Energy · 1996

Lithium iron phosphate battery

A cobalt-free cathode trades some energy for safety, longevity and low cost.

Akshaya Padhi and John Goodenough identified LiFePO4 as a cathode in 1996. Cheap and hard to ignite, LFP overtook nickel chemistries in China's EVs by 2021 and dominates stationary storage.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

Intercalation cathodes 1976

What it led to 2

Grid-scale battery storage 2017
Sodium-ion battery 2023

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

Lithium-ion battery cell price Latest: 78 $/kWh (2024 USD) (2024) Source: Our World in Data

Electric share of new car sales Latest: Battery electric: 16.5 % of new cars (2025) Source: Our World in Data

Cost of memory and storage Latest: Memory: 1.09k $/TB (2023) Source: Our World in Data