71% Surge: Major Factories Bet on New Manganese Iron Lithium

At the recently held Paris Auto Show, more cost-effective electric vehicles have already taken center stage. In the context of "all-solid-state batteries being too far off and ternary lithium batteries being too expensive and unsafe," both China and Europe are focusing on lithium iron phosphate batteries.

Data shows that in September, the installation volume of lithium iron phosphate batteries increased by nearly 71% year-on-year, and even Tesla is planning to produce lithium iron phosphate batteries internally.

However, facing lithium iron phosphate batteries that are somewhat lacking in energy density and low-temperature performance, how to further improve performance has become the key issue in winning the competition.

Therefore, both cathode material companies and large lithium battery manufacturers are rapidly deploying the research and development and production of lithium manganese iron lithium, and the new manganese iron lithium batteries are emerging as a dark horse and becoming the best choice for electric vehicles.

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Reducing costs and improving performance, why can lithium iron phosphate batteries increase by 70%?

According to the latest data released by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance, in September, the domestic power battery installation volume was 54.5 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 49.6%. Among them, the installation volume of lithium iron phosphate batteries was 41.3 GWh, a year-on-year increase of 70.9%, accounting for 75.8% of the total installation volume, setting a new historical record.

Faced with fierce market competition for electric vehicles and a comprehensive market expansion, ternary lithium batteries, which were once high-profile, are facing dual tests of high costs and safety. A large number of automotive companies are transitioning to more economical and safer lithium iron phosphate batteries.

In Europe, Volkswagen and BMW are both positioning themselves in the low-cost electric vehicle segment. Volkswagen's Skoda has launched the plug-in hybrid SUV Elroq, priced at 33,000 euros, and the small car ID.2all, priced below 25,000 euros, will be unveiled next year.

In China, the price war for electric vehicles has already entered a white-hot state. The starting price of BYD's Qin PLUS Glory Edition has been reduced to 79,800 yuan. The market guidance price of Changan Qiyuan A05 has been reduced by 11,000 yuan. Jie Yue 01 officially announced a price reduction of 30,000 yuan just 35 days after its launch... In just one month of September, the average selling price of new energy vehicles has been reduced by 6.9%.In order to adapt to lower prices, major automakers have started to abandon ternary lithium batteries in favor of lithium iron phosphate batteries, especially in the mainstream models priced between 100,000 and 200,000 yuan, where lithium iron phosphate batteries are almost uniformly adopted or selected.

However, today's consumers clearly have increasingly high "appetites," demanding both low prices and high performance, and the original lithium iron phosphate batteries obviously cannot meet consumer demands.

The energy density of lithium iron phosphate batteries is generally only 140-160Wh/kg, while that of ternary lithium batteries can generally reach 180-230Wh/kg. The low-temperature limit of lithium iron phosphate batteries is only -20°C, while ternary lithium batteries can go as low as -30°C. Lithium iron phosphate batteries are a whole level lower in performance than ternary batteries.

It is clear that simply "replacing ternary with iron lithium" will not be accepted by consumers. Therefore, in order to compensate for the disadvantages of lithium iron phosphate batteries and reduce the cost of ternary lithium batteries, major cathode companies and lithium battery manufacturers have to start looking for new materials.

It is against this backdrop that a new "lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) material has gradually come into the industry's view. According to predictions by relevant experts, in the next 5 to 10 years, the new "lithium manganese iron phosphate" battery has become the best choice and inevitable trend for electric vehicles.

The technological bottleneck has been broken, and the advantages of lithium manganese iron phosphate are obvious.

Solid-state batteries are too far from application, ternary lithium batteries are too expensive and unsafe, and lithium iron phosphate batteries have insufficient performance. Only lithium manganese iron phosphate batteries are most suitable for the current needs of electric vehicles to reduce costs and improve performance.

In this regard, Wang Zhengwei, Dean of the Research Institute of Xingcheng Power, said that through continuous technological breakthroughs, the original difficulties in purifying and preparing lithium manganese iron phosphate materials, the instability of manganese elements, easy dissolution, and dual voltage have been solved. High-purity, nanoscale manganese iron oxides have been prepared to synthesize high-performance lithium manganese iron phosphate materials. Its conductivity and specific capacity have been greatly improved compared to the traditional route. Currently, the energy density of lithium manganese iron phosphate batteries has surpassed that of lithium iron phosphate batteries and has approached that of medium-nickel ternary batteries, while the cost will be cheaper than that of ternary lithium batteries.

