“Iron battery” planned for Chinese PHEV

When I was looking into who made the lithium ion ferro phosphate (LFP) battery pack for the rock-bottom priced (2 for $400) XO laptops, I did a mental double-take when the answer came back BYD Batteries, a Chinese battery manufacturer of cell phone battery packs. Lithium iron phosphate is not as yet a knock-off technology, and the manufacturing chops required to produce a million of them at dirt-cheap pricing is impressive.

Then, out came this announcement that BYD Automotive, a sister company, is planning on mass producing plugin hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) starting in the second half of 2008 for sale in China. All the announcement says about the battery is that it’s an “iron battery” and that it’s safer than a lithium ion battery. So the chemistry could be LFP, or it could be something completely different – even nickel-iron. The company claims that the battery will charge to 70% within 10 minutes, which sounds more like LFP. Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time an auto maker announced a new car with technology that turned out to be complete nonsense. But it does show that Chinese manufacturers understand the publicity value of pre-announcing their PHEV attempts – and that BYD is making more than cell phone batteries.