The Battery Industry is Booming

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“Battery IP activity is booming along with the industry,” comments Dr. Fleur Thissandier, technology & IP analyst at Knowmade. Therefore, worldwide demand for energy storage devices has been booming since the 2000s, leading to a very dynamic battery market. The number of battery applications is diversifying and growing to span portable consumer devices, electronic devices, electric vehicles and smart grids.

Knowmade and Yole Développement (Yole), both part of Yole Group of Companies, investigate the battery industry via two complementary approaches (market and patent analysis) to reveal the latest market issues, technical challenges, solutions and trends, companies’ strategies and identify the related key IP. Both companies propose today a wide collection of technology, market and IP reports focused on industry evolution and technology trends.

The battery industry combines major markets with an increasing and diversifying number of innovations and involved companies. What is the status of the IP ecosystem? Is Li-ion batteries still dominating this industry? What is the status of battery pack market? Knowmade and Yole offer you today a snapshot of the battery sector.

Under this booming ecosystem with new entrants and numerous moves all along the supply chain, a lot of technologies and products have been developed to answer to the requirement of the modern society and its battery-related applications.

Amongst the numerous existing technologies, Li-ion batteries have become the technology of choice for many applications. The rechargeable Li-ion battery cell market will be worth US$59.1 billion by 2022. Consumer electronics, the traditional Li-ion battery market segment, has been overtaken by electric mobility, a market segment that will represent 72% of the total rechargeable Li-ion battery cell market’s value in 2022. And according to Yole’s analysis, Status of the Rechargeable Li-ion Battery Industry, the global demand for battery cells in GWh will rise by more than 400% between 2016 and 2022. “To satisfy such huge demand for Li-ion batteries, large manufacturing facilities have to be built in coming years,” explains Dr. Milan Rosina, Senior Technology & Market Analyst at Yole. “This provides an opportunity for new players, which can take part in a growing market more easily. This will also result in accelerated implementation of innovations at different levels of the supply chain, in materials, equipment and processes.”

In parallel, the battery pack market segment is also attractive. Yole announces in its Li-ion Battery Packs for Automotive and Stationary Storage Applications report an annual market value of US$87.3 billion by 2023 with 27.6% CAGR between 2017 and 2023.

Battery pack is the key element of large-size battery-based systems such as full electric as BEV/PHEV , electric buses and trucks, and stationary battery energy storage systems. The second largest part of the battery pack market is represented by Battery Management Systems (BMS).

“The differentiation is needed, especially in the e-mobility business,” explains Dr Milan Rosina in this new report. Battery pack makers can increase differentiating added value by carefully designing the battery pack, and choosing components including the BMS, thermal management solutions, safety devices, electrical interconnects, housing and assembly. Therefore, the main trends involve existing technology solutions, which will be further improved and more widely deployed. Technology and cost improvement are from their side, steady. The big changes, such as the transition to 800V battery pack voltage for BEVs, will be realized first by a limited number of car manufacturers and then progressively implemented by other companies.

Dr. Rosina reveals his vision in a battery pack article on i-micronews.com: “How will the Li-ion battery pack market reach $87.3 billion by 2023?”

A lot of R&D effort is currently focused on the development of new Li-ion battery cell materials (electrodes, electrolytes, separators, etc.) as well as on future alternatives to Li-ion technologies, resulting in intensive patenting activity, with a substantial increase in recent years. More than 300,000 patent families related to batteries have been published worldwide since the early 1990s, announces Knowmade in its report, “Status of the Battery Patents.” In 2017, more than 30,400 new patent families were published, over 30,900 patents were granted, and over 6,400 patents expired. “It is a critical time to understand the global competitive environment of batteries from a patent perspective,” comments Dr Fleur Thissandier. “Therefore in-depth patent analyses of key technologies and players can help anticipate changes, quickly detect business opportunities, identify emerging research areas and cutting-edge technology developments, mitigate risks and make strategic decisions to strengthen one’s market position and maximize return on one’s IP portfolio.”

Under its IP report, Knowmade’s analysts reveal the main 2017 trends for battery-related intellectual property (IP). They show an overview of the recent patenting activity (new patent applications, granted patents, expired patents), the main patent applicants, the major patent litigations, and the hot technological topics of the year, for each supply chain segment (electrolyte, separator, electrode, cell, pack/system) and each battery technology (Li-ion, Ni-MH, redox flow, Li-Air, Li-S, Na-ion and Mg-ion batteries). The report includes a special focus on the most interesting patents of the year. patents expired. “It is a critical time to understand the global competitive environment of batteries from a patent perspective,” comments Dr Fleur Thissandier. “Therefore in-depth patent analyses of key technologies and players can help anticipate changes, quickly detect business opportunities, identify emerging research areas and cutting-edge technology developments, mitigate risks and make strategic decisions to strengthen one’s market position and maximize return on one’s IP portfolio.”

Under its IP report, Knowmade’s analysts reveal the main 2017 trends for battery-related intellectual property (IP). They show an overview of the recent patenting activity (new patent applications, granted patents, expired patents), the main patent applicants, the major patent litigations, and the hot technological topics of the year, for each supply chain segment (electrolyte, separator, electrode, cell, pack/system) and each battery technology (Li-ion, Ni-MH, redox flow, Li-Air, Li-S, Na-ion and Mg-ion batteries). The report includes a special focus on the most interesting patents of the year.