Ford Motor Company announced on Thursday that it would purchase lower-cost lithium iron batteries from Chinese battery leader CATL for its electric pickup trucks and SUVs sold in North America.
Ford is also working on a larger alliance with CATL as well as several other separate agreements to secure battery and battery materials through the next ten years. Ford claims that it has already obtained almost 70% of the battery capacity required to meet its plan to assemble over 2 million EVs globally by the end of 2026.
Ford Vice President, Lisa Drake, told the public that Ford will be getting their lithium-iron, or LFP, batteries from a new 40 GWh factory in North America starting in 2026.
Ford announced that it is expanding its portfolio of EV battery technologies to include lithium iron phosphate and nickel cobalt manganese cell chemistry, as part of its effort to increase capacity.
According to Ford, the 60-gigawatt hours of cell capacity required to maintain the 600,000 run rate has been secured.
The Detroit automaker announced that starting in early 2024, CATL will provide full battery packs for the Mustang Mach-E crossovers sold in North America as well as the F-150 Lightning pickups.
Ford has also secured lithium contracts with Rio Tinto, the largest mining company in Australia.
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