Ford F-150 electric pickups will receive lithium batteries with nickel electrodes
As you know, SK Innovation and LG Chem are betting on cobalt-containing batteries of the NCM type (nickel, cobalt, manganese), while Tesla promises to surprise the world with cobalt-free batteries. But that doesn’t mean South Korean battery makers aren’t looking for an alternative to cobalt. They are still looking! Therefore, the newest SK Innovation batteries will contain only 5% cobalt in the electrodes, with almost complete replacement by nickel.
According to South Korean sources, SK Innovation and Ford recently signed an agreement to supply batteries for future all-electric Ford F-150 pickups. These will be NCM-batteries, which have no analogs in the world yet. The amount of nickel in the cathodes of SK Innovation “NCM 9½½” batteries has been increased to 90%, and the amount of cobalt has been reduced to 5%. LG Chem will begin supplying similar batteries to GM for the production of Hummer electric vehicles in a year.
The use of the main nickel instead of cobalt in the cathodes of lithium-containing batteries promises to increase the mileage on a single battery charge to 700 km. Also, such batteries promise faster charging and, in general, safer operation, although a number of unique technologies had to be developed for this. For example, SK Innovation announces the creation of a unique membrane (separator) for NCM batteries with high nickel content.
The NCM 9½½ batteries will be manufactured at SK Innovation’s new plant, which it is building in the US state of Georgia. This is SK Innovation’s second US-based plant that will supply traction batteries for US manufacturers. The first plant plans to supply up to 200,000 NCM811 batteries for Volkswagen vehicles, and the second, which construction began this year, will supply NCM 9½½ batteries for Ford electric vehicles (also up to 200,000 per year). Both factories will begin supplying products in 2023. Thus, every year only in the USA SK Innovation will produce batteries with a total capacity of 21.5 GWh. Is it time to buy shares of nickel mining companies?
