In just one month, we have witnessed the increase in the price of lithium carbonate, the raw material of lithium batteries, by more than 200%, the huge fluctuation of nickel, and the crazy investment of industry giants in lithium, cobalt and other minerals. Coupled with the monetary easing policies of governments around the world affected by the epidemic, all this means that the price increase of raw materials is inevitable, and it also means that the cost of lithium batteries will continue to rise.

　　It can be seen from Tesla's process of changing the selection of lithium batteries that in the early planning, Tesla was not interested in lithium iron phosphate batteries at all, but in the past two years, Musk has continuously increased the use of lithium iron phosphate batteries in lithium iron phosphate batteries. Tesla's usage ratio.

　　On March 11, U.S. electric car maker Rivian said in a letter to shareholders on Thursday that it plans to fully adopt new batteries in its full range of electric vehicles, including the use of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry for standard models. Longer models use high nickel chemistry batteries.

　　LFP cells do not require any nickel or cobalt, the raw material metal nickel or cobalt is very expensive and difficult to obtain. Compared to lithium batteries used by other EV manufacturers, this type of battery is considered more stable but has a lower energy density, and while the long cycle life of LFP batteries will show its value over time, it generally Do not provide the same range as NCA and other types of batteries; in addition, high-nickel chemistry batteries have higher energy density, faster charging and longer driving range.

　　Rivian is "going through one of the toughest supply chain environments ever in the auto industry" due to the current global challenges, Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe said on Thursday's earnings call. Rival Tesla announced in October last year that it would switch to cheaper lithium iron phosphate batteries globally.

　　Meanwhile, Rivian reported fourth-quarter 2021 results. The stock, which underperformed market expectations and plans to accelerate production also constrained by supply chains, extended its losses this year, plunging more than 13% in after-hours trading. For all of 2021, Rivian produced 1,015 vehicles, missing its production target with 920 deliveries.

　　SES Power believes that Rivian's move is wise. Among the different material systems of lithium batteries, lithium iron phosphate materials undoubtedly have very good cost control capabilities, because there is no precious metal in it, which means that in the In the long-term future, lithium iron phosphate is the most cost-controlled lithium battery. During the long nearly 20 years of customized lithium battery production process, SES Power has a deep preference for lithium iron phosphate batteries, because many of our customer groups are industrial professional customers, and stability and reliability are ranked first. bit. Therefore, almost all of our 12V100Ah, 24V100Ah, 48V100Ah, HESS (3KW) and other energy storage lithium battery products use square aluminum-shell lithium iron phosphate batteries, and cooperative manufacturers include EVE, CATL, BYD, etc. Of course, we also use lithium iron phosphate batteries that can work normally at -40 degrees Celsius to meet the project needs in extremely cold environments.

　　The most important thing Rivian needs to do at this stage is market development and production capacity improvement. Lithium batteries are actually just a core accessory, which can affect the future of the product, but cannot determine the survival of the product.