Tesla recently announced plans to onshore Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery production to the United States, and those plans are starting to come together in light of a new patent on LFP chemistries. The newly published patent, WO2024/229047 A1, reveals that Tesla, along with a team including renowned battery researcher Jeff Dahn from Dalhousie University (who has made significant contributions to advancing lithium-ion battery technology, including LFP for Tesla), is developing an improved LFP-based cathode material. This “boosted” LFP will likely be the foundation for future US-made Tesla vehicles.
LFP batteries are already a part of Tesla’s strategy for its Standard Range vehicles and energy storage products. They are prized for their lower cost (by avoiding expensive nickel and cobalt), long cycle life, and ability to charge to 100% without damaging the battery. By bringing LFP production to the US, Tesla could tap into domestic incentives and avoid potential tariffs. This new patent suggests that Tesla isn’t just planning on bringing LFP production to the U.S., but that it’s also looking to improve it.
LFP with a Pinch of Nickel
The core of the patent describes a “blended cathode active material.” This involves taking a standard iron phosphate-based material, like LiFePO4 or LFP, and potentially Lithium Manganese Iron Phosphate, LMFP, which forms the vast majority of the cathode - about 90-99% by weight. Then, adding in a small, carefully controlled amount of nickel oxide-based active material, such as NMC or NCA, typically between 0.1-15% or as lean as 0.1-3% by weight.
The approach isn’t just a simple mix; the patent details crucial pre-processing steps for the nickel-based component. This includes surface area processing like milling to increase its surface area and heating it to temperatures between 650°C and 800°C. These steps are designed to reduce lithium-containing impurities (like LiOH and Li2CO3) in the nickel material, which can be detrimental to battery performance.
Why Blended?
The goal of this LFP-Nickel blend is to increase LFP battery performance. In particular, the patent is targeting improved capacity retention and increased lifetime cycles. The extensive data presented in the patent shows that cells made with this blended cathode exhibit several key advantages over standard LFP cells.
Improved Capacity Retention: The blended cathodes demonstrated a better ability to hold charge over many cycles with tests showing blended cells retaining over 90% capacity after 7,000 hours of cycling at 40°C in some configurations.
Improved Cycle Lifetime: The batteries could endure more charge and discharge cycles while maintaining output voltage, which is key for vehicle lifespans.
Better High-Temperature Performance: Testing at higher temperatures, including up to 70°C showed superior stability and capacity retention.
Reduced Degradation: A fascinating finding highlighted in the patent is that the blend appears to reduce the dissolution of iron from the LFP material, which can then deposit on the anode and hinder long-term performance. The blended cells showed less iron deposition on the anode after extensive cycling.
Lower Internal Resistance Growth: Finally, these new cathodes showed more stable internal resistance over time compared to pure LFP cells, especially at higher temperatures.
By incorporating just a small fraction of the higher-energy nickel material, Tesla hopes to improve LFP battery longevity and improve charge rates without increasing the cost of these batteries, which is one of their most appealing qualities.
Impact on Charging Performance
The patent doesn't explicitly focus on achieving dramatically faster charging speeds as its primary outcome, with most cycling tests conducted at moderate C-rates like C/3*. However, the findings offer strong indicators that charging performance would also be improved.
While the patent doesn't claim a new "fast charge" LFP chemistry outright, the inherent improvements in material stability and resistance characteristics suggest that these blended LFP cells could offer more robust and reliable charging performance.
* C-rates are a measure of how quickly a battery can charge. 1C means the battery can be fully charged in an hour, while C/3 means 33% per hour.
Domestic LFP
This patented technology could be the key to Tesla's US LFP production. It offers a pathway to manufacturing LFP cells that are not only domestically sourced but also offer a tangible performance improvement over conventional LFP chemistries. This could give Tesla a competitive edge, allowing them to offer LFP-powered vehicles and energy products with better longevity, durability, and potentially even slightly better performance characteristics in demanding conditions.
This is especially important today, as Tesla no longer sells vehicles with LFP batteries in the United States and North America due to tariffs. The only LFP battery items they sell within North America are Megapack and Powerwall, which are both excluded from tariffs (and incentives) due to their nature as stationary energy products.
As Tesla continues to innovate across the battery spectrum, from raw materials processing to cell design and manufacturing, innovations like this blended cathode could play an important role in the next generation of more affordable and durable electric vehicles and energy storage solutions.
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Tesla has finally released their 2024 Impact Report, and it's filled with impressive new data on the company’s environmental and safety progress. However, the biggest news is the clear and concrete roadmap it provides for the next generation of Tesla products.
For the first time, the report provides specific timelines for Tesla to begin volume production of the purpose-built Cybercab and the ramp-up of the Semi factory. This year’s report shifts from documenting past achievements to defining Tesla’s next phase, with a focus on autonomy and industrial transport.
Upcoming Vehicles
The most significant new items in the report are timelines for Tesla’s anticipated future vehicles.
Next, Tesla is ramping up production of the Semi, following the completion of limited production runs used for testing. This development is closely tied to the ongoing construction of the new Semi Factory, which is nearing completion. Tesla expects this to be one of its largest markets going forward and one of the most impactful. Industrial trucks doing the last 200 miles of delivery account for 16.4% of US vehicle emissions, despite making up only 1.1% of vehicles on the road.
