The installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate battery continued to take the lead 2 months before it continued to heat up.

According to the data of Power Battery Application Branch, the installed capacity of domestic power battery in 2021 is close to 159.6GWh. Among them, the installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate battery is 81.7GWh, which exceeds that of ternary lithium battery 77.6GWh, and the proportion of lithium iron phosphate battery has exceeded 51%. In 2022, the installed capacity of domestic lithium iron phosphate batteries in the first two months continued the advantages of last year and continued to take the lead.

Moreover, in the catalogue of recommended models for the Promotion and Application of New Energy vehicles (the second batch in 2022) released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on March 8, the proportion of lithium iron phosphate battery models has increased significantly to 75% from 55% in the first batch in 2022.

From the perspective of market performance, the factory's preference for lithium iron phosphate batteries continues unabated, and the expansion of the proportion of recommended models also provides support for further increasing the installed capacity of lithium iron phosphate batteries in 2022.

In fact, not only the new energy vehicle market, but also the global automobile electrification industry background, since the beginning of this year, the energy storage, electric two-wheeler and other markets have also shown varying degrees of volume trend. Lithium iron phosphate battery with its lower cost, better safety performance, increasing energy density, longer service life and other advantages, the permeability in the electrified market continues to increase. And is expected to maintain a high degree of prosperity.

Driven by market demand, Ningde Times, BYD (Fudi Battery), Guoxuan Hi-Tech, Yiwei Lithium Energy, Honeycomb Energy, Xinwanda, Jiewei Power and other domestic power battery mainstream manufacturers are actively expanding the layout of lithium iron phosphate. In addition, the warming of the market has also attracted overseas "three-yuan supporters" to set foot in the lithium iron phosphate race track.

Since 2021, many models of Tesla have been equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries. Overseas car companies such as Ford, Volkswagen, Daimler, Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai have announced that they want to introduce lithium iron phosphate batteries.

Rivian, a US electric car start-up, also said on March 11 that it would use lithium iron phosphate batteries for its standard models as part of its plan to increase production and reduce costs.

Affected by the demand of downstream vehicle factories, overseas power battery manufacturers such as LG New Energy and sk on, which originally focused on the ternary racetrack, have announced the development of lithium iron phosphate battery technology. Among them, LG new energy has begun to develop lithium iron phosphate battery technology at the end of 2020, and the first lithium iron phosphate battery production line is scheduled to start trial production in 2022.

Last October, Serbian battery company ElevenEs also said in a statement that it would build the first lithium iron phosphate battery super factory in Europe.

On March 15 this year, a company named American Battery Factory (, referred to as "ABF", also announced that it would build a lithium iron phosphate battery plant in the United States. With a supply chain as localized as possible, ABF's goal is to "create a battery manufacturing ecosystem in the United States". Currently, 80% of lithium iron phosphate batteries in the United States come from China, and ABF said it hopes to "make energy independence and the use of renewable energy a reality in the United States."

It is obvious that lithium iron phosphate batteries have become popular all over the world. With more and more players entering the game, this track will also enter the stage of white-hot competition. So, can the domestic power battery manufacturers continue to maintain the leading position and expand their achievements in the future?

At present, domestic power battery manufacturers have at least the following three advantages:

First, due to the early investment in research and development, the related technology of lithium iron phosphate battery in China has global advantages. At present, domestic head battery manufacturers such as Ningde Times, BYD (Fudi Battery) and Guoxuan Hi-Tech are far ahead of overseas enterprises in lithium iron phosphate battery technology and shipments; German Nano, Hunan Yuneng and other lithium iron phosphate cathode material enterprises lead the world in technology, performance, cost and so on.

Second, the energy density of domestic lithium iron phosphate battery is still increasing. At present, the energy density of the mainstream products of lithium iron phosphate battery produced by Guoxuan Hi-Tech has reached 190 Whhand kg, and the energy density of the second generation "short knife" lithium iron phosphate battery of Honeycomb Energy has reached 185 Whhand kg. Lithium iron phosphate batteries of Yiwei Lithium Energy, BYD (Fudi Battery) and other enterprises also have good performance.

Third, at present, China has formed a relatively complete and mature lithium industry chain from upstream resource mining and smelting, material processing, to mid-stream lithium battery manufacturing, and then to downstream automobile enterprises. This can be proved by the sales of new energy vehicles in China. According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, sales of new energy vehicles in China completed 3.521 million units in 2021, an increase of 160 percent over the same period last year, ranking first in the world for seven consecutive years. In the whole process of the development of lithium power industry, a number of global leading enterprises have emerged in the field of materials and power batteries in China.

Benefiting from the acceleration of global automobile electrification, as well as the mature application of overseas energy storage market, as well as the combination of domestic lithium iron phosphate technology maturity, industrial chain perfection, large scale and other comprehensive factors, domestic power battery manufacturers are increasingly willing to go out to sea.

It is worth mentioning that the last Barrier for domestic enterprises to build lithium iron phosphate bases overseas and export is also expected to disappear. With the expiration of overseas core patents for lithium iron phosphate battery this year, domestic enterprises will also usher in new development opportunities, and the global lithium iron phosphate battery market may face changes in the competition pattern in the post-patent era.

In detail, the core patents of lithium iron phosphate batteries include infrastructure, carbon coating and carbon reduction, all of which are in the hands of overseas companies and institutions. Among them, infrastructure patents expired in 2017, and the next two patents will expire this year.

As a matter of fact, whether the early overseas patents are reasonable or not has been debated by the industry all the time. A person in the industry said that some overseas patents themselves are unscientific and lose their novelty. However, limited by the landing of these patents overseas, domestic battery manufacturers will be affected by high patent fees and legal fees before going to sea. It is understood that in the overseas market, lithium materials enterprises, battery enterprises, or battery matching car factories, there is always a party to pay a high price for patent authorization. It can be said that enterprises have been suffering from overseas abuse of patent rights for a long time.

Next, with the "unsealing" of overseas core patents for lithium iron phosphate batteries, to a certain extent, it will help to reduce the constraints for Chinese enterprises to go to sea, reduce the high cost of some patent authorization, and be more conducive to the overseas layout of Chinese enterprises. Play an important role in the global market of lithium iron phosphate batteries.