e-mobility: The New Eldorado for Li-ion batteries

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e-mobility has become the new Eldorado of the Li-ion batteries. Including EV/HEV , electric buses, trucks, and bikes, e-mobility overtakes consumer electronics market segment to represent 72% of the total rechargeable Li-ion battery cell market’s value in 2022. Yole Développement (Yole) announces a US$59.1 billion total market in 2022, thanks to a 20% CAGR from 2016 to 2022.

The “More than Moore” market research and strategy consulting company, Yole and its sister company KnowMade, both part of Yole Group of Companies release two technology, market and patent analyses focused on the Li-ion batteries industry. The technology & market report titled “Status of the Rechargeable Li-Ion Battery Industry” proposes a comprehensive overview of the Li-ion battery sector covering three main applications: consumer electronics, e-mobility and stationary energy storage. Supply chain ranging from raw material to cell components including manufacturing and testing equipment, market positioning, market evolution and more are part of this report.

In parallel, KnowMade proposes a complementary report focused on NMC Lithium-ion batteries, one of the most booming technology in li-ion battery market. KnowMade’s experts analyze the global NMC Lithium-ion batteries supply chain from a patent point of view. The technology intelligence and IP strategy-consulting company invites you to discover the main IP trends, the main patent applicants and the relative strength of their IP portfolios by supply chain segments and a comparison between their IP and market position. Li-ion batteries have become the technology of choice for many applications: initially developed for consumer electronics, Li-ion batteries technology progressively penetrates the e-mobility market segment, with impressive promises. Yole and KnowMade invite you to discover this new Eldorado…

“The global demand for battery cells in GWh will rise by more than 400% between 2016 and 2022”, confirms Dr Milan Rosina, Senior Analyst, Energy Conversion & Emerging Materials at Yole. “Large manufacturing facilities will be built in coming years to satisfy such huge demand for Li-ion batteries,” he adds.

This growing demand is a real market opening and facilitates the entrance of new players. Therefore, Yole’s analysts identify numerous business opportunities within the Li-ion supply chain, from raw material mining to material preparation including cell component production, cell manufacturing, integration of battery cells into battery packs and final battery systems. This trend also facilitates the implementation of lot of innovations focused on materials, equipment and processes. “The Li-ion industry might therefore experience accelerated technology consolidation and supply chain reshaping,” comments Dr Rosina.

The most critical materials used in the Li-ion battery industry are cobalt, lithium and graphite. From consumer electronic to e-mobility applications, technical requirements are different.

One example is in the cathode material. LiCoO2 (LCO) is mainly used in consumer electronics and was the dominant Li-ion cell cathode material in the past. Today, the largest cathode material segment is NMC , which better matches with the huge EV/HEV market needs, as well as other main applications.
The multiple license agreements and the recent patent war between BASF/University of Chicago (Argonne) and Umicore confirm maturity of the NMC market. Therefore, more and more material suppliers and cell makers today focus their activities on NMC technology.

“The number of mergers and acquisitions, patent litigations and license agreements should increase due to the growing number of companies operating in NMC materials, especially Chinese companies”, announces Nicolas Baron, CEO & Founder at KnowMade.

Other figures and analyses of the strategy of leading companies detailed in KnowMade’s patent landscape report confirm also the trend. For example, the number of enforceable patents is increasing worldwide, and several companies already stand out thanks to their strong IP position.

“It is a critical time to understand the global competitive environment of NMC lithium-ion batteries from a patent perspective”, comments Dr Fleur Thissandier, Patent Analyst at KnowMade. “Therefore in-depth patent analyses of key technologies and players can help anticipate changes, detect business opportunities, mitigate risks and make strategic decisions to strengthen one’s market position and maximize return on one’s IP portfolio.”