As global lithium prices continue to rise, European and American automakers have begun to accelerate the development and manufacture of electric vehicles equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries. Compared with lithium-ion batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries with large capacity, low cost and longer life are becoming the mainstream of the power battery market in Europe and the United States.
Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk has been a big proponent of lithium iron phosphate batteries, which he admits can be repeatedly charged to 100% capacity without shortening its lifespan.
It is understood that in the first quarter of this year, nearly half of Tesla's electric vehicles were equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries. The company said that in the future, lithium iron phosphate batteries will be used on a large scale for most of Tesla's standard range. Vehicle and commercial energy storage projects.
Some U.S. media pointed out that lithium iron phosphate batteries have always had a small share of the electric vehicle market in the United States, Canada and Europe, but as cobalt prices have become increasingly high and scarce, many electric vehicle manufacturers have begun to seek "nothing". Cobalt batteries", lithium iron phosphate batteries have therefore been placed high hopes.
Recently, Ford Motor also announced that it will launch electric vehicles equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries.
In fact, one of the main reasons for Tesla's switch to lithium iron phosphate batteries is that the high prices of lithium, nickel and cobalt have driven the cost of lithium-ion batteries to rise. Although the company's profit in the first quarter soared 6.5 times year-on-year to $3.3 billion, it was still affected by Stuck with the challenges of increasing input costs and lingering supply chain issues.
Musk has admitted that lithium supply is a major limiting factor in the growth of the electric vehicle industry. Albemarle, the world's largest lithium producer, also said that the surge in lithium prices still shows no signs of stopping.
According to industry analysis data, lithium prices have soared by 700% compared to the beginning of last year, and nickel prices once reached the highest level in 20 years after March. Cobalt prices also rose significantly, with the average trading price in the week of May 12 up 70% from the same period last year.
This has undoubtedly pushed up the production cost of lithium-ion batteries, which has led to a rise in the price of electric vehicles. In this context, low-cost lithium iron phosphate batteries have become a popular choice for electric vehicle batteries. Automakers such as Volkswagen of Germany and Ford of the United States have announced that they will be equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries in some of their models.
The World Bank recently stated publicly that in the context of the global push for green energy transition, the world's demand for mineral metals such as copper, nickel, cobalt and lithium will "permanently increase". This means that the global search for cheaper, simpler and more efficient battery technology has become imminent as the low-carbon transition accelerates.
Eurasia Resources, a major global supplier of copper and cobalt, pointed out that with the diversified development of the power battery market, there will be more development directions for battery technology in the future. In the view of Eurasian Resources: "Lithium iron phosphate batteries and ternary lithium ion batteries have their own advantages and disadvantages, the latter's advantages are high energy density and good low temperature performance, while lithium iron phosphate batteries may reach the level in the next 3-4 years. Maximum energy density and peak performance. On the contrary, ternary lithium-ion batteries still have great innovation potential, especially in terms of energy density improvement. Therefore, the future power battery market will be a pattern of coexistence of multiple battery technologies, ternary cathodes Materials will also capture a certain market share with their excellent energy density and overall performance.”
