Ford currently gets its EV batteries from a variety of suppliers, including its joint-venture partner SK On, which provides it with Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (NCM) units. However, as Ford Authority previously reported, FoMoCo will soon be switching to lithium-iron phosphate batteries in the standard range variants of the Ford Mustang Mach-E crossover and Ford F-150 Lightning pickup, which will stick around into the next decade. Those batteries will come from CATL until the new Ford BlueOval Battery Park Michigan begins producing them in 2026, but now, SK On has revealed that it’s also working on making LFP batteries, as well as various other types.
SK On revealed this information at the 2023 InterBattery show in Seoul, South Korea, which is large battery exhibition event that attracts hundreds of companies and thousands of visitors each year. There, the company displayed its new NCM9+ battery – an energy-density-improved version of the existing NCM9 battery – as well as a “Cobalt Free” (Co-Free) battery, which reportedly eliminates an NCM battery’s structural instability that can lead to a reduced lifespan and is also cheaper due to the lack of cobalt, the most expensive material used in the construction of NCM batteries.
Alongside those units were SK’s new LFP battery prototypes, which apply the same material and electrode technology used in high-nickel batteries to improve cold weather capacity from 50-70 percent up to 70-80 percent. Additionally, the company showed off its new prismatic cell, which boasts fast charging speeds that can charge a battery up to 80 percent capacity in as little as 18 minutes.
Additional technologies on display include Cell-to-Pack (CTP), which blocks heat to prevent fires from spreading from a battery cell to the entire pack, as well as “Vehicle to Load” (V2L), which applies battery power to external electronic devices. Looking further down the road, SK On also has both sulfide-based and high molecular/oxide-based all-solid-state batteries in the works, technology that is expected to be viable in the coming years.
We’ll have more on SK On soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for continuous Ford news coverage.
Comments
80% charge in 18 minutes. Big. Not just for driver. Frees up space enormously at charging stations for the next in line.
I am less and less impressed with the next new thing in BEV tech.
Outside of politicians mandating that we only use BEV, most are not attracted to the value proposition.
They are too expensive, too limited by infrastructure, and too dependent on unreliable global supply chains.
The industry and country are making a reckless decision partnering with anything Chinese due to their combative global stance on most everything not of their choosing.
Furthermore, BEV cheerleaders are not being honest with the public whom they claim to represent.
BEV are all about ‘business churning’ and absolutely nothing to due with saving the planet.
Sorry cheerleaders….
Middle America who the elite politicans do not represent have significant issues with this rapid bev movement. The charging network is a massive headache with too few, too far apart, too unreliable and too slow for starters.
All I can say is that it about time other battery chemistries come into the playground!!! Electric motors are pretty weight to power efficient, but battery tech has lagged way, way behind. Find something that checks all the right boxes, and we’ll take a big step forward with this whole EV changeover, not to mention all the other products that have solely relied on Lithium-Ion for decades.
>> LFP cells are fire and puncture resistant, <> are less costly to make. <> I have 24 kWh of LFP batteries at my home for my energy storage<<
LFP is its place and it's ideal for stationary energy storage system.