Studying The LFP Battery Tea Leaves In Ford’s New Technique

Join day by day information updates from CleanTechnica on e mail. Or comply with us on Google Information!

The Ford Motor Firm set the Intertubes buzzing yesterday when the corporate introduced a serious shift in its automobile electrification plan. When it comes to the worldwide automotive market, the information was lower than shocking, however buried all the way in which down on the backside was an fascinating element concerning the firm’s new LFP EV battery.

The Excessive Price Of An EV Battery

The EV battery subject is heading for yet one more makeover as automakers like Ford scout for methods to chop prices. The give attention to cost-cutting is correct up there originally of the yesterday’s announcement, the place the corporate attracts consideration to the “advantaged price constructions” of competitors in China, including that “right this moment’s electrical automobile shoppers are extra cost-conscious than early adopters.”

“We discovered so much because the No. 2 U.S. electrical automobile model about what prospects need and worth, and what it takes to match the very best on this planet with cost-efficient design,” defined Ford President and CEO Jim Farley, with No. 2 being a veiled reference to the longstanding No. 1 EV model within the US, Tesla.

Tesla launched into the market 14 years in the past with a beneficiant mortgage from the US authorities, aimed toward maintaining the US auto business aggressive with abroad firms within the international superior automobile market.

That purpose has been partly realized, however US automakers are going through a brand new wave of abroad competitors. Chopping down the persistently excessive price of an EV battery would assist make a distinction.

“An reasonably priced electrical automobile begins with an reasonably priced battery,” Farley defined. “In case you are not aggressive on battery price, you aren’t aggressive.”

The Fall Of The Sedan & The Rise Of The LFP EV Battery

When it comes to classes discovered from the No. 1 EV model concerning the US market, Ford’s new electrification plan displays an consciousness that right this moment’s automobile consumers love pickup vehicles, whether or not or not they use them to choose something up apart from groceries. The marketplace for small industrial vans can be working scorching. These developments dovetail with the expansion of gig work, aspect hustles, and small companies within the US. Many households may use a household automobile that doubles as a piece automobile. Sedans can match the invoice for some jobs, however a bigger, extra sensible automobile is a necessity for others.

With this in thoughts, an costly, top-of-the-line EV battery with a super-high vary shouldn’t be a selected precedence for the present wave of EV consumers. In distinction to early adopters, Farley notes that right this moment’s consumers are “trying to electrical automobiles as a sensible approach to save cash on gasoline and upkeep, in addition to time by charging at residence.”

That’s the place the brand new lithium iron phosphate (LFP) EV battery is available in. The iron phosphate a part of an EV battery replaces dearer supplies like nickel and cobalt. In contrast to the availability chain for standard lithium-ion batteries, LFP batteries can depend on home sources (see extra LFP background right here).

All the way in which down on the backside of yesterday’s press launch — about 30 paragraphs down — Ford lastly drops this nugget:

“Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery manufacturing is on observe to start in 2026 at BlueOval Battery Park Michigan – America’s first automaker-backed LFP battery plant – qualifying for Inflation Discount Act advantages and giving Ford one of many lowest-cost battery cells in North America.”

A New EV Battery For The New Thriller Truck

As for which EVs will get the brand new LFP battery, Ford dropped a touch into yesterday’s announcement, when the corporate up to date the timeline for its “T3” next-generation thriller truck. Ford teased the T3 truck venture final yr, noting that improvement group selected T3 — “Belief The Truck” — because the venture code title.

“The group’s single guideline has been to create a truck individuals can belief within the digital age – one which’s totally updatable, consistently enhancing, and helps towing, hauling, exportable energy and countless new improvements homeowners will need,” Ford defined in a press launch dated March 24, 2023.

In yesterday’s press launch, Ford defined that it expects the T3 to roll off the meeting line within the second half of 2027. That’s later than initially deliberate, however the timing will coincide with a next-generation EV battery, LFP or not.

“Retiming the launch permits the corporate to make the most of lower-cost battery know-how and reap the benefits of different price breakthroughs whereas the market continues to develop,” Ford defined.

To Hybrid Or Not To Hybrid? Or To Gas Cell?

For essentially the most half, the rest of the press launch explains why Ford is taking an enormous monetary hit in some areas so as to re-focus consideration on the demand for hybrid automobiles of 1 type or one other, together with three-row SUVs and the subsequent era of its F-Collection Tremendous Responsibility pickup.

Doing the mathematics, Ford calculates {that a} bigger automobile requires an even bigger EV battery pack, which makes it dearer. The thought is to offer extra reasonably priced choices by pairing smaller battery packs with inside combustion engines. That’s a lower than preferrred resolution by way of speedy electrification, nevertheless it does slot in with the family vehicle-as-a-multitasker idea.

Conspicuously absent from yesterday’s announcement was any point out of a gasoline cell electrical automobile, which is one other approach of resolving the EV battery price concern. Gas cell automobiles don’t remove batteries altogether, however they don’t require a big battery pack for propulsion.

On the down aspect, gasoline cells are costly, and so is the hydrogen gasoline that makes them go. The Biden administration’s new $7 billion Regional Clear Hydrogen Hubs program may assist take among the sting out, significantly with regard to the price of inexperienced hydrogen from renewable sources.

In the meantime, the rising consensus is that gasoline cell passenger vehicles are a non-starter within the US market. Nonetheless, gasoline cells may nonetheless discover a foothold amongst heavier lessons of automobiles that require extra energy, and Ford has been investigating that possibility as nicely.

Again in 2022, CleanTechnica took word of a forthcoming pilot check for Ford’s F550 gasoline cell prototype work truck, in collaboration with the agency Ferguson Enterprises. Southern California Gasoline can be a part of the venture, beneath the umbrella of the Power Division’s “Tremendous Truck 3” heavy-duty truck decarbonization program. In an replace issued earlier this yr, SoCalGas indicated that the truck venture is on observe for operation in 2025.

Whereas that’s on the again burner for the US market, Ford can be launching gasoline cell electrical vehicles abroad, so keep tuned for extra on that.

Observe me through LinkTree, or @tinamcasey on Threads, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Picture: Ford Motor Firm is banking on a brand new, low-cost LFP EV battery method to assist its EV gross sales technique (courtesy of Ford).