Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors jointly develop lithium iron phosphate battery material production technology

On September 26, South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group announced that Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors have launched a project to develop production technology for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery positive electrode materials.

Hyundai Motor Group said in a press release that the LFP battery cathode material development project is a collaboration between Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, Hyundai Steel and EcoPro BM, a leading company in the cathode material market, with the goal of directly synthesizing materials without making precursors to produce LFP battery cathode materials. The four-year project has been supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of South Korea.

According to reports, traditional LFP battery positive electrode materials are produced by adding lithium to precursor materials such as phosphate and iron sulfate. In the direct synthesis process, phosphate, iron powder and lithium will be added at the same time without producing a separate precursor. This eliminates the precursor production step, reduces harmful emissions during the manufacturing process and reduces production costs.

Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors will work with Hyundai Steel to develop high-purity fine iron powder processing technology using iron recycled in South Korea, and EcoPro BM will use this technology to develop LFP battery positive electrode materials that are directly synthesized using iron powder as raw materials. The two companies aim to develop LFP positive electrode materials that can achieve fast charging technology and have high levels of charge and discharge performance at low temperatures.