In terms of the Affordable Model, Tesla has mentioned that they intend to launch more affordable products in 2025 and address a key segment of the market. They did not elaborate on this further and seem to have missed the previously provided self-imposed deadline for the first half of 2025.
At this point, we’re unsure whether Tesla will actually launch a distinct and more affordable model or whether it will introduce cut-down versions of the Model Y, as rumored.
Safety
The report supports Tesla’s future plans with some impressive new data points that demonstrate the impact their technology is having.
First, Autopilot (and FSD) has achieved a safety record nearly 10 times higher than the US national average in terms of miles per incident. The data shows one accident for every 6.77 million miles driven with Autopilot (or FSD) engaged, compared to the national average of one accident per 0.70 million miles.
The report also highlighted the Cybertruck’s recent 5-Star overall safety rating from the NHTSA, marking it one of the safest vehicles on the market, especially for a truck. The best part is that Cybertruck holds the lowest overall probability of injury and the lowest rollover risk of any pickup truck ever tested by the agency. Skeptics have always complained about lacking crumple zones, but the results prove otherwise, with Tesla building crumple zones as part of the gigacast.
Sustainability
In terms of sustainability, Tesla’s growing fleet helped to increase the amount of reduced and avoided emissions by 60% year over year, to 32 million metric tons of CO2e. While that’s a small number when you compare it to a full country, it is still a significant impact, especially in cities where pollutants have already decreased due to the ownership of EVs.
Tesla also mentioned that 99% of their recalls reported in 2024 were resolved using OTA updates, saving owners a trip to the Service Center or a trip by the Tesla Mobile Rangers, all in the name of sustainability and reduced costs.
Impactful Report
Tesla’s 2024 Impact Report is actually one of the most forward-looking publications to date. It puts a clear roadmap of Tesla’s future goals, while also tying them into the sustainability and safety goals achieved last year.
We can’t wait till 2025’s report - because it’ll be even better with this year’s deployment of Robotaxi. You can read all 200+ pages of the impact report here.
Tesla has officially begun internal testing of its awaited virtual queueing system for Superchargers. The news was shared by Tesla’s Director of Charging, Max de Zegher on X.
The Tesla Charging team has begun pressure testing the new feature and is planning for public pilots as their next step. While most users won’t experience heavy congestion at Superchargers, for those who do, it could be a real pain point. Virtual queues are designed to make it easier to charge at congested Superchargers by having a digital queue, rather than relying on owners to remain in line with their vehicles.
Virtual Queues
When we originally delved into Tesla’s plans to introduce a virtual queue system, it seemed obvious that the virtual queue would replace the current “Wild West” first-come, first-served system of vehicles trying to get pulled into a stall. This process will likely have two key integrations.
First up is integration directly into the vehicle software for Tesla vehicles. This means that when you’re navigating to a Supercharger that’s busy and virtual queuing is enabled, you will be automatically placed into the virtual queue upon arrival.
Then, your position in line is displayed on-screen and provides an estimated wait time, allowing you to relax, eat, or take a bathroom break without worrying about your place in line. Finally, once a stall becomes available and it’s your turn, you will receive a notification on your vehicle’s screen, as well as on the Tesla app, directing you to the open stall that will presumably only allow your vehicle to charge. We imagine that there will be a grace period for owners to pull up with their car. If that doesn’t happen within a certain period, the next car will likely be offered the charger.
The second integration is in the Tesla app for non-Tesla drivers. As Tesla continues to install Magic Docks and open Superchargers to non-Tesla EVs, more and more traffic comes to the world’s most reliable fast charging network. That means that Tesla also needs to manage expectations and queue times for non-Tesla vehicles, likely through a similar process, but done over the Tesla app instead.
The Devil’s in the Details
A simple “first-in, first-out” queue sounds great, but Max noted that it is easy to exploit things with bad actors. What prevents a driver from joining a queue remotely to reserve a spot, ignoring a notification, or trying to hop into an unreserved spot?
Well, Tesla should be able to manage these fairly easily, but they still require technical effort to implement. That means GPS geofencing for those attempting to join a queue, a short countdown timer for those late to take their spot, and a lockout for those who try to skip the queue are all needed.
What’s Next?
As Tesla has just started internal testing of this feature, it likely means that public-facing user interfaces and flows aren’t quite ready yet, but the underlying functionality is. It also means that Tesla is working to refine the little details to make the process as smooth and as easily accessible as possible.
While no pilot locations have been announced yet, it seems likely that Tesla will launch the pilot at some of the most notoriously busy Supercharger sites to gather testing data in the near future, once internal testing is complete. That means holiday travel routes or major highways, likely in California first, before rolling out elsewhere.
Virtual Queuing is a fantastic tech-first solution for the Supercharger network that helps transform that experience into a more calm and orderly process. Additionally, establishing a fair system that allows both Tesla and non-Tesla EVs to access will likely improve the overall experience. Along with the pilot program for dynamic Supercharger pricing that incentivizes people to use less-congested Superchargers, these changes should improve the Supercharger experience.
While Max mentioned it was designed for “those rare cases with a wait”, that tends to be the experience in larger cities further North, especially in New York, Michigan, or within Canada, where the few smaller Supercharger sites in big cities tend to be heavily congested. These queues will make the experience smoother for everyone involved, so we’re looking forward to seeing this come to fruition.
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