LG found ways to improve LMR battery durability by changing operating voltages and the manufacturing process.
LMR promises lower costs than nickel-rich batteries and higher energy density than LFP.
The results are promising, but charging speed, cold weather performance, and real-world longevity remain unproven.
Cheaper EV batteries sound great until they start forgetting how to be a battery. That has been one of the main headaches with lithium manganese-rich (LMR) batteries, one of the most promising alternatives to lower-cost chemistries such as lithium iron phosphate (LFP). They hold plenty of promise for cost and energy density, but questions remain about how long they last.
LG Energy Solution and Seoul National University provided a useful answer to at least part of that problem. Their experimental LMR cells retained an impressive 92.2% of their initial energy after 883 charge-discharge cycles. EVs are typically expected to last between 1,000 and 2,000 charge cycles.
