The Iron Age of Automotive Batteries: Techno-economic assessment of batteries with lithium metal anodes paired with iron phosphate cathodes

There are two major recent trends in batteries, (i) the resurgence of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) as the cathode material of choice for EV applications and (ii) lithium metal anode batteries either with a Li-foil or in an anode-free configuration emerging as competitive options over the conventional Li-ion anodes. In this study, we perform a techno-economic assessment of pairing LFP with Li metal anode (LFP|Li). Based on this analysis, we find that the combination of Li|LFP provides a 20-25% increase in specific energy and over 35% increase in energy density with an anode-free configuration using an oxidic solid-state separator while a thin thin Li-foil provides a specific energy increase of about 30%. We find that Li|LFP in an anode-free configuration provides significant cost reductions over cells with a graphitic anode. The cost of Li|LFP is most sensitive to the cost of a solid separator in the anode-free configuration and the cost of lithium foil in the Li-foil configuration.