"Currently, the mineral cost of lithium-ion batteries is rising rapidly, and the upward trend of lithium, cobalt and nickel prices will not change much in the short term, which is why Ford plans to provide lower-cost lithium iron phosphate battery versions for some models. Hope Consumers can afford Ford's electric vehicles," Ford said recently.
Compared with ternary lithium batteries that require rare metals such as cobalt and nickel, lithium iron phosphate batteries have lower costs, especially when the prices of raw materials such as lithium battery cathodes, anodes, and electrolytes are rising, and the cost pressure of large-scale production is less. , so it is widely welcomed by domestic car companies. As the global lithium price continues to rise, many international automakers have also begun to turn their backs and accelerate the development and manufacture of electric vehicles equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries.
It is understood that Tesla is an international car company that used lithium iron phosphate batteries earlier. In September 2020, the Tesla (Shanghai) factory standard battery life version Model 3 began to be replaced with lithium iron phosphate batteries, and soon this version of the models were all switched to lithium iron phosphate batteries. It is reported that nearly 50% of the electric vehicles produced by the company in the first quarter of 2022 use lithium iron phosphate batteries.
Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz have also expressed concern about lithium iron phosphate batteries. Volkswagen announced in March that it planned to use lithium iron phosphate batteries universally in its entry-level models in order to reduce battery costs by about 50% from current levels. It is reported that Volkswagen plans to start mass production of entry-level models equipped with lithium iron phosphate in 2023. Mercedes-Benz also announced last year that some of its electric vehicles would use lithium iron phosphate batteries.
In the eyes of industry insiders, the decline of subsidies for new energy vehicles has made the market look forward to more comprehensive cost-effective batteries. Compared with ternary batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries have the advantages of low cost and good safety, and are more in line with the needs of car companies to reduce costs, so they have become the new favorite of many international car companies.
With the international mainstream car companies throwing olive branches to lithium iron phosphate batteries, it has also attracted overseas traditional battery companies to deploy lithium iron phosphate batteries in order to get a share of the pie. For example, LG New Energy, which has been specializing in ternary batteries, announced in July that it plans to produce lithium iron phosphate batteries at LG's China factory in 2023.
Not only LG New Energy, but also Korean battery companies SKI are also actively developing lithium iron phosphate batteries. It is reported that SKOn, the battery division of SKI, is developing lithium iron phosphate batteries for electric vehicles.
