International car giant plans to produce LFP batteries

According to a report by Nikkei on January 27, Nissan plans to produce lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for electric vehicles and is expected to ship to emerging markets starting in fiscal 2026.

Nissan is currently developing LFP batteries at its R&D facility in Atsugi City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

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In addition, Nissan is also developing all-solid-state battery (ASSB) technology, with the goal of producing a new electric vehicle powered by solid-state batteries in 2028, which is expected to achieve a qualitative leap in the performance of electric vehicles.

Lithium iron phosphate is popular all over the world

At present, 9 of the top 10 companies in the global power battery installation volume list have clearly stated that they will produce lithium iron phosphate batteries .

Japan's Panasonic Battery, the only company that has not announced the production of lithium iron phosphate batteries , has seen its market share of power battery installations decline steadily.

Data shows that the installed volume of lithium iron phosphate batteries has surpassed ternary batteries as early as July 2021. In that month, the domestic installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries reached 5.8GWh, while the installed capacity of ternary batteries was 5.5GWh.

Once surpassed, the status of lithium iron phosphate batteries in power batteries has been rising. As of the latest full year of 2023, the domestic installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries reached 261.0GWh, while ternary batteries were only 126.2GWh.

That is, nearly 70% of new energy vehicles are equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries.

In terms of electric vehicles, in the international market, including Tesla , Rivian, known as the "Tesla killer", Volkswagen, Hyundai Motor, Daimler, Ford, Stellantis Group, etc., all favor lithium iron phosphate batteries.

However, there are basically no electric vehicle companies in overseas markets that plan to produce lithium iron phosphate batteries. If Nissan manufactures its own lithium iron phosphate batteries, it will become the first overseas car company to manufacture its own lithium iron phosphate batteries.

Nissan’s electrification strategy

The global car sales rankings in 2023 have attracted more attention than before due to the huge sales of BYD 's new energy vehicles.

BYD's cumulative sales in 2023 were 3,024,417 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 61.8%, and it broke into the ranks of the "top ten global car companies" for the first time. This is a historic moment for the Chinese automobile industry in the past 70 years.

The automobile group ahead of BYD is the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance.

Specifically, the top 10 global car sales in 2023: 1. Toyota Group 10.65 million vehicles; 2. Volkswagen Group 9.24 million vehicles; 3. Hyundai Motor Group 7.3 million vehicles; 4. Stellantis 6.4 million vehicles ; 5. Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance 6.28 million vehicles; 6. General Motors Group 4.87 million vehicles; 7. Ford 3.95 million vehicles; 8. Honda 3.97 million vehicles; 9. BYD 3.02 million vehicles; 10. Suzuki 3.01 million vehicles.

As for Nissan, the company announced "Nissan Ambition 2030" in November 2021, which will invest approximately 2 trillion yen (approximately 97.1 billion yuan) in the next five years to accelerate electrification.

In February 2023, Nissan announced at the company level that it would further accelerate its electrification strategy.

Nissan plans that by 2030, all new cars in major markets such as Japan, the United States, Europe and China will use "e-POWER" or BEV (battery electric) electric vehicles with a series hybrid power system.

Nissan said that first, it will launch 23 new energy electric vehicles by 2030 , including 15 pure electric vehicles; second, it will build a global power battery supply system to cope with the increase in EV demand; third, it will use 4R energy (4R Co., Ltd.) to build EV power battery reuse/recycling technology; fourth, provide advanced driving assistance and smart technologies; fifth, launch EVs equipped with solid-state batteries (ASSB) on the market in 2028.

Among the lithium iron phosphate battery technology routes, this technology route is relatively mature. Nissan may only need to allocate part of its 2 trillion yen investment to lay out this technology route.

What may be more difficult may be solid-state batteries in 2028. According to reports, Nissan's current solid-state battery technology is still in the experimental stage and will require further research and development and improvement in the future.

Summarize

In the current market structure, the proportion of electric vehicles equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries has reached 70%.

The next generation of power batteries, or solid-state batteries.

In other words, the current mainstream power battery is lithium iron phosphate battery, and in the longer term, it may be solid-state battery.