Ni content is 90%! Commercialization of the world's first NCM9 battery started

According to South Korean media reports, SKI recently stated that it has commercialized the world's first battery with a nickel content of 90% developed by it. Ford plans to announce the F-150 electric pickup truck in 2023, which is expected to be equipped with the battery to land on the market. 90% of the batteries are called NCM9 batteries in the market, because the cathode materials are nickel, cobalt, and manganese, and the content of the three elements is 90%, 5%, and 5% respectively. It is understood that SKI's second US plant broke ground in July, and the plant will be dedicated to the production of high-nickel NCM batteries. Its first US plant is used to produce NCM811 batteries, supplying 200,000 electric vehicles for Volkswagen; the second US plant may partially produce NCM9 batteries. It is reported that both SKI's US plants will be built before 2023. By then, SKI's annual output in the US alone will reach 21.5 GWh, and globally it will reach 71 GWh. Regarding high-nickel batteries, generally speaking, the higher the nickel content in the battery, the greater the energy density of the battery, but too high nickel content will cause the stability of the battery to decrease. Cobalt plays an important role in stabilizing the structure in the ternary structure. For this reason, even if the price of cobalt has become an important factor restricting the cost reduction of batteries, so far, ternary batteries still mainly adopt NCA and NCM811 methods. Although the NCM9 battery developed by SKI has reduced the cost of the battery and obtained a higher energy density, it has easily increased the range of electric vehicles to 700 kilometers, but its safety still has to be tested by the market. SKI's NCM9 battery is important to improve the diaphragm technology. In addition, before SKI launched the NCM9 battery, another battery company in South Korea, LG Chem, was accelerating the mass production of NCMA batteries. According to news, LG Chem’s NCMA battery Ru0026D and mass production plan is expected to be advanced to next year, and General Motors is planning to equip two electric vehicles with NCMA batteries expected to be launched next year.