Last May, Ford Authority reported that the Ford F-150 Lightning would be utilizing lithium iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries in the near future, a move that was confirmed by FoMoCo a few months later. LFP battery packs don’t use nickel or cobalt in their construction and are generally cheaper, safer, and can be charged to 100 percent without worrying about speeding up battery degradation, though they’re also not as energy dense as lithium-ion batteries. Regardless, these new batteries were previously expected to arrive in the Ford Mustang Mach-E starting in 2023, with the F-150 Lightning following in early 2024, a timeline that Lisa Drake, vice president, EV industrialization for Ford Model E confirmed at the recent media briefing for the new Ford BlueOval Battery Park Michigan.
“Later this year, Mustang Mach-E will be the first Ford EV to offer customers the LFP battery. And next year, F-150 Lightning will offer LFP batteries,” Drake said.
Earlier this month, Ford CEO Jim Farley confirmed that the Mach-E would be the first Blue Oval EV to utilize LFP battery packs starting this spring, though in the short term, those batteries will come from China via CATL – the world’s largest EV battery manufacturer. Once the new Ford BlueOval Battery Park Michigan begins production in 2026, future LFP batteries will be sourced from that facility. When the new plant opens, Ford will produce the LFP batteries using licensed CATL technology.
While Ford plans on utilizing LFP batteries into the next decade, those units won’t be present in the E-Transit – at least for now. The LFP battery packs are expected to be around 10 percent cheaper than their lithium-ion counterparts, according to Ford Pro CEO Ted Cannis, though they may only be utilized in standard range versions of the F-150 Lightning and Mach-E.
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Comments
LFP materials will be supplied all in the U.S. without foreign content or rare earth metals. I have 18 kWh worth of LFP batteries just three feet from my bedroom door storing solar energy from my roof panels. That is how safe they are! No Tesla type fires to worry.
Baloney. Lithium is old tech and I wouldn’t trust large ones with a 10-foot pole. (And solar panels are generally a poor investment, BTW with a LONG payback period).
Baloney? Which part.
There were no fewer than 60+ LFP fires in China last year, including one 1.4MW at a shopping mall killing two firemen.
>> LFP materials will be supplied all in the U.S. without foreign content or rare earth metals.
This is untrue. Ford’s new factory won’t be ready until 2026 or so, and, as this article clarifies, Ford is going to bring LFP based Mach-E next year — ie, with MIC LFP.
I don’t see where he put a timeframe on his comment saying it would be before 2026.
Will the a Truck go back down in price? Now that would be great news