Enlarge / Ted Miller, manager of Ford Battery Cell Research and Advanced Engineering, holds a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery during a presentation on Monday, February 13, 2023 at Ford Ion Park in Romulus, Michigan. (credit: Ford)

The past couple of years have seen a flurry of newly announced battery factories in North America. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is the main reason—it ties an electric vehicle's federal tax credit to domestically sourced batteries , among other conditions, so automakers have been scrambling to build that capacity locally. But today's news is rather more unusual. According to the Detroit News, Ford is pushing pause on one such facility, suspending all work on the $3.5 billion project.

The plant in question is called Blue Oval Battery Park Michigan, located in Marshall, Michigan. Ford announced the new site in February , which it said would be responsible for making lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells. This is a less energy-dense chemistry than lithium-ion chemistries (like nickel cobalt manganese or nickel cobalt aluminum), but it can tolerate more charging cycles and is cheaper to make.

Intellectually property issues have meant LFP cells have been uncommon in EVs outside of China, but that's beginning to change; Tesla fits some of its EVs with LFP cells, and Ford secured supplies of LFP cells from the Chinese battery company CATL for use in the Mustang Mach-E crossover and from next year, the F-150 Lightning pickup truck.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

Toyota, the world's largest automaker , has a problem. Although the company is famous for pioneering lean methods of manufacturing and being an early pioneer of hybrid electric powertrains, the switch to battery electric vehicles caught it somewhat unprepared. As rivals locked up contracts for critical minerals and formed joint ventures with battery makers ( or built their own ), Toyota has appeared to fall behind.

Now, it has released a new roadmap showing how it will regain competitiveness and sell 3.5 million EVs by 2030.

After some early experiments with electric-converted RAV4s (including a partnership with Tesla), Toyota has finally released a modern BEV, the bZ4x. The car had a difficult launch—a recall for wheels falling off will lead to that—but a week's test of a bZ4x exceeded our low expectations. A look at the car's specs makes clear Toyota's problem, though: There are different battery packs for the single-motor and dual-motor versions, made by Panasonic and CATL, respectively.

Enlarge / On the left, a nickel cobalt manganese battery cell; on the right, a lithium iron phosphate cell. (credit: Ford)

The US is getting yet another new electric vehicle battery factory. On Monday afternoon, Ford announced that it will spend $3.5 billion to build a new plant in Marshall, Michigan. Significantly, this new site will make lithium iron phosphate (also known as LFP) cells, which are both cheaper and longer-lived than lithium-ion chemistries like nickel cobalt manganese (NCM), albeit at the cost of some energy density and cold weather performance.

"Ford's electric vehicle lineup has generated huge demand. To get as many Ford EVs to customers as possible, we're the first automaker to commit to build both NCM and LFP batteries in the United States. We're delivering on our commitments as we scale LFP and NCM batteries and thousands, and soon millions, of customers will begin to reap the benefits of Ford EVs with cutting-edge, durable battery technologies that are growing more affordable over time," said Jim Farley, Ford president and CEO.

Although LFP cells were originally invented in North America, patent licensing deals have meant that, until now, they've mostly been the preserve of Chinese-market EVs. In this case, Ford has signed a licensing agreement with Chinese battery firm CATL, allowing it to make LFP cells.

Illustration des maillots du Stade Brestois avec la nouvelle réglementation concernant les numéros de maillot.