LiFePO4 vs Li-ion — what your charger must know

“Lithium” is not one chemistry. The two you meet most in mobility and medical battery systems are Li-ion (NMC) and LiFePO4 (LFP) — and they charge differently.

The voltage ceiling is different

• NMC: ~4.20 V per cell at full charge.
• LFP: ~3.65 V per cell at full charge.

A charger tuned for NMC will under-charge an LFP pack (never reaching 100%) or, if it blindly pushes to 4.2 V, over-stress it. The CV setpoint must match chemistry.

The taper matters too

LFP holds a flatter voltage curve, so the CC→CV hand-off happens later and sharper. A dumb constant-voltage supply lingers in a dangerous window; a profile-aware charger tapers cleanly.

What a good charger does

It reads the chemistry (from a DIP setting or BMS communication) and switches the whole CC-CV curve. For wheelchair and rehab battery systems, see our mobility & medical charger range, profiled per pack type.