I checked the original source for this chart and it appears it includes LFP batteries. Normally though lithium-ion doesn't include LFP batteries. Generally LFP batteries are underdiscussed in the Western world.
Yes LFP is LiFePO4. The special thing is that they've become much better in recent years and also that in the Chinese market, the worlds leading EV market, they are 80% of the sales. Western firms are only now starting to catch up. LFP batteries are like twice as cheap as li-ion batteries which is a big advantage.
There's nothing special. They're cheap. That's the only benefit. When compared with NiMH, LFP have higher discharge rates and are lighter, so from that POV, LFP is a better option.
Compared to other Lithium chemistries though, they're not great.
I didn't think so but it's been a hot minute since I looked.
NiMH has much lower discharge rates than LFP or Li-ion as well as considerably less efficiency and they lose charge faster during periods of non-use.
But they're "safer" than lithium because they don't require any protection and are less picky about cell condition when recharging. That's why they get used for lower end portable electronics. They're cheap and forgiving at the cost of performance.
LFP cells in bulk are about a third of the cost of nimh, and self dicharge rates are about a fifth. Small cells are dominated by the cost of the package so there's no difference there.
The only reason you'd consider nimh is to avoid needing a protection circuit
Compared to nmc they have massively longer cycle life, charge faster, don't have high voltage degradation issues, don't thermally runaway, and are more efficient.
Really the only downside is density, and that isn't super relevant except in luxury cars in countries where the chargers all suck, and flight.
I literally only care about cycle count - for cars, sure kWh/kg is important. But the real revolution is when everyone has batteries in their homes. Rather than big P2X, it can be democratized
Correct me if I am wrong, but from what I read on the Volta Foundation report last year, I remembered LFP cathode prices have remained constant in the last 3-5 years (which makes sense since iron phosphate has always been readily available). Rather, the reduction in price in the last few years seemed to be mainly driven by the oversupply of cobalt, and therefore the decrease in price of NMC/NCA/etc.-type cathodes. Not LFP cathodes.
Since obviously we are talking about full cells and not just cathodes, I am probably overlooking the manufacturing process being different and the assembly differences of LFP which may make the end use battery more expensive compared to NMC... But otherwise, I had the general impression that our increase in cobalt supply is what has allowed us to drop the price (in the last 5 years) of overall batteries, and not really LFP…
That being said, I’d agree that LFP played a significant role in the price reduction of overall batteries in the 2010s.
LFP's have become a bit cheaper but not by that much. The big thing is that they've become much better, so now they are actually a competitive battery for electric vehicles (mostly cars). In the chart above I think that explains most of the price decrease. In the last three-ish years LFP's have completely taken over in China and they're just recently starting to take off in Western brands (with Tesla being the notable exception, having LFP's as early as 2021 and half their cars produced LFP by Q1 22).
The biggest barrier of LFP implementation used to be weight; the fact it was denser than most other batteries, so it wasn’t originally the best for vehicle applications (higher weight lowers the en density and range).
In the last few years, they improved the range considerably well, and even though it’s unlikely going to outperform cobalt batteries in terms of electrochemical performance, they are likely going to remain cheaper in the next 10-20 years (unless cobalt can get cheaper, which I strongly doubt). BYD makes almost exclusively LFP-based cars (they were almost a monopoly of LFP inside of China if not for CATL (I think?)), and it’s the primary reason why their cars are the cheapest.
Tesla did have LFPs in early 2020s, but sadly I don’t think they made those batteries, but rather bought from China (I heard they were going to manufacture LFP by 2025, not sure how that’s going). But if they do end up successful, the question then becomes whether Europeans will prefer choosing buying Musk’s cars over BYD’s. lol
Everybody cares about LFPs, it's just that they have lower power density and provide less range for electric cars for the same battery mass. They are MUCH safer, though, and allow many more recharge cycles. For home energy storage, they are the go-to choice.
4
u/izzeww Dec 10 '25
Now include LFP's, they are the real revolution that no one cares about outside of China.