84.1 billion lithium iron phosphate battery project settled in the United States!

Chinese power battery companies have become the backbone of the global new energy vehicle industry, occupying six of the top 10 global installed capacity lists and accounting for more than 60% of the market share.

The latest data released by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance shows that from January to July, lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries continued to lead ternary batteries by a large margin in terms of output and vehicle loading, accounting for more than 60% of them. The proportion of total installed vehicles is very close to 70%, accounting for as high as 68.1%.

Another phenomenon is that new energy vehicles equipped with LFP batteries have spread all over the world. The most famous ones are BYD and Tesla , the two global new energy vehicle giants. Moreover, Japanese and Korean car companies, such as Toyota Motor and Hyundai Motor, have also begun to supply LFP batteries.

Against this background, overseas markets have begun to accelerate the layout of LFP batteries. The United States is a fairly typical case.

According to foreign media reports, the United States ’ interest and investment in LFP batteries and related materials are continuing to rise. Coupled with the attraction of the "Inflation Reduction Act", since last year, eight companies have announced plans to invest in the construction of LFP battery and material factories in the United States, six of which have specified investment quotas, totaling more than 84.1 billion yuan.

In addition, there are reports that other car companies, including Tesla and Rivian, are also considering making similar investments, and Tesla prefers the cooperation method between Ford and CATL .

BYD Executive Vice President Li Ke revealed in December last year that the company was seeking to establish a dedicated battery production base in the United States.

The details of the plans of 8 companies to invest in building LFP battery and material factories in the United States are as follows:

Ford

On February 14 this year, Ford Motor and CATL simultaneously announced that they would build a new lithium iron phosphate battery factory in Marshall, Michigan . The cooperation method is that CATL provides preparation and operation services for the factory and licenses the patented battery technology.

The new factory has an investment of up to US$3.5 billion (approximately RMB 25.52 billion), with an initial designed annual production capacity of approximately 35GWh. It can provide power battery packs for approximately 400,000 Ford electric vehicles per year . Ford will also consider expanding factory production capacity in the future.

LG Energy Solutions

On March 24, LG Energy Solution Ltd. officially announced that it will invest 7.2 trillion won to build a large-scale battery manufacturing park in Arizona, USA, with a total production capacity of 43.3GWh.

The investment consists of two parts. The first is to invest 4.2 trillion won to build a dedicated cylindrical battery production factory in North America. The factory has an average annual production capacity of 27GWh. It is planned to start construction this year and complete mass production in 2025. It will mainly produce 2170 cylindrical batteries and will be supplied to Major electric vehicle customers in the United States.

The second is to invest 3 trillion won (approximately RMB 16.322 billion) to build a battery production plant specifically for ESS ( energy storage system) at the same location. After the factory is completed, it will become the world's first dedicated ESS production factory, used to produce soft-packed lithium iron phosphate batteries independently developed by LG Energy Solutions. The total production capacity is expected to be 16.3GWh. Construction is planned to start this year and mass production will begin in 2026.

It is worth mentioning that it was previously reported that in order to expand the market and catch up with CATL and BYD, LG Energy Solutions is developing soft-packed lithium iron phosphate batteries using cobalt-free cathodes, with the goal of having an energy density exceeding 20% ​​of similar products from CATL. % and supplies to Tesla.

Guoxuan Hi-Tech

At the Guoxuan Hi-Tech Media Open Day held on April 28, Vice President of International Business Chen Ruilin revealed that Guoxuan Hi-Tech plans to establish two production bases in the United States, one of which will produce batteries and the other will produce battery materials.

Among them, news about the battery material factory was reported in October last year. According to reports, Gotion, the U.S. subsidiary of Guoxuan Hi-Tech, has been approved to build a battery materials production plant near Big Rapids, Michigan, with an estimated total investment of US$2.364 billion. The factory will be completed in 2030 and is expected to produce 150,000 tons of battery cathode materials and 50,000 tons of anode materials per year.

In June this year, Gotion received approval from the U.S. federal government to continue building a battery materials plant in Michigan.

As for the battery factory, Chen Ruilin revealed that it is progressing smoothly and the specific location will be determined soon.

It is reported that Guoxuan Hi-Tech disclosed in 2021 that Gotion signed an agreement with a large listed automobile company in the United States. The automobile company is expected to purchase lithium iron phosphate batteries with a total volume of no less than 200GWh from Guoxuan Hi-Tech between 2023 and 2028. The two parties also plan to establish a joint venture in the United States to achieve localized production.

On June 10, 2022, Guoxuan Hi-Tech also released a bidding announcement for battery cell equipment for its 60GWh production line on its official website. One of the project implementation locations includes the United States.

From this point of view, Guoxuan Hi-Tech will meet the needs of North American cooperative customers and potential customers for lithium iron phosphate batteries through exports and building new factories in the United States.

American Battery Factory (ABF)

On December 6, 2022, the American battery company ABF announced that it would build an LFP battery super factory in Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to provide a capital investment of US$1.2 billion (approximately RMB 8.749 billion).

FREYR Battery

In November 2022, FREYR Battery, a Norwegian battery start-up listed in New York, announced that it would purchase a piece of land in Coweta County, Georgia, and plan to build a Giga America battery factory.

The planned production capacity of the first phase of the plant is approximately 34 GWh, with an initial estimated capital of US$1.7 billion. At the same time, FREYR Battery is also evaluating additional battery production lines, which is expected to bring the total investment to more than 2.6 billion US dollars (approximately RMB 18.957 billion) by 2029.

Since its establishment in 2018, FREYR Battery has produced all LFP batteries, and its basically signed orders are concentrated in the energy storage field. It was not until January this year that the first electric vehicle offtake agreement from Impact Clean Power Technology was signed to provide the latter with up to 14 GWh of LFP batteries.

OUR NEXT ENERGY（ONE）

In October 2022, the American energy storage technology company ONE announced that it would invest US$1.6 billion (approximately RMB 11.667 billion) to build a new LFP battery manufacturing plant called ONE Circle in Van Buren Township, Michigan, with production starting in 2024. It is expected to achieve an annual production capacity of 20 GWh by the end of 2027.

ICL Group

In October 2022, the specialty mineral company ICL Group announced that it plans to invest US$400 million (approximately RMB 2.917 billion) to build an LFP cathode active material manufacturing plant in St Louis. The plant is expected to be operational in 2024 . And, the company received $197 million in funding through the bipartisan Infrastructure Act.

Kore Power

American battery technology developer Kore Power plans to set up a KOREPlex factory in Arizona and open multiple production lines to produce electric vehicle batteries and energy storage systems. The technical routes are nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) and LFP. However, the investment amount and production capacity information were not disclosed.