Volvo Trucks' battery chemistry of choice: NCA

While Daimler Truck, Paccar and Accelera by Cummins are pursuing lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells with technology partner EVE Energy (www.sae.org/news/2023/09/lfp-battery-cell-production-for-electric-commercial-vehicles), Volvo Trucks employs lithium-ion batteries in which lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA) is used as the cathode - for now anyway. The Swedish truck maker is continuously exploring other battery technologies.

“If you look back at least three years, maybe five years, LFP was not really on the map. There has come some new evolvement on LFP which would make it better in many ways, [improved] things that were problematic with it before. It might very well be a solution in the future,” Peter Granqvist, senior vice president of Volvo Group Electromobility Technology, said at a media event at the company's headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, in late 2023. “Right now, we are not on that path, but I'm not excluding anything.” Granqvist said it's possible multiple chemistries will prevail, based on the benefits being prioritized and the needs of the specific vehicle application.