[1/2] Tesla Model 3 vehicles are seen for sale at a Tesla facility in Fremont, California, U.S., May 23, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File PhotoDETROIT, June 23 (Reuters) - As the auto industry scrambles to produce more affordable electric vehicles, whose most expensive components are the batteries, lithium iron phosphate is gaining traction as the EV battery material of choice. But technological advances have also reduced the performance gap with more widely used materials such as nickel and cobalt. Ford Motor (F.N) aims to open a $3.5 billion LFP cell manufacturing plant in western Michigan, leveraging technology licensed from China’s CATL (300750.SZ), the world’s largest EV battery maker. The rapidly increasing adoption of LFP by EV manufacturers including Tesla and Hyundai suggests those companies “are not ready to decouple from China," Meng said.

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Persons: Carlos Barria, Tesla, ”, Stanley Whittingham, Mujeeb Ijaz, “ We’ve, China’s, Jim Farley, Shirley Meng, Meng, Lukasz Bednarski, Bednarski, LFP, Whittingham, “, Paul Lienert, Matthew Lewis Organizations: Tesla, REUTERS, DETROIT, EV, Toyota, Hyundai, U.S, Binghamton University, Ford, University of Chicago, Argonne, Laboratory’s, Center for Energy Storage Science, New Energy, Thomson Locations: Fremont , California, U.S, North America, New York, Michigan, Van Buren, China, United States, Norway, Israel, South Korea, EVs, Detroit