South Korean manufacturers "stimulated" by lifepo4 battery

Hyundai Motor Group recently announced that it will jointly implement a technology development project for the production of cathode materials for lithium iron phosphate batteries. The project is a collaboration between Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, Hyundai Steel and EcoProBM, a cathode material company, to produce cathode materials for lithium iron phosphate batteries by synthesizing materials without producing precursors. The project has received support from South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. "In order to meet the needs of the future EV market, rapid technology development and efficient battery supply chain construction are essential."

"Through this project, we aim to reduce our dependence on imported products and improve the technological competitiveness of the nation and Hyundai Motor Group by developing the necessary technologies internally," said the head of electrification and electric drive materials research and development at Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors. In fact, Korean companies have accumulated certain technical strength in the field of lithium iron phosphate. In July this year, LG New Energy announced that it will supply lithium iron phosphate batteries to Ampere, an electric vehicle subsidiary of Renault. According to the agreement, LG New Energy will supply Ampere with a total scale of about 39GWh of lifepo4 battery from the end of 2025 to 2030, enough to support about 590,000 electric vehicles. The batteries will be produced at LG NeV's plant in Poland. Prior to this, LG NEV has tried to "produce lower-priced lithium iron phosphate batteries to better meet the needs of low-cost electric vehicles." According to sources, LG New Energy has set a goal to make its lithium iron phosphate battery performance more than its competitor, the battery produced by the Ningde era, that is, the energy density of the battery is 20 percent higher than the battery provided by the Ningde Era to Tesla Model 3. At present, LG New Energy's South Korean counterparts SK On and Samsung SDI are also vigorously deploying lithium iron phosphate batteries to respond to the challenges from Chinese battery manufacturers in the global market, as well as changes in the demand side of the electric vehicle market. According to the data released by SNE Research, a market research institution in South Korea, the global installed capacity of electric vehicle batteries from January to August this year was 510.1GWh, an increase of 21.7%. There are three South Korean battery companies in the global top ten list, respectively, ranked third LG New Energy, ranked fourth SK On, and ranked seventh Samsung SDI, the total market share of the three South Korean companies is 21.1%, down 3.4% year-on-year. China has six companies in the top 10, with a combined market share of 65.1%, up 1.6 percentage points from the whole of last year. The gap between Chinese and South Korean companies widened to 44 percentage points. SNE analysis said that the current cost advantage of lithium iron phosphate batteries are dominated by Chinese enterprises. As the number of electric vehicles equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries in the world gradually increases, Chinese battery companies are accelerating development in the global market. "In the context of the price reduction of new energy vehicles, the proportion of batteries in the cost of the vehicle is still relatively high, compared with other types of power batteries, lithium iron phosphate batteries are more economical." Industry analysts pointed out that lithium iron phosphate batteries also have many advantages such as high safety and longer life. In addition, Chinese battery manufacturers have applied a variety of innovative technologies to greatly improve the energy density of lithium iron phosphate batteries. For example, the lithium iron phosphate Shenxing battery PLUS launched by Ningde Times has a system energy density of 205Wh/kg; Byd's second-generation blade battery system energy density is expected to reach 190Wh/kg; The energy density of Guoxuan lithium iron phosphate cell has exceeded 210Wh/kg. In the market competition, lithium iron phosphate has been three yuan beat back. According to the data of the power battery application branch, the loading capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries in the Chinese market from January to August this year exceeded 200GWh, accounting for more than 70% of the total loading capacity, while the market share of three-way batteries has been less than 30%. Overseas, Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Hyundai, Renault, Nissan, Toyota, Honda and other international car companies are expanding models equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries. The market share of ternary batteries will not exceed lithium iron phosphate batteries in the short term. In the view of BYD chief scientist Lian Yubo, subject to factors such as cost and material controllability, lithium iron phosphate batteries will not be eliminated in the next 15-20 years. Tesla CEO Musk said that in the future, two-thirds of Tesla cars will use lithium iron phosphate batteries, and one-third may use three-way batteries. Stimulated by the "aggressive" strong performance of the lithium iron phosphate battery of the Korean manufacturers, the Korean manufacturers who once stuck to the ternary battery technology route had to change their strategy. In fact, as early as a few years ago, Korean manufacturers have noticed lithium iron phosphate. LG New Energy was able to obtain Renault's lithium iron phosphate battery order is also the "fruit of planting flowers" in earlier years. At that time, Tesla, one of the main customers of LG new energy, also began to vigorously assemble lithium iron phosphate batteries in the Ningde era. Apparently, this stimulated LG New Energy. In the first half of 2020, the lithium iron phosphate battery version of Tesla (Shanghai) Model 3 began to enter the China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology model catalog. At the end of 2020, LG New Energy began to develop lithium iron phosphate battery technology in the Daejeon laboratory in South Korea. In March last year, LG New Energy announced that it will invest 7.2 trillion won (about 38 billion yuan) in Arizona, the United States, the construction of 16GWh lithium iron phosphate battery project, the goal is to achieve mass production in 2026. Then, LG New Energy released a statement in September last year that it and Huayou Cobalt will jointly build an electric vehicle battery material factory in Morocco, which will be put into production in 2026, with an annual output of 50,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate cathode materials. In February this year, LG New Energy and Changzhou Lithium source signed a long-term supply contract, from this year to 2028, Changzhou lithium source will sell a total of 160,000 tons of lithium iron phosphate cathode material products to LG New Energy. According to Lee Seok-hee, CEO of SK On, the company has completed the development of its own lithium iron phosphate battery and plans to start production in 2026. In 2021, SK On is already developing lithium iron phosphate batteries for electric vehicles. SK On said that lithium iron phosphate batteries perform better in terms of cost, safety and life, so more and more car companies have increased the demand for lithium iron phosphate batteries. At present, SK On is actively negotiating with a number of car manufacturers lithium iron phosphate battery supply agreements. According to reports, Samsung SDI plans to build South Korea's first lithium iron phosphate battery production line at the Ulsan plant, which is expected to start production in 2025. Prior to this, the head of Samsung SDI revealed early last year that the company was trying to develop lithium iron phosphate batteries to diversify its business and customers. In June last year, the company demonstrated its lithium iron phosphate battery products for the first time. From a global perspective, the "whirlwind" of lithium iron phosphate from China has been blown to Europe and North America, with the continuous increase of Korean manufacturers, the market share of lithium iron phosphate will increase in the future, and Chinese manufacturers will also face more fierce competition.