EcoPro's First NCA Cathode Material
From Power Tools to Electric Vehicles and ESS
EcoPro announced on August 17 that cumulative sales of its nickel-cobalt-aluminum (NCA) cathode materials, a cornerstone of its secondary battery business, surpassed 300,000 tons as of the first half of this year. This volume is enough to manufacture approximately 3 million electric vehicles.
Since EcoPro began commercial production of NCA cathode materials in 2008, the company sold about 100,000 tons of NCA cathodes for power tools and electric bicycles through 2021. From 2022 onward, as demand for electric vehicles and energy storage system (ESS) batteries increased, EcoPro sold an additional 200,000 tons of NCA cathode materials.
NCA cathode materials were the first cathode products EcoPro developed after it launched its secondary battery business in 2004. NCA materials have an energy density that is approximately 20-30% higher than conventional nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) materials, but the manufacturing process is more complex and presents higher technological barriers. As a domestic company entering a market dominated by Japanese firms, EcoPro achieved technological self-sufficiency by building its own equipment for development. After completing precursor facilities in 2005, EcoPro acquired the cathode materials business from Cheil Industries in 2006, establishing itself as a full-fledged NCA cathode manufacturer.
EcoPro’s capabilities in NCA cathode material development advanced significantly thanks to technical guidance from Sony, which was then the world’s leading secondary battery company. At the time, Sony dispatched engineers to Ochang, North Chungcheong Province, requesting that EcoPro remove metallic impurities and reduce unreacted lithium generated during cathode production. Residual unreacted lithium degrades cathode performance, and when the nickel content exceeds 80%, the typical residual lithium level is about 10,000 ppm (1%).
Sony requested that this be reduced to 2,000 ppm (0.2%). Through Sony’s technical guidance, EcoPro rapidly advanced its high-nickel cathode manufacturing technology and succeeded in pilot-supplying 6 tons of cathode materials to Sony in 2013.
Choi Moonho, CEO of EcoPro BM, recalled, “What Sony demanded at the time was a high-nickel NCA that did not exist anywhere in the world. While we could not resolve every drawback of NCA, we leveraged hundreds of prototypes developed through bold R&D efforts to quickly diversify our customer base.”
Since 2013, demand has increased for products using medium- and large-sized secondary batteries, such as electric bicycles, prompting EcoPro to develop and sell NCA products tailored to market needs. Efforts also continued to increase the nickel content, which is closely linked to output. Samsung SDI requested EcoPro to develop high-nickel cathode materials with nickel content exceeding 90%, and since 2015, EcoPro has been supplying NCA cathode materials to Samsung SDI. As a result, high-nickel NCA products have evolved from an initial 80% nickel content to 88%, then 91%, and currently, products with 95% nickel content are under development.
Collaboration with Samsung SDI led to the establishment of the joint venture EcoPro EM in 2021, and all NCA cathode materials produced at EcoPro EM are supplied exclusively to Samsung SDI. EcoPro continues to expand its applications from power tools to electric vehicles and ESS, steadily increasing sales volumes. Notably, as the ESS market has recently expanded, EcoPro’s sales of cathode materials for ESS have grown to six times the volume of 2023.
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