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The Batteries: a comprehensive Inovev study to understand the development of xEVs (Elecrified vehicles) technologies and plan its actions accordingly.
For more information on this study click here.
Actually, the « battery » of a vehicle is not a correct word. An electric car is equipped with a battery pack, often containing battery modules, each one containing battery cells. The battery cells are very similar to the commercial battery cells. There are different form of battery cells: pouch, prismatic, cylindrical, ...
The battery cell is a roll/pile of different foils bathing into a liquid (electrolyte). The most important foils are the cathode, the anode, and the separator.
The anode is universally in graphite.
There are different coexisting technologies for the cathode, which is always in metal. There is NMC cathodes (Nickel, Manganese, Cobalt), LFP (Iron, Phosphate) and NCA (Nickel, Cobalt, Aluminum). In Europe, the majority of the used battery cells are NMC.
The majority of battery packs are assembled by the car makers.
The critical market is battery cells’. Battery cells are sourced from specialized companies. Currently, the battery cells manufacturers settled in Europe are Asian, from Korea (LG Chem, SK Innovation, Samsung SDI), or Japanese (AESC). European car makers uses mainly battery cells produced in Europe by Asian Companies, but some import Chinese cells from CATL.
A boom of the battery cell market can be expected in the next years. The installed battery cell capacity will increase in the same time.
Some car maker have already known battery cell supply issues. That is why the car makers will try be less dependent on the Asian cell companies. Some will try to diversify their suppliers, while others will try to have more control on the battery supply chain. For example, Volkswagen made a joint-venture with Northvolt (a Swedish start-up) to produce its own battery cells, while PSA made a joint-venture with Saft.
The present report analyses the xEVs’ batteries, in terms of technologies and markets.
Technologies and markets are closely linked, as improvement in technologies will favour the BEVs’ market, and development of BEVs will bring a scale effect favourable to the development of less expensive batteries. A focus will be adjusted on the batteries for BEVs, which represent 93% of the market in term of energy needed.
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