Li Jigang, General Manager of Tianjin StranD, a subsidiary of Rongbai Technology, China's largest lithium manganese iron phosphate material production factory, also introduced the latest technological progress. He said that through optimization of a series of technologies such as synthesis, powder preparation, and carbon coating, lithium manganese iron phosphate batteries have made rapid progress and have become a material with great cost performance.Compared to the original lithium iron phosphate batteries, the energy density of lithium manganese iron phosphate batteries has increased by more than 15%, and they have inherited the many advantages of lithium iron phosphate batteries, such as low cost and high safety. Moreover, they significantly outperform lithium iron phosphate batteries in low-temperature performance.

According to Liang Guangchuan, the director of the Energy and Environmental Materials Research Institute at Hebei University of Technology, like lithium iron phosphate, lithium manganese iron phosphate also has an olivine structure. Therefore, even if all lithium ions are removed during charging, there will be no structural collapse, featuring stable chemical properties and excellent safety performance.

Unlike lithium iron phosphate, by doping with an appropriate proportion of manganese elements, lithium manganese iron phosphate can increase the charging voltage of the material, raising the 3.4V of lithium iron phosphate batteries to 4.1V. This allows the theoretical energy density of lithium manganese iron phosphate batteries to increase by 15% to 20%, further extending the driving range.

At the same time, the capacity of the Mn platform can be almost fully utilized at low temperatures, so lithium manganese iron phosphate materials can increase the low-temperature retention rate to 77%-78%. In addition, lithium manganese iron phosphate has a low dependence on rare metals and can be produced in the same line as LFP, with a very obvious cost advantage.

Lower cost, higher performance, and greater safety have led many major manufacturers to "bet" on lithium manganese iron phosphate materials and the production and application of related batteries.

In addition to BYD's early layout of lithium iron manganese phosphate batteries many years ago, so far, CATL has announced the use of M3P batteries with mixed lithium manganese iron phosphate materials in practical car models with a range of about 700 kilometers, replacing the original ternary lithium batteries. In January 2024, CATL also announced an international patent on lithium manganese iron phosphate battery technology.

At present, Tianjin Skyland, a subsidiary of Ronbay Technology, has become the world's largest scaled production enterprise of lithium manganese iron phosphate materials, with a production capacity of 11,000 tons in 2024, and is still accelerating expansion. Ronbay Technology is currently accelerating the application and product layout of pure and mixed series of lithium manganese iron phosphate positive materials in the NCM811 series and NCMA series of positive materials.

Compared with Ronbay Technology, another manganese-based battery giant, Xingheng Power, is obviously more active. In September, it not only chaired the manganese-based battery and key materials seminar, promoting the innovation and upgrading of the manganese-based battery industry, but also launched the "single-crystal manganese acid lithium + lithium manganese iron phosphate" dual-core materials and a variety of manganese-based lithium batteries.

In addition, Defang Nano also stated that its lithium manganese iron phosphate products have passed the validation of downstream customers and have been installed in vehicles, officially entering the commercialization process. Its nano lithium iron phosphate, lithium manganese iron phosphate and other positive materials, as well as lithium supplements and other high-performance auxiliary materials, will also be applicable to the solid-state battery system.Hunan Yuneng recently indicated in its investor relations activity record that its Yunnan Yuneng Phase II project, which involves 160,000 tons of lithium iron manganese phosphate, is also expected to start production gradually in the fourth quarter of this year.

"The application of lithium iron manganese phosphate is on the verge of scaling up," estimated Li Jigang, General Manager of Tianjin Steland Company. Currently, in terms of cost per watt-hour, lithium iron manganese phosphate is already lower than iron lithium materials. Once the future market scale reaches 300,000 to 400,000 tons, it will create economies of scale and become cost-competitive with iron lithium materials on a per-ton basis.

Once mass production is achieved, lithium iron manganese phosphate, which combines the many advantages of ternary and iron lithium batteries while avoiding almost all their disadvantages, will become one of the optimal choices for electric vehicle batteries.