different applied sciences. “It’s not the holy grail for batteries,” Stoikou says. 

LFP batteries are cheaper than different chemistries and might have an extended lifetime, however additionally they are typically heavier and bulkier. That could be a downside for vehicles, as a result of if a battery is heavier, it’ll take extra vitality to cart round, limiting vary. And bigger batteries may take up house for seating or cargo.

Drivers in the US and Europe are inclined to choose larger vehicles with longer vary. That makes it essential to pack extra vitality right into a constrained house, so LFP may by no means dominate in the West because it has in China, Stoikou says. 

LFP development will possible stage off after this yr, stabilizing at about 40% of the world battery marketplace for EVs, Stoikou says. And wanting forward, we’ll possible quickly see different, newer chemistries making their means into vehicles. 

Adding manganese to iron-containing batteries may increase efficiencies whereas maintaining prices low. Automakers may transfer away from lithium-ion chemistries altogether, as an alternative shifting to solid-state lithium-metal batteries, which may have even increased vitality density. And EVs may not even depend on lithium in the future, since sodium-ion batteries may supply a cheaper choice down the highway.

Each of these chemical combos may be key to transportation in the future. It’s LFP’s second now, however there are many others simply behind it.