Ford announces $3.5B Michigan LFP battery factory with China’s CATL in 2026
Ford today announced a significant move to LFP batteries for its electric vehicle line. The Dearborn company is tapping China’s...
electrek.co
Ford announces $3.5B Michigan LFP battery factory with China’s CATL in 2026
- Thread starter buster
- Start date
electrek.co
Yeah it’s not a good look for Ford but reality is decoupling is a fantasy.
The gift of doing business in China that keeps on giving. The Germans have been forced to do this as well. CATL built a factory in Germany not all that long ago.
That should not matter. The US patent office is open to our global trading partners. Considering that they steal everything as a normal course of business, I think I'll go into the business of sodium batteries.
But as always, Lithium is king when it comes to moving ions. Sodium batteries are half or less of today's conventional Lithium ion cells.
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I believe, at least the way I read it in the link above is that they already are buying batteries from them but in 2026 they will no longer be as they will be licensing the technology and patents from the Chinese company and building in Fords own factory.
This should help explain it more:
Ford will build $3.5 billion battery factory in Michigan that Virginia governor rejected
Ford is investing $3.5 billion to build a factory in Marshall, Michigan, that will produce NCM batteries for use in low range, entry level electric vehicles starting in 2026.
www.foxbusiness.com
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I cant see this working out very well for Ford.
This mess will affect a lot more than EV batteries. This is the reason I am thankful we are on-shoring semiconductor manufacturing to Arizona and other states.
TSMC Arizona should begin production next year and 3nm tech node geometries in 2026. I believe the cost of these fabs is estimated to be over $40B.
3nm tech node (technology node) referes to the smallest traces, or wires and the space between them, on the densest layer of the chip. That's 3 billionths of a meter. When I started in SEMI, 65nm was thought perhaps to be the limit.
TSMC Arizona should begin production next year and 3nm tech node geometries in 2026. I believe the cost of these fabs is estimated to be over $40B.
3nm tech node (technology node) referes to the smallest traces, or wires and the space between them, on the densest layer of the chip. That's 3 billionths of a meter. When I started in SEMI, 65nm was thought perhaps to be the limit.
Me either. Not enough energy density or cold weather performance to keep Americans happy.
Why?
Oops I see others answered. It’s the battery composition?
Will be interesting as the consumer doesn’t understand the mechanics of anything they buy.
Born, raised, most my life before moving South was a metropolitan area where the second car rarely went very far, sometimes the main car too.
Plus around 50 million seniors or almost retired.
Interesting to see what unfolds in the next 10 years
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LFP batteries have some advantages, some can do 2000 cycles with no loss of capacity. They are far less likely to burn catastrophically and they are cheaper.
The disadvantages are significant despite claims to the contrary. LFP batteries are terrible in cold weather. There are many reports of range being well less than half of the claimed range in winter. Furthermore, it is impossible to charge them under 0 deg F. Couple that with the lower energy density and there simply is not enough room in a typical vehicle to install a large enough LFP battery pack for significant range. The very best LFP batteries have about half the energy by weight, (about 150-160 Watt hours per KG, but many are around 90Wh Kg) of what the upcoming Gen 3 4680 has (about 320 Watt hours per Kg)
LFP batteries are still prone to bloat and capacity loss if used hard. The Tesla owners with these batteries generally like their cars, but do note the lack of range.
Me either. I think it will be bad move in fact.
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At the end of the day, it's 2000+ jobs for Americans making things in America for an American company. Virginia rejected this, so Michigan got it instead. If the entire US rejected this, Mexico would've gotten it. Tech improves and it takes time to build a partnership and production line; it's faster to build now and implement upgrades than to spend more years waiting for better performance and then start building. By then even better tech might be available.
Either Ford has the early scoop on how the battery sourcing rules set to be unveiled later this week are going and thus green lit this move or this is going to be a huge waste of time and resources for Farley.
Im going to wager the earlier, but I can be wrong.
Im going to wager the earlier, but I can be wrong.
