Mercedes-Benz to shift to LFP-powered electric vehicles from 2024
German luxury car brand Mercedes-Benz plans to shift to new battery technology for all its future battery-electric vehicles from 2024. The automaker will start using Lithium Iron Phosphate or LFP batteries for its battery-electric vehicles from 2024, as revealed by Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius in an interview with Bloomberg.
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The decision comes amidst the growing use of LFP batteries in EVs by several e-vehicle manufacturers. This type of cell is claimed as less expensive. Hence, this type of battery is claimed to bring down the cost of EV batteries and eventually the green vehicles as well.
However, the LFP batteries will be used in the lower-end models, while the higher-end models with long-range will use different and more energy-dense batteries.
The first Mercedes-Benz car with an LFP battery could be the EQB, followed by EQA. The current EQA and EQB use a 66.5 kWh battery.
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Talking about the strategy to use LFP batteries in Mercedes' low-end electric cars, Daimler CEO said that there would be a lot of urban consumers who don't require the performance cars and for those entry-level positions, in the future, the car brand is looking at LFP batteries.
The automaker is yet to reveal, who would be the supplier of its LFP batteries. However, with Daimler's existing partnership with major battery manufacturer CATL, the latter could manufacture the required batteries for Mercedes.
Using LFP batteries in electric vehicles is becoming an increasing trend in the auto industry. The demands for electric vehicles are increasing fast and so is the demands for new and more efficient technology. LFP is one of those technologies for EVs that reduce the upfront costs for e-vehicles significantly.
Among other major electric carmakers, Tesla too builds the standard range Model 3 and Model Y with LFP batteries. Chinese EV makers too use LFP. As the high energy density is not a necessity in the base versions of electric vehicles, using expensive batteries in those models seems unnecessary.
