Which LiFePO4 Battery Cell Is The Most Suitable for DIY Battery Pack

With LiFePO4 battery cells becoming available in the retail and wholesale markets, DIY LiFePO4 battery packs are starting to become more and more popular. For users who are trying to DIY LiFePO4 battery pack for the first time, which LiFePO4 battery cell is the most suitable is the first problem they face.

In this post, we try to introduce the popular LiFePO4 battery cells in the current market and find out the most suitable LiFePO4 battery cells for DIYers.

LiFePO4 battery cell manufacturers

Since most of the current LiFePO4 battery cells are supplied to EV companies, the manufacturers are mainly EV battery manufacturers.

And China currently has the largest EV market in the world, so LiFePO4 battery cell manufacturers are mainly from China.

According to the statistics of LiFePO4 power battery shipments from January to October 2021, the top 10 LiFePO4 battery manufacturers are ranked as follows.

	Manufacturer	Market Share
1	CATL	47.6%
2	BYD	32.1%
3	Guoxuan	11.5%
4	EVE	1.9%
5	SVOLT	1.6%
6	Lishen	1.3%
7	REPT	1.2%
8	Great Power	0.7%
9	Green Batt	0.4%
10	Anchi	0.3%

Although there seem to be many brands, in fact not all of them can be found in the retail market because they mainly supply to EV manufacturers.

In addition, not every LiFePO4 manufacturer produces prismatic aluminum-cased LiFePO4 cells suitable for DIY battery packs.

The brands we currently see in the wholesale market are: CATL, EVE, CALB, Lishen, REPT.

CATL

CATL is currently the world’s largest manufacturer of LiFePO4 batteries. It is also the world’s largest manufacturer of EV batteries. It accounts for almost half of the LiFePO4 market, and it is also a supplier to Tesla.

In the retail market, CATL’s most common battery cells are 280Ah and 302Ah.

EVE

EVE is the most popular brand in the retail market today. It has seen very rapid growth in lithium iron phosphate batteries.

EVE Lithium Energy lithium iron phosphate battery mainly supplies commercial vehicles such as buses and coaches, so it produces a lot of prismatic aluminum shell LiFePO4 battery cells. Recently it became a supplier of BMW.

In addition to supplying electric vehicles, it has significant applications in solar energy storage projects as well as electric boats.

EVE has a very broad line of square LiFePO4 batteries ranging from 50Ah to 304Ah, most commonly 230Ah, 280Ah, and 304Ah.

CALB

CALB is a major player in EV batteries, and it is ranked #3 among power battery brands, although it is not in the top 10 in terms of installed LiFePO4 from January to October 2021. this is mainly due to its very high shipments of MnNiCo ternary batteries.

Its prismatic LiFePO4 batteries are also available in the retail market.

Lishen

Lishen was also one of the first players to enter the LiFePO4 market. It was also one of the first battery brands to appear in the retail market, along with CATL.

Its most popular battery is the 272Ah prismatic aluminum case battery.

REPT

REPT is a relatively new company. Unlike other companies in the ranking that have been around for 10-20 years, this company is very young, with only 4 years of history so far. But their products are quickly gaining recognition from electric vehicle manufacturers.

The most common models of REPT in the retail market are 220Ah and 280Ah.

Which is the best LiFePO4 battery cell for DIY battery packs

Since almost all LiFePO4 battery cell manufacturers’ main markets are in the to B market, they all pay little attention to the retail and wholesale markets. This is not very friendly for DIYers.

Here we try to compare CATL, EVE, CALB, Lishen, REPT in many aspects based on the current status of the retail and wholesale market.

Brand Impact

In the current LiFePO4 power battery market, CATL and BYD are the first tier suppliers.

EVE, Lishen, REPT, CALB are the second tier suppliers.

BYD’s LiFePO4 batteries are almost all used in BYD’s electric vehicles, so they hardly flow into the retail and wholesale markets.

