Li Based Battery Market to Top 100B by 2025

Li Based Battery Market Predictions

Forbes magazine predicts renewable energy might have a great impact on the world’s economy but “only if it can be cheaply and safely stored. Companies are in a race to crack the anode code”. As such, the market for Li-Chemistry based batteries is projected to top $100B by 2025 and companies are competing to produce the best products on the market. Batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) will constitute the lion’s share of the demand.   

Milestones that Need to be Met         

For EVs to replace combustion engine automobiles a few milestones need to be reached very soon:

1. Battery costs of < = $100 per kWh
2. Battery packs that allow 300 miles per charge
3. Charge time of <= 10 minutes to ~ 90% of battery capacity
4. No possibility of fires
5. Battery pack useful life of > 1,000 charge cycles.

More than 98% of all EV batteries made today are Li-Ion Batteries (LIB). These have a liquid electrolyte. Only a couple of companies claim to have achieved a charge density of > = 400 Wh/Kg with LIBs or hybrid LIBs which will allow the production of typical midsized sedans with a range of ~ 300 miles per charge.  However, the cost of these batteries is $170 per kWh. Charge times for these batteries are also significantly longer than 10 minutes.  In addition, these batteries could catch on fire under some circumstances. Adding fire safety components to the batteries add unnecessary cost and weight. To address issues 1-5 above researchers in the battery space have turned to Solid-State Li Batteries (SSBs). The use of solid electrolytes as well as Li instead of carbon for the anode allows faster charging times.  It also eliminates the possibility of fires and increases the useful life of batteries to 1,000 cycles and beyond. These batteries are also smaller and lighter, meaning manufacturers can place more of them in an automobile than LIBs. The charge densities of SSBs are currently less than target at this time. A lot of research is currently underway to increase this closer to the target, very soon.

How We Can Help

At PTC we are proud that our equipment installed in labs, startup companies and facilities of large multi-national corporations working on making Solid-State Li Batteries more efficient is being used for this purpose.   Please Contact PTC if you are looking for a partner to design and develop customized solutions for the production of your SSB components or fabrication of SSB cells. Source for The energy density of lithium metal battery chart cited above: Paul Albertus/Nature Energy