subject: Advanced Storage Battery Market: From Hybrid/electric Vehicles To Cell Phones-aarkstore Enterprise [print this page] Whether it is a battery for the latest laptop, energy storage for a hybrid electric vehicle, or backup power for a remote telecommunications site, everyone wants a battery that has the highest energy density, best safety factor, and longest life in term of discharge cycles and ease of maintenance while still being environmentally friendly. These are the drivers behind rechargeable battery research around the world today. Rechargeable batteries, also known as storage batteries, are a continuing strong market, with worldwide sales of $36 billion in 2008. The rechargeable battery market will rise to $51 billion by 2013.
Lithium-ion is the battery chemistry of choice for future generations of portable electronics and hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. In 2008, lithium-ion battery research had more funding than all other battery technologies combined. Nanotechnology and chemistry advances in electrode design are the key research topics that companies are using to push lithium-ion to be the dominant energy storage technology in the future.
The portable rechargeable battery market, of which lithium-ion has a 75% share, is the fastest growing segment of the rechargeable battery market, showing world market growth of 20% in 2008. Nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) batteries, still important for power tools and back-up systems, will decline rapidly in market share by 2013 due to stricter environmental controls on cadmium. And Ni-MH will see its market share slowly erode due to increasing lithium-ion market share and new silver-zinc and nickel-zinc rechargeable battery chemistries that are coming to market.
