They are better in every aspect, except they are slightly heavier. EVs would be cheaper, have better longevity and safety.
I believe it is a product of geopolitical relationships. Europe is friendlier with China than NA. China has much easier access to Nickel and Europe is happy to take Chinese batteries. North America is trying to compete with Chinese production and LFP is a strategic choice to make it easier for our manufacturing base
LFP is newer than NMC. Legacy auto makers are still catching up. They are still building factories for NMC with announcements of plans for LFP factories.
ElevenEs opens Europe’s first LFP battery cell facility to supercharge electric vehicle production
https://www.innoenergy.com/news-events/elevenes-opens-europes-first-lfp-battery-cell-facility-to-supercharge-electric-vehicle-production/Then there’s the waiting game they are still playing.
Volkswagen’s Long-term, High-Manganese Cathode Strategy
https://www.idtechex.com/en/research-article/volkswagens-long-term-high-manganese-cathode-strategy/23431Then there’s LMFP.
https://electrek.co/2023/06/06/gotion-unveils-lmfp-ev-battery-it-says-can-deliver-1000-km-per-single-charge-for-a-lower-price/#more-303290Key word is could, but we’re rooting for Gotion. The battery developer recently unveiled its new LMFP battery chemistry, capable of achieving an energy density of 240 Wh/kg. For comparison, Gotion says the energy density of current LFP batteries tops out right around 190 Wh/kg.
LMFP batteries are not a new concept, but issues like low conductivity and energy density have held the technology back in the past, at least for EV applications. However, Gotion believes its new batteries have reached performance parity with NMC cells, but at a lower cost that is also safer.
Production is not very close, so we must keep our guard up (we’ve been hurt before), but Gotion has shared it expects the Astroinno LMFP to enter mass production as early at Q2 2024 at two of the company’s plans in the Anhui province of China. According to Cheng, they have already passed necessary safety tests.
The IP situation is key to understanding LFP. China had basically all control over the LFP supply for the past decade because they had control over key patents to safeguard that supply. Those patents expired near the end of 2022, so now other companies have more freedom to ramp up production. It will take time though to get to a point where a country other than China has significantly built up their LFP supply chain though, it is still quite early.
No, China actually do not own these patents, but the LFP patent was declared invalid in China a long time ago. The reason it was declared invalid is because the patent owners did not file the patent until much later in China (China is still a economic backwater around 2000) , and they packaged several patents into one very broad and expansive patent, which others challenged. As a result, companies can manufacture and sell LFP batteries in China without paying royalties to Quebec hydro, the patent owner, but they have to pay royalties to Quebec hydro if they sell it outside China, where the patents are valid.
But back to the question of why European OEMs do not offer LFP batteries yet, it’s because they act slow, a lot of them have actually announced plans to use LFP batteries.
Heavy vehicles use them, like trucks and buses. In The Netherlands alone I already know DAF, VDL, and Ebusco who make electric vehicles in Europe with LFP batteries. Just not passenger cars. So there is definitely a demand for LFP cells in Europe, and European passenger cars using LFP are definitely on the way.
Why don’t you make better research?
Also, they’re not better in every aspect, they have lower volumetric density, hence less kWh in the same volume. See point one.
Back to point one again; Tesla is producing model Y RWD with BYD Blade LFP battery in Germany.
Have you read my “except they are slightly heavier”? Neither of your mentioned cars are european.
A car built in Berlin is not European?
If I’m not wrong, the Volvo EX30 (not the extended range) its equipped with the LFP cell
LFP is certainly not ‘better in every aspect’. There are a different set of compromises to each cell type.
LFP have a more equivalent full charge cycles
NMC have more capacity (volumetric and gravimetric) (This negates some of the charge cycle advantage as the same mass of NMC batteries will experience less charge cycles for the same distance driven)
NMC have higher cell voltage
LFP have a less calendar aging sensitivity to SOC
LFP have a flatter discharge curve (but see below)
NMC is easier to measure SOC off, which leads to that LFP must be charged fully more often to calibrate the BMS (This may negate the calendar aging advantage of LFP as they will sit fully charged more often)
LFP uses a less volatile cathode so it has more resistance against runaway events.
LFP uses less scarce materials (This is likely the most clear advantage)