These include tripling global renewable energy capacity, doubling the pace of energy efficiency improvements and transitioning away from fossil fuels. This special report brings together the latest data and information on batteries from around the world, including recent market developments and technological advances.
Despite the continuing use of lithium-ion batteries in billions of personal devices in the world, the energy sector now accounts for over 90% of annual lithium-ion battery demand. This is up from 50% for the energy sector in 2016, when the total lithium-ion battery market was 10-times smaller.
Lithium-ion batteries dominate both EV and storage applications, and chemistries can be adapted to mineral availability and price, demonstrated by the market share for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries rising to 40% of EV sales and 80% of new battery storage in 2023.
For lithium-ion battery cells, which are currently the state of the art in electric vehicles, it reached 44 GWh in 202051, approximately 70 GWh in 2022 and could rise up to 520 GWh by 202552.
It is also expected that demand for lithium-ion batteries will increase up to tenfold by 2030, according to the US Department for Energy, so manufacturers are constantly building battery plants to keep up. Lithium mining can be controversial as it can take several years to develop and has a considerable impact on the environment.
Pushed by increasingly stringent CO2 emission performance standards, production capacity of lithium-ion battery cells is developing rapidly within the EU-27 and could rise from 44 gigawatt hours in 2020 to approximately 1 200 by 2030.