"Fierce manganese" lithium iron manganese phosphate battery

As a new type of battery "manganese beast", lithium manganese iron phosphate originates from the "gene mutation" of lithium iron phosphate. It not only has a higher voltage platform, higher energy density, and better low-temperature performance, but also retains the high safety and low-cost advantages of lithium iron phosphate. So far, many global leading manufacturers such as CATL, BYD, and Tesla have already laid out their plans , and this new track is now "smoke is everywhere".

"The company's M3P battery has been used in the models of Chery and Huawei." CATL disclosed at the beginning of this year. In August last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the 374th batch of "Announcement on Road Motor Vehicle Production Enterprises and Products" for new product announcements. Chery Xingjiyuan ES and the first pure electric new car Zhijie S7 jointly developed by Chery and Huawei are equipped with "ternary lithium-ion + iron manganese phosphate lithium battery", that is, CATL's M3P battery.

Since 2024, many new models including Chery Xingtu Yaoguang, Xiangjie S9, Zhijie R7 have also been equipped with lithium iron manganese phosphate batteries , marking the further acceleration of the commercialization process of lithium iron manganese phosphate batteries. In addition, Tesla Model 3 also plans to use lithium iron manganese phosphate batteries, indicating that this technology route is becoming more and more widely used in the field of electric vehicles.

"This year, lithium iron manganese phosphate batteries will be produced on a large scale and are expected to penetrate the power iron lithium and medium nickel ternary fields on a large scale." Industry institutions predict that by 2025, the penetration rate of lithium iron manganese phosphate is expected to be 5-10%, and the battery demand will be nearly 130GWh. The corresponding positive electrode demand may exceed 200,000 tons, and the market size will be nearly 15 billion yuan; by 2030, the penetration rate will exceed 30%, the battery demand will exceed 1500GWh, and the corresponding positive electrode demand will exceed 2.6 million tons, and the market size may exceed 150 billion yuan.

01

More "manganese" lithium iron phosphate

As the comprehensive performance of power batteries is improving, phosphate batteries are undergoing an upgrade from lithium iron phosphate to lithium iron manganese phosphate. On the basis of lithium iron phosphate, a certain amount of manganese is doped and the ratio of its atomic number to iron (manganese-iron ratio) is adjusted to increase the voltage platform of the material, thus generating lithium iron manganese phosphate products.

" Lithium iron phosphate batteries are currently approaching the limit of energy density, and it is quite difficult to break through further. " Industry insiders pointed out that lithium iron phosphate has a higher voltage platform than lithium iron phosphate, and its theoretical energy density is expected to be 20% higher than that of lithium iron phosphate, which can break through the energy density bottleneck faced by lithium iron phosphate to a certain extent.

For example, the L600 lithium iron manganese phosphate battery releasedby Guoxuan High-tech in May last year has an energy density of 240Wh/kg; the lithium iron manganese phosphate battery cell product developed by Xinwangda has an energy density of 235Wh/kg.

"We don't use ternary materials, but we can still make the vehicle have a range of 1,000 kilometers." Dr. Zhou Fu, deputy director of the Engineering Research Institute of Guoxuan High-tech, said when talking about the company's Qichen battery. At the same time, compared with lithium iron phosphate batteries, Qichen batteries only add manganese elements, which is slightly increased by about 5%.

Zeng Yuqun, Chairman of CATL, also said that M3P batteries can reduce costs and increase efficiency, and their low-temperature performance and energy density are better than those of lithium iron phosphate batteries, and their costs are better than those of ternary lithium batteries. Wang Chuanfu, Chairman of BYD, also said that the energy density of the company's lithium iron manganese phosphate batteries has reached the level of ternary materials , and the cost is more economical.

It is worth noting that lithium iron manganese phosphate has another advantage, that is, it can share the production line with lithium iron phosphate. Defang Nano introduced that the company's lithium iron manganese phosphate production line can be used to produce lithium iron phosphate, and the existing lithium iron phosphate production line can be transformed to produce lithium iron manganese phosphate. Hunan Yuneng also stated that the company has planned the layout of the lithium iron manganese phosphate project at its Yunnan base, and its production line can be flexibly switched with the lithium iron phosphate production line.

02

Open up space for cost reduction and efficiency improvement

From the perspective of market introduction, most lithium manganese iron phosphate batteries are currently mixed with multiple materials, opening up space for cost reduction and efficiency improvement for mid-to-high-end models. Industry insiders pointed out that the most common lithium manganese iron phosphate and ternary materials can obtain more balanced material properties , and achieve balanced optimization in conductivity, energy density, safety and cycle performance, and are expected to be used in long-range electric vehicles.

For example, CATL's M3P battery is a typical mixed-use solution. Rongke Technology recently revealed that the company's first-generation EV lithium iron phosphate products are mixed with ternary solutions, locking specifications at the client and achieving the first batch of mass production; at the same time, the pure lithium iron phosphate solution has completed the head customer's fixed-point. It is reported that Rongke Technology's lithium iron phosphate shipments in the first half of this year have reached its total shipments for the whole year of 2023, an increase of 166% year-on-year . This shows that the market demand for lithium iron phosphate is very strong.

Defang Nano also revealed that the company's lithium iron manganese phosphate products have been the first to be used in vehicles, with large-scale supply capabilities, and shipments are gradually increasing according to customer demand. Hunan Yuneng also said that the company's lithium iron manganese phosphate products have entered the trial production stage and are actively promoting customer certification. They have excellent performance in powder compaction, capacity, rate, low-temperature performance and other performance.

At present, many companies are increasing their production capacity of lithium iron manganese phosphate.

At present, Defang Nano has built a lithium iron manganese phosphate production capacity of 110,000 tons/year, and the company plans to increase its capacity to 440,000 tons in 2025. In August last year, Hunan Yuneng planned to raise no more than 6.5 billion yuan in additional funds for projects such as an annual production of 320,000 tons of lithium iron manganese phosphate. Rongbai Technology plans to build a lithium iron manganese phosphate production capacity of 140,000 tons/year in China and South Korea by 2025, and a production capacity of 560,000 tons/year in China, South Korea, Europe and the United States by the end of 2030.

It is worth noting that although lithium iron manganese phosphate is "powerful manganese", there are still many areas that need to be improved.

"In addition to rapidly improving performance in fast charging, high temperature and other aspects, it is also necessary to achieve more stable mass delivery and cost control." A domestic positive electrode material manufacturer pointed out that the selection of lithium iron manganese phosphate process technology, the precise control of core production parameters, and the balanced application of modification technologies such as carbon coating, nano-sizing, and ion doping have resulted in the current mass and stable production of lithium iron manganese phosphate having relatively high technical barriers.

From the perspective of long-term development trends, industry insiders believe that in the future, lithium manganese iron phosphate will complement the advantages of lithium iron phosphate and ternary materials, and can be used alone or mixed with other positive electrode materials to match more differentiated market segment application scenarios, further driving the growth of market demand for phosphate positive electrode materials.