An aqueous electrodeposition coating composition comprising a cathodically electrodepositable binder, the binder comprising a phosphorylated resin and a carboxyl group separated by from 2 to 4 carbons from an ester group, provides corrosion protection equivalent to that obtained by the conventional phosphate pretreatment-electrodeposition coating process. The aqueous coating composition may comprise a metal oxide selected from the group consisting of bismuth oxide, vanadium oxide, manganese oxide, cobalt oxide, zinc oxide, strontium oxide, yttrium oxide, molybdenum oxide, zirconium oxide, lanthanum oxide, oxides of the lanthanide series of elements and combinations thereof. The phosphorylated resin may comprise a phosphorous-containing group in which X is a hydrogen, a monovalent hydrocarbon, an alkyl group such as an aminoalkyl group, or an oxygen atom having a single covalent bond to the phosphorous atom, and each oxygen atom has a covalent bond to a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group, an aryl group, an alkylaryl group, an arylalkyl group, or the resin, with the caveat that at least one oxygen atom has a covalent bond to resin. The aqueous coating composition may comprise a tridentate amine ligand.