China's lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery installed in July was 5.8 GWh, exceeding the 5.5 GWh of ternary batteries for the first time this year, according to data released Wednesday by the China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance.
The installed base of lithium iron phosphate batteries rose 235.5 percent in July, compared with a 67.5 percent increase for ternary batteries.
(Graphic by CnEVPost)
The last time the number of LFP battery installations exceeded that of ternary batteries was last December.
China's power battery installed base in July was 11.3 GWh, up 125.0 percent year-over-year and 1.7 percent from June.
In July, ternary battery production was 8.0 GWh, accounting for 46.0 percent of total production, up 144.0 percent year-over-year. LFP battery production was 9.3 GWh, accounting for 53.8 percent of total output, up 236.2 percent year-over-year.
From January to July, the installed base of power batteries in China was 63.8 GWh, up 183.5 percent year-over-year. Among them, a total of 35.6 GWh of ternary batteries were installed, accounting for 55.8 percent, up 124.3 percent year-over-year, and a total of 28.0 GWh of LFP batteries were installed, accounting for 43.9 percent, up 333.0 percent year-over-year.
In China, the technology route of new energy vehicle power batteries has changed several times.
Initially, Tesla cooperated with Panasonic to launch nickel-cobalt-aluminum ternary batteries. After the development of ternary batteries hit a bottleneck, the development of power batteries shifted to LFP batteries.
Despite the increase in market share of LFP batteries, there will still be many high-end models with demand for range length and high energy density, so there will still be market space for ternary batteries, said Robin Zeng, chairman of CATL, China's largest power battery supplier, in April this year.
In May, China's LFP battery production surpassed that of ternary batteries for the first time. By the end of last year, China's ternary battery and LFP battery production accounted for 58.1 percent and 41.4 percent, respectively.
China's July power battery installation volume at 11.3 GWh, up 125% year-over-year
