Why is Tesla optimistic about "cobalt-free batteries" and what technological breakthroughs has it made?

In fact, to answer this question, we first need to understand what a cobalt-free battery is. The so-called cobalt-free battery means that the cobalt element is not contained in the production battery. As for the lithium iron phosphate battery and ternary lithium battery currently used in pure electric vehicles, the lithium iron phosphate battery does not contain the cobalt element, so it is considered a type of cobalt-free battery. Compared with batteries containing cobalt, the production cost of cobalt-free batteries is lower, which is conducive to reducing the price of the whole vehicle, and this is one of the reasons why Tesla is optimistic about cobalt-free batteries.

As for lithium iron phosphate batteries, a type of cobalt-free battery, the technology has also made great progress in recent years. For example, at the China Electric Vehicle Hundred People Conference, BYD said that its blade battery will soon be mass-produced. According to BYD's official news, the blade battery is a super lithium iron phosphate battery. Through structural changes, the production cost is reduced and the energy density is increased. The battery volume-to-energy density will increase by 50%, which is comparable to the current mainstream ternary lithium battery.

According to BYD's long-cell solution for blade batteries, the cells are designed to be flat. According to BYD's patent, the maximum length of blade batteries can reach 2500mm, which is more than 10 times that of traditional ordinary lithium iron phosphate batteries. This can improve the recombination efficiency of the cells and achieve the effect of increasing energy density.

In addition to BYD's blade battery, CATL actually launched a new CTP battery development platform at the Frankfurt International Motor Show in Germany. This technology integrates the battery cell directly into the battery pack, improving the space utilization of the battery pack and reducing the weight of the battery pack. Therefore, for current batteries, it can reduce production costs and increase energy density, and the energy density has increased from 140.19Wh/kg to about 178.1Wh/kg.

However, it should be noted that both BYD's blade battery and CATL's CTP technology are structural changes in batteries and do not involve material innovation. In addition, although Tesla is negotiating with CATL on related batteries, it also stated on February 21 that "cobalt-free does not necessarily mean lithium iron phosphate." Therefore, we still need to wait and see how the battery industry will develop.