Global Lithium Battery Market Status and Application Development

01 Research Background

With the development of the world, a large amount of natural energy has been developed and utilized by people, leading to the phenomenon of energy crisis in the world. 

Therefore, the research on new energy sources is of great significance. 

As a new generation of clean energy, lithium batteries can not only avoid environmental pollution, but also facilitate people's lives and work.

In response to the current market development status of lithium batteries worldwide, this article analyzes the development trends of lithium batteries at home and abroad,

 and discovers the shortcomings of domestic lithium battery development. This can promote the development of domestic lithium batteries to a certain extent.

02 Overview of lithium batteries

Lithium battery refers to a battery composed of a non electrolyte solution and lithium metal or lithium alloy.

Lithium batteries can be divided into two types: lithium metal batteries and lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium batteries are mainly composed of four parts: positive electrode, negative electrode, electrolyte, and separator. 

The positive electrode of lithium metal batteries is mainly manganese dioxide and the negative electrode is lithium metal,

 while the positive electrode of lithium-ion batteries is lithium metal oxide and the negative electrode is graphite.

Compared to traditional batteries, lithium batteries have certain advantages:

Firstly, lithium batteries store more than six times the energy of regular batteries and have a lifespan of nearly six years or more.

Secondly, lithium batteries do not contain heavy metals, do not pollute the environment, and do not require water as a raw material during production.

Finally, lithium batteries are particularly lightweight and can adapt to high and low temperature environments.

This has made it more convenient for people to use lithium batteries to a certain extent. However, lithium batteries also have certain shortcomings in their development:

Firstly, lithium primary batteries may pose a risk of explosion during use, which affects people's safety.

Secondly, during the charging and discharging process of lithium batteries, their circuits must be protected.

Thirdly, lithium batteries have certain limitations in production and use, resulting in high costs.

03 Development Status of Global Lithium Battery Market

Part.1 cathode material 

At present, the positive electrode materials for lithium batteries worldwide mainly include lithium metal oxides such as lithium manganese oxide, 

lithium cobalt oxide, ternary materials, and lithium iron phosphate. 

The positive electrode material of lithium batteries used in daily products such as mobile phones and tablets is mainly lithium cobalt oxide.

 The positive electrode materials of lithium batteries for electric vehicles are mainly potassium permanganate and ternary materials, while the safer one is lithium iron phosphate.

In recent years, the rapidly developing positive electrode materials are mainly ternary materials.

 In the world, Japan, South Korea, and Europe have the majority of companies producing positive electrode materials. 

The enterprises producing positive electrode materials for lithium batteries in our country are also developing slowly. 

The world's largest lithium battery cathode material company is Umicore from Belgium, which has nearly one-third of the global market. 

China's lithium battery positive electrode material enterprises are mainly concentrated in Shenzhen, Xiamen and other places.

Part.2Negative electrode material

The development of lithium battery negative electrode materials worldwide has become very mature.

 Therefore, lithium battery negative electrode materials have not received much attention from enterprises in various countries. 

The negative electrode material