Ford Motor Co. on Thursday said it plans to add a new battery cell chemistry to its electric vehicle portfolio to increase capacity and make them cheaper to build.
The automaker plans to add lithium iron phosphate cells to standard-range versions of the Mustang Mach-E next year and to the F-150 Lightning in early 2024, a move it said will reduce material costs for those vehicles by 10 to 15 percent. The automaker currently uses nickel cobalt manganese battery packs for those vehicles and its E-Transit van.
The chemistry addition is one of a number of battery-related initiatives Ford announced Thursday as it seeks to ramp global EV production to a run rate of 600,000 vehicles next year and 2 million by 2026. Ford said it already has secured all of the battery cell capacity needed for the 2023 target and has 70 percent of what it needs to achieve its 2026 goal.