Electric vehicle project to drive battery revenues to US$61billion by 2020

With lithium-ion batteries set to maintain market dominance during the remainder of the decade, the uptake of electric vehicles is projected to drive battery revenues to US$61billion by 2020. And electric vehicle batteries to account for 73 per cent of advanced battery market by end of decade.

According to GlobalData, the successful commercialization and increased adoption of Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) and Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) will spark dramatic growth in the global advanced battery market in the near future. The company’s latest report forecasts global advanced battery market revenue to surge from $19.9 billion in 2012 to a massive $60.5 billion by 2020, with batteries produced specifically for electric vehicles accounting for 73 per cent of the total.

Reduced carbon emissions and lower fuel consumption have driven impressive uptake of HEVs, such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight, in recent years, resulting in the electric vehicles battery sector expanding from a value of $3.6 billion in 2008 to $10.3 billion in 2012.

GlobalData’s new analysis states that technological advances aimed at increasing battery storage capacity and reducing unit weight, combined with the growing public acceptance of electric vehicles, is expected see the global market for advanced batteries for electric vehicles soar to $44.3 billion by the end of the decade.

As examined in GlobalData’s report, the advanced battery market comprises of nickel-based varieties, often employed in computer peripherals, medical imaging equipment and some HEVs, and Lithium-ion batteries, which are used in a variety of applications, including mobile electronics, large-scale power storage systems and most electric car batteries.

Due to the huge global demand for consumer electric products, GlobalData expects the lithium-ion sector to remain the more valuable portion of the advanced battery market for the foreseeable future, claiming 87 per cent of total revenue in 2020.