EV Battery Longevity and NMC vs. LFP Chemistry

[EMSC]

My car is 5 years old and the battery was warrantied for 8 years/unlimited mileage.

I was thinking about how good (or not) auto lithium batteries are a few weeks back when getting new batteries for my off-grid mtn cabin. If one assumes even heavy driving over 8 years to get to 200,000 miles using a typical base Tesla range of say 270 miles per charge implies only ~745 full recharges of the battery to get those miles. Though given various environmental conditions that cars go through and use up battery to 'condition' the battery environment (hot/cold, etc...) even if you up that to ~1,000 recharges is really not a ton of duty cycles. Today's battery chemistries should easily be able to get to that.

On the other hand, current home based battery systems have switched over to the chemistry known as LiFePO4 (lithium iron phosphate) which has almost no chance of thermal runaway (eg causing fire), and they are also usually rated for ~5,000 to ~7,000 cycles and still have ~80% of the original capacity (typical warranty is 10 years but with at least 15-20 year life expectancy). Unfortunately, the chemistry is slightly larger and heavier than the lithium Ion batteries used in autos, thus why they are not used in cars.

 

[Tony Crocker]

LFP Batteries have a growing market share for EVs.

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LFP v’s NCA… and the winner is…

I’ve now had an LFP RWD MY since 2022 and now I’ve also got an NCA MY LR. Although I’m not a battery guru by any means, I’ve been tracking a lot of high mileage cars with both chemistries and have read the study on LFP BYD taxis and pretty much any other info that’s out there on them. I’ve come...

teslamotorsclub.com

Not only are LFP batteries cheaper, their price is dropping much faster. "Standard range" Tesla Model 3's have had LFP batteries for about 3 years now and shorter range Model Y's in most of the world have then too.

Models S and X will stick with NMC batteries because performance and long range are key selling points for those cars.

Once people who are not avid road trippers or are buying a second car figure out that 200-250 miles rated range is fine for those applications, they should find an LFP EV compelling from a price/total cost of ownership standpoint.

In the US we have a problem that the big players in LFP batteries, CATL and BYD, are Chinese companies. Thus my friend Richard's new (August 2024) Model 3 Performance is eligible for the $7,500 tax credit while the cheaper version of Model 3 is not. Ford and GM are both licensing CATL tech to build LFP battery plants in the US.