Get batteries with enormous autonomy or, on the contrary, bet on a more modest model but also cheaper. The industry is struggling to establish its model and Ford is clear: the huge batteries of 700, 800 and 1,000 kilometers are economically unaffordable.
“But me with my diesel…” It is one of the most repeated phrases when talking about electric cars. me with my diesel I do more than 1,000 kilometers with a single deposit. Yes, and to convince this type of driver, some firms have launched to conquer the battery of 1,000 kilometers of autonomy.
These batteries have been, announced, mostly, by Chinese manufacturers. CATL already announced in 2022 that it can achieve this with your Qilin model. Zeekr, which is working on its landing in Europe, the brand has already approved autonomies higher than this barrier with its Zeekr 001.
1,000 kilometers that are not such. In spite of everything, the announcements of the batteries of the 1,000 kilometers must be taken with tweezers. Those 1,000 kilometers are always figures approved under the CLTC cycle (China Light-Duty Vehicle Test Cycle). These tests are more lax than the old NEDC we used in Europe. And this NEDC is less demanding than the current WLTP.
Some approval tests that, in addition, are not close to the real figures when we drive with our car on a day-to-day basis. Especially when we do it on the road, where autonomy is key to knowing where we stop and for how long. In the urban cycle, the number of kilometers is more secondary (except for taxis or freight transport), since it will be easier to have a plug at hand.
extremely expensive. The problem with these huge batteries, with capacities greater than 100 kWh, is that they are very expensive. So expensive that NIO ensures that its 1,000-kilometer battery is as expensive as everything a Mercedes C-Class or your own NIO ET5. This reduces the target audience to a very small market niche.
Batteries of about 100 kWh are NMC or NCA batteries, much more expensive due to their own components than LFPs. The use of nickel, cobalt or manganese shoots up its price to have less sustainable batteries. Solid or semi-solid battery technologies, such as the one presented by NIO, still have a long way to go to develop and become economically viable on a large scale.
A fight for profitability. These types of batteries are, in the eyes of Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, economically unsustainable. “All I hear is these 450 mile, 500 mile (805 km) range ads… Those batteries are huge, if you have batteries like that you can’t make any money. We’re not looking to hit 600 miles (966 km) … We are trying to build the smallest possible battery to (achieve) competitive autonomy,” he said in words collected by The Verge.
The big difference between Ford and other brands of electric vehicles is in the economic part. Tesla, who has worked from scratch with the electric car and has created a new way of working, has managed to be much more profitable than its competitors and predicts a tough battle when it comes to prices for its electric cars.
The other big competitors that work in the opposite way to Ford are the Chinese manufacturers. These companies are engaged in a price war that is making them lose thousands and thousands of dollars for every electric car sold. In fact, it is already expected that some firms they may fall by the way.
playing it safe. The huge investments that manufacturers are having to allocate to the development of electric vehicles, forced by European policies and favored by US incentives to produce this type of vehicle, is forcing traditional companies to tread carefully.
It is no coincidence that less profitable vehicles are leaving the market. Until now, the utilitarian and the compact were all an endorsement. However, the plans to electrify the fleet have skyrocketed their prices, as they have also made their costs more expensive. So much so that the Ford Fiesta or the Volkswagen Polo will disappear or are on a tightrope.
The solution: load more times. With this photograph in front of you, it seems that there is only one path left: retrace part of the path. The commitment to LFP batteries, less energetically dense, with less ambitious autonomies but, above all, much cheaper, is total. In fact, its production, in recent months, has increased considerably.
Some manufacturers are betting on this type of compound, especially in their entry-level models, led by china. But, in addition, it is considered a fundamental piece to achieve cheaper and popularize the electric car. If the price of the battery is high, the profit margins are reduced and in the smallest models it is decisive when deciding whether or not to carry out the new project.
While Ford confirms this roadmap, it has reached an agreement with Tesla to charge the cars in the blue oval at its charging points. Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, says that the important thing is to provide a network that is dense enough so that the driver is always covered.
In Xataka | “It is not sustainable”: Mazda also does not believe in a future of electric cars with long autonomy
Photo | Ford
