Aside from securing deals with a number of suppliers across the globe, Ford is exploring every potential avenue as it aims to vastly expand its all-electric vehicle lineup in the coming years. One way the automaker plans to accomplish that is by utilizing lithium-iron phosphate (LFP) batteries in select models like the Ford Mustang Mach-E and Ford F-150 Lightning, which 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. However, that may not be the only different kind of battery that future Ford EVs employ, according to CFO John Lawler.
“We just announced our LFP this week, and we see that having a significantly lower cost, and that’s going to be – could service up to 20 percent of our BEV,” Lawler said while speaking at the 2023 Wolfe Research Global Auto, Auto Tech, and Mobility Conference. “We have NCM. You have LFP. You’ve got manganese-rich coming. Eventually you’ll have a solid state or a form of solid state. And so having the right battery chemistry is important, so you can ride that.”
It’s clear that Ford isn’t married to one type of battery over the other, as the chief concern here is availability, along with cost. The automaker recently said that LFP batteries will represent around a 10 percent cost savings when compared to existing NCM units, which can be passed down to customers.
Though it has already secured enough nickel to support its planned EV production expansion through 2026, Ford hasn’t stopped exploring all possible avenues in terms of acquiring enough raw materials to build more EVs, but also the types of batteries that will power them. In addition to the current NCM units and future manganese-rich or LFP batteries, the automaker is also heavily invested in solid-state technology, though it doesn’t expect that to be viable for automotive use until the next decade.
We’ll have more on Ford’s EV battery strategy soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
This is why I think Michigan is stupid for pouring $750M into Ford’s battery plant. Batteries are a rapidly changing technology. By the time it gets built, that factory will need to be retooled and Ford will be back asking Michigan for more.
There’s a “sucker born every minute,” and this time that sucker is Michigan.
Hardly.
Michigan isn’t paying for the tools now.
Also, where’s ford going to put the “new” plant you fear?
Further away from the assy plant?
To a place with workers who have no experience?
Far away from their battery R&D lab in SE Michigan?
Nonsense.
Although you are otherwise capable of avoiding it DD, sometimes you make no sense.
I see that Amazon just stuck it to Virginia who gave them $750M in tax incentives for putting Amazon’s HQ2 in Virginia, and now Amazon says they have enough office space and are halting additional construction. That is par for the course. Private companies funnel public money to them and taxpayers get the shaft.
I suspect that if this is the case, VA either won’t have to pay out, has a clawback clause in its award contract, or will file suit to recover any monies paid out.
Looks like AOC was right when she said incentivizing this Amazon facility to come to NYC would be a fail.
They are nearly all fails. How many stadiums get public financing and never pan out? Infrastructure projects that never meet oversold expectations, factories that never employ promised workers, stadiums that are half empty, etc. etc. Public money needs to stay out of the private sector. If these ideas are so great, they’d pay for themselves.
I suspect you are really challenged by change…. of any kind, and yes, there are many like you.
Sad to tell you, but it is not going to get any easier for you and your ilk going forward.
Agree.
Here’s an example from 3rd world Mississippi of similar special interests (ICE dealer lobby) trying to halt progress that doesn’t benefit them.
I love the republicans arguing over “traditional conservative values” like free market, and then voting to support their donor base.
One quote from a state Senator is just prime-o, as he’s so so close to getting it (some would call it “woke”):
“Maybe we just like being last all the time. Maybe it’s a badge of honor — we’re the last ones to change,” [GOP state senator] Fillingane said. “If we’re not careful … we could deprive our citizens of opportunities they really ought not to be deprived of.”
He’s so damn close but just not quite getting it.
Mississippi is nearly last in everything because of their GOP captured executive, legislative and judicial branches up and down the line.
apnews.
com/article/mississippi-electric-cars-sales-tesla-31c06e7ecb9693f15bc578623b56fd9c