Tracking the battery-market BATTLEGROUND

Production scale, yield, and new cell technologies are challenging EV battery-cell suppliers, explains an expert at IHS Markit.

While sales of global battery-electric vehicles (EVs) remain an unfulfilled promise outside of Tesla Motors, their batteries and constituent materials are among the hottest mobility-industry technologies. As a recent report on NASDAQ.com affirmed, “Investors who seek to consider a new arena for investments in the future can look into the global automotive battery market.” Led by electrified vehicle production plans, that market is projected to leap from $49 billion in 2017 to more than $85 billion in 2025-a CAGR of 7.02%.

The race is on among lithium-battery Tier 1s to boost global cell-manufacturing capacity to align with their OEM projections for consumer EV demand in the 2025-2030 timeframe. The rise of the battery-cell ‘gigafactory’ is shaping the new-mobility discussion in every global region. Production-capacity leader LG Chem is building a 30 gigawatt-hour-capacity (GWh) plant in Ohio with partner General Motors. Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) expects to have its new 14-GWh battery factory in Germany online in 2022. China alone plans to add 564 GWh of cellmaking capacity by multiple manufacturers by 2028; more than 2 terrawatt-hours (TWh) of battery cell-making capacity would be needed to support global production of 40 million EVs, when that time comes, according to reports.