As the auto business scrambles to supply extra reasonably priced electrical automobiles, whose costliest parts are the batteries, lithium iron phosphate is gaining traction because the EV battery materials of selection.
The reputation of the chemical compound often known as LFP is due partly to environmental and geopolitical issues. But technological advances have additionally diminished the efficiency hole with extra broadly used supplies similar to nickel and cobalt.
LFP, embraced by EV business chief Tesla two years in the past, has sparked new curiosity particularly within the US, the place a clutch of home and abroad producers has pledged greater than $11 billion (practically Rs. 90,200 crore) in new manufacturing services.
Overseas, two of the world’s largest automakers, Toyota Motor and Hyundai Motor, have each introduced plans prior to now week to equip their future automobiles with LFP batteries, however haven’t 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,” stated Stanley Whittingham, professor at Binghamton University in New York and a 2019 Nobel laureate for his work on lithium ion batteries.
The addition of manganese, a staple ingredient in rival nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) battery cells, has enabled lithium iron phosphate cells to carry extra vitality than beforehand, offering EVs with extra vary — as much as 450 miles (724 km) on a single cost, Toyota stated just lately.
Michigan-based Our Next Energy, which is constructing a $1.6 billion (practically Rs. 13,100 crore) battery manufacturing advanced in Van Buren Township, is a proponent of LFP, in line with founder and chief government Mujeeb Ijaz, as a result of “the materials are more abundant and sustainable, with far less risk” of fireside.
“We’ve also demonstrated that you can match the range of cobalt cells with no compromise,” he stated.
Tesla is among the many automakers main the search in markets exterior of China to offer lower-priced EVs — in Tesla’s case, concentrating on a base value of round $25,000 (practically Rs. 20 lakh). The use of LFP batteries ought to assist Tesla and rivals to realize that purpose, specialists say.
Ford Motor goals to open a $3.5 billion (practically Rs. 28,700 crore) LFP cell manufacturing plant in western Michigan, leveraging expertise licensed from China’s CATL, the world’s largest EV battery maker. The purpose, Ford CEO Jim Farley stated in February, is to decrease the automaker’s cell prices to lower than $70 (practically Rs. 5,800 crore) a kilowatt-hour, from greater than $100 (practically Rs. 8,000)/kWh for present NCM cells.
More than 90 % of LFP supplies and parts nonetheless come from China, stated battery knowledgeable Shirley Meng, a University of Chicago professor and head of Argonne National Laboratory’s Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science.
The quickly growing adoption of LFP by EV producers together with Tesla and Hyundai suggests these firms “should not able to decouple from China,” Meng said.
‘Attractive proposition’
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 building lower-priced EVs could be one of the drivers behind LFP’s rising popularity.
“LFP provides good enough performance at a lower cost, which makes it an attractive proposition for EVs for the middle class,” he said.
Bednarski added that the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides incentives “for the development of the whole battery chain (with no) preference for LFP chemistry.”
Rising investment in LFP manufacturing facilities in the United States is coming not just from domestic companies like Ford and ONE.
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 storage systems.
“LFP was invented in the US and first commercialised here,” said Whittingham. He said this happened before Chinese companies such as BYD and CATL “moved fast” to improve and deploy the technology, mainly in EVs.
Now, given its continued cost advantage over NCM, he added, LFP “should be used in all grid storage systems and lower-cost cars.”
© Thomson Reuters 2023