So the brand ranking

Brand	Stars
CATL	★ ★ ★ ★ ★
EVE	★ ★ ★ ★
Lishen	★ ★ ★ ★
REPT	★ ★ ★ ★
CALB	★ ★ ★ ★

Products

The products here refer to the square aluminum-cased battery cells supplied to the market. Since most LiFePO4 battery cell manufacturers supply cylindrical cells to electric vehicle manufacturers, not every manufacturer has a wide range of prismatic aluminum case battery cells.

EVE has the most extensive prismatic aluminum case battery line, which covers almost 50Ah, 80Ah, 90Ah, 105Ah, 173Ah, 230Ah, 280Ah, 304Ah. Other manufacturers only have a small number of models available. This is related to the main customers of EVE are commercial vehicles and energy storage.

Product line ranking.

Brand	Stars
CATL	★ ★ ★ ★
EVE	★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Lishen	★ ★ ★
REPT	★ ★ ★
CALB	★ ★ ★

Price

The price of LiFePO4 battery cells is on an upward trend at this stage (end of 2021 – beginning of 2022) due to the significant increase of LiFePO4 raw materials in 2021, and most brands are out of stock, so it is difficult to get a fair evaluation at the current price.

Here we use the average price per watt of battery cells for most of the past year as a reference (low price stars high).

Price ranking.

Brand	Stars
CATL	★ ★ ★ ★
EVE	★ ★ ★ ★
Lishen	★ ★ ★ ★ ★
REPT	★ ★ ★ ★ ★
CALB	★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Supply

Almost all brands have been out of stock in the past year. Overall EVE has maintained a large supply to the retail and wholesale markets (although it has also had month-long out-of-stocks in April-May and recent tight supplies).

Supply ranking.

Brand	Stars
CATL	★ ★ ★ ★
EVE	★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Lishen	★ ★ ★ ★
REPT	★ ★ ★
CALB	★ ★ ★

From the above comparison, EVE LiFePO4 battery cells are the most readily available, maintain a long-term supply and are a highly trusted brand.

Note: The above comparison is only for the retail and wholesale markets, and does not represent a comparison of their overall strength. Since the main business of these manufacturers is B to B, retail and wholesale market is only a narrow market for them.

Which EVE LiFePO4 battery cell is the best choice for DIY battery pack

LF230 vs LF280N/LF280K vs LF304

If you want a DIY high-capacity battery pack, then you can choose from the EVE LiFePO4 battery cells LF230 (230Ah), LF280N/LF280K (280Ah), and LF304 (304Ah).

Who is the best LiFePO4 battery cell for DIY battery pack

LF280K is the latest 280Ah battery cell model from EVE in 2021. The biggest difference between it and the previous model LF280N is the deep cycle life of up to 6000 cycles.

This makes it the most suitable battery cell for DIY battery packs at the moment.

Who is the best cost effective LiFePO4 battery cell

April 2022 update: LF230 prices start to rise significantly in March-April 2022. Two reasons for th

1, The last shortage of LF280K led to people being forced to choose LF230 and reacquainted with its price advantage; then demand increased.

2, Shortage of supply.

Now (end of April 2022), LF230 has lost its price advantage over LF280K. The best price/performance battery cell goes back to LF280K.

At the current stage (late 2021-early 2022) LF280N and LF280K have become much less cost effective than its brothers LF230, LF304.

But the supply of LF304 battery cells is very small, so LF230 is the most cost-effective and can maintain the supply of battery cells.

Conclusion

In the current retail and wholesale market, EVE battery cells have won the trust of DIYers with a wide range of product models and stable performance.

Among the many EVE LiFePO4 models, LF280K is the latest product, with excellent performance of over 6,000 deep cycle life, it is the most suitable battery cell for DIY battery packs.

However, as the price of LF280K continues to go up, the most cost-effective battery cell is LF230.

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