A bottom-up performance and cost assessment of lithium-ion battery pouch cells utilizing nickel-rich cathode active materials and silicon-graphite composite anodes

Nickel-rich cathode active materials (CAMs) and silicon-graphite composite anodes promise substantial lithium-ion battery (LIB) performance increases over state-of-the-art technologies. In order to compete with current LIB technologies, however, they must also be producible at a cost competitive with that of their predecessors. In this paper, full pouch cells based on state-of-the-art and prospective future CAMs are modeled using both graphite and silicon-graphite composite anodes to examine each technology's performance. Current open-market material costs are then utilized to estimate the costs of producing each cell. The two are then related to determine each cell's value on a USD kWh⁻¹ basis. Future nickel-rich CAMs are shown to provide a strong performance advantage over current technologies, especially if their laboratory-scale performance can be replicated at a commercial scale. Silicon-graphite anodes likewise display performance gains, though these are shown to be highly dependent on cell chemistry and design. The collected current open-market prices of the materials needed to produce these technologies, however, are shown to be too high to result in a value improvement. Cost reductions necessary to achieve value parity with current technologies are thus calculated and possible future developments are discussed.