Quebec to house world’s largest lithium iron phospQuebec to house world’s largest lithium iron phosphate plant
Sud-Chemie investment a boost for province’s e-vehicle technology sector
A German chemical company haschosen Quebec to build what it says is the world’s largest facility forthe production of a key material used in promising rechargeable batterytechnology for electric vehicles.
Sud-Chemie AGis investing almost $80-million for the construction of a newproduction facility in Candiac, Que., south of Montreal, to make lithiumiron phosphate (LFP), an energy storage material used in batteries forelectric vehicle drives and other applications.
Sud-Chemie,through its Canadian subsidiary Phostech Lithium Inc., already produces adifferent grade of LFP at its existing plant in Candiac.
Theinvestment, expected to create about 50 skilled jobs, provides a boostto Quebec’s e-vehicle technology sector, which suffered a blow last yearwhen Zenn Motor Co. Inc. of Toronto stopped production of its low-speedelectric vehicle at its St-Jérôme, Que., plant.
Sud-Chemie saysit plans on launching commercial production in 2012, with sufficientoutput to supply 50,000 all-electric autos, or 500,000 gas-electrichybrids, per year.
“This will revolutionize the market for[electric- and hybrid-vehicle] batteries,” said Michel Parent, directorof sales and marketing for Phostech Lithium.
LFP is more stable and allows for a higher degree of energy storage than rival materials, he said.
Hedeclined to say whether or not the various governments are kicking insubsidies or other forms of financial backing in support of the venture.
He also would not provide details on customers or which automobile manufacturers might be interested in the product.
“Thisis definitely good for Quebec,” said Khurram Malik, a clean-technologyanalyst with Jacob Securities Inc. in Toronto. But he added that LFPtechnology and other electric-car battery technologies have a ways to gobefore they are deemed economical.
“A lot of this technology is still just too expensive and too heavy,” he said.
Arecent Boston Consulting Group study concluded that significanttechnical breakthroughs are required before rechargeable batteries makefor economically viable hybrids and e-cars.
There must be asubstantial increase in battery energy and storage capacity and alowering of the manufacturing and materials costs, the study said.
“Foryears, people have been saying that one of the keys to reducing ourdependence on fossil fuels is the electrification of the vehicle fleet.The reality is electric car batteries are both too expensive andtechnologically limited for this to happen in the foreseeable future,”said Xavier Mosquet, the Detroit-based leader of Boston ConsultingGroup’s automotive practice who co-authored the study.
On arelated front, Hydro-Québec has partnered with Mitsubishi Motor Sales ofCanada and the city of Boucherville, Que., on a pilot project to testelectric vehicles in real-world driving situations. The $4.5-milliontest will use 50 Mitsubishi i-Miev cars, starting this fall.