Cobalt-free lithium batteries can not only improve electrical performance, life span and safety, but also reduce costs and get rid of the dependence of cathode materials on cobalt. In the existing ternary system of lithium-ion power batteries, the cost of cathode materials accounts for 30% to 45%. Take the 523 system as an example, cobalt accounts for 20% of it. As a strategic resource, the price of cobalt The fluctuation will directly affect the cost of the final battery cell.

Cobalt-free lithium battery

Regarding the cobalt metal in cobalt lithium batteries, it is a rare metal in itself and one of the most expensive metal materials in automotive battery materials. Data shows that the domestic reference price of cobalt metal on February 18 was 277,500 yuan/ton. Therefore, the current cost of cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate batteries is 0.6/wh, and the cost of ternary lithium-ion batteries with cobalt is 0.85/wh. Therefore, it is not difficult to see that cobalt-free lithium batteries have advantages in production costs.

Taking the lithium iron phosphate battery without cobalt lithium battery as an example, the service life is longer. Calculated according to full charge, the current cycle life of lithium iron phosphate batteries can reach about 2000 times, while the number of cycles for full charge of ternary lithium ion batteries is about 1000 times. Therefore, longer service life is also one of the advantages of cobalt-free lithium batteries.

At present, ternary lithium-ion batteries on the market are more used in family cars, and cobalt-free batteries are used in passenger cars, public transportation vehicles or electric logistics vehicles. According to current applications, there are few safety incidents in buses. However, there have been countless spontaneous combustion incidents caused by batteries in family cars. And in theory, cobalt-free batteries are safer than ternary lithium-ion batteries.