Better batteries dare: The US car company Ford has plans for a new plant in Michigan announced plans to manufacture lithium iron phosphate batteries for its electric vehicles in the future. The factory, which costs $3.5 billion and is scheduled to start up in 2026, would be the first to make the battery chemistry in the United States.
“This is a big deal,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer commented at a news conference unveiling plans for the facility. Expanding battery options will allow Ford to “build more electric vehicles faster and ultimately make them more affordable,” said Bill Ford, the company’s chief executive officer.
The lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries produced at the new plant are a lower-cost alternative to the nickel- and cobalt-containing batteries used in most electric vehicles in the US and Europe today. As LFP technology continues to gain popularity in China, the Ford plant being developed in partnership with Chinese battery giant CATL represents a milestone in the West by reducing costs while increasing charging speeds and extending lifespan LFP batteries could help expand EV choices for consumers.
The chemical mix in the batteries
Lithium-ion batteries all use lithium to store charge in a part of the battery called the cathode. But lithium doesn’t do this job alone: it is supported in the cathode by a number of other materials. The most common type of cathode used in electric vehicles today contains nickel, manganese and cobalt in addition to lithium. Some car manufacturers – such as Tesla – use a different cathode chemistry with nickel, cobalt and aluminum. These two types of cathodes have become popular in part because of their high energy density. The batteries are smaller and lighter than others that can store the same amount of energy.
While these two used to be the standard cathodes for electric car batteries, lithium iron phosphate, an older battery type, has made a comeback in recent years, largely due to tremendous growth in China.
The ferrous batteries today are typically about 20 percent cheaper than other lithium-ion batteries of the same capacity. That’s partly because LFP doesn’t contain cobalt or nickel — expensive metals that have seen wild price swings in recent years. Battery manufacturers are also striving to reduce cobalt levels, as mining the metal is associated with particularly problematic working conditions.
The composition of the battery chemistry market is changing: ferrous LFP batteries have grown from less than 10 percent of the electric vehicle market to nearly 40 percent in just four years. *Data from 2022 are extrapolations.
Iron in, cobalt and nickel out
Manufacturing cathodes without cobalt and nickel could help automakers cut costs. Some have already started switching battery chemistry for vehicles sold in the US. Tesla even imports LFP cells from China for some models, including the Model 3. Ford has already announced that it is the technology from 2023 in its Mach-E model and from 2024 in the F-150 Lightning truck will use.
With the newly announced factory, Ford would be the first automaker to produce LFP batteries in the United States. The new facility coupled with CATL could help boost LFP production in the country. “This is a crucial point for the North American manufacturing landscape,” said Evelina Stoikou, battery technology analyst at BloombergNEF, an analytics firm specializing in the energy space.
Several smaller LFP production facilities could start up around the same time as the Ford plant. In October 2022, the US federal government announced a nearly $200 million investment to help a company called ICL-IP America build its own factory in Missouri. The plant will produce material for LFP cathodes, which can then be used to make batteries. Production is scheduled to start in 2025.
Meanwhile, a Utah-based company called American Battery Factory is planning an LFP battery manufacturing facility in Tucson, Arizona. This facility is expected to cost about $1.2 billion and be operational in 2026. While the increasing availability of alternative battery chemistries could greatly expand the options for automakers and drivers, LFP is not likely to fully replace other technologies. “It’s not the Holy Grail for batteries,” says expert Stoikou.
Pros and cons of LFP batteries
While LFP batteries are cheaper than other technologies and can last longer, they tend to be heavier and bulkier. This can be a problem for vehicles because the heavier the batteries (and therefore the vehicle) are, the higher the power consumption of the entire system, which limits the range. In addition, larger batteries could take up space for seats or luggage.
Drivers in the US and Europe typically prefer larger vehicles with longer ranges. That makes it necessary to pack more energy into a limited space, so LFP may never catch on in the West like it has in China, Stoikou says. LFP’s growth could level off after this year, stabilizing at about 40 percent of the global EV battery market, she says. Looking ahead, we’ll likely soon see other, even better battery chemistries make their way into cars.
For example, adding manganese to a ferrous battery could increase efficiency while keeping costs down. Automakers could eventually move away from lithium-ion chemistry altogether and instead switch to solid-state lithium-metal batteries, which have even higher energy densities.
In the future, electric cars may not even need lithium, as sodium-ion batteries could offer a cheaper alternative. Each of these combinations could become decisive for the traffic of the future for different driving profiles – even if now the hour of LFP in the USA seems to have come.
(jle)
