The Ronald Berger Strategy Consultants (RBSC) - as their name suggests, a consultancy firm - have released their updated study on the lithium-ion battery industry for the automotive world. The segment is expected to grow from its current value of $1.5 (€1.15) billion to almost $10 billion (€767 million) by the year 2015 and up to $50 (€38) billion by 2020.
The study focuses on passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and hybrid and electric city buses and it suggests that, by the year 2015, over 85% of the world sales for lithium-ion batteries will be for light commercial vehicles. RBSC is expecting 4-million hybrid, plug-in hybrid or electric vehicles to be produced worldwide by 2015.
There is also a positive aspect to this whole thing, namely the fact that at some point in the future, production will exceed demand and thus will bring the cost of batteries down considerably. They are expecting that by 2015, AESC, LG Chem, Panasonic/Sanyo, A123 Systems and SB LiMotive will ‘own’ 70% of the market. We’ll just have to wait and see whether these predictions are accurate or not, but hopefully, they are.
There is also a positive aspect to this whole thing, namely the fact that at some point in the future, production will exceed demand and thus will bring the cost of batteries down considerably. They are expecting that by 2015, AESC, LG Chem, Panasonic/Sanyo, A123 Systems and SB LiMotive will ‘own’ 70% of the market. We’ll just have to wait and see whether these predictions are accurate or not, but hopefully, they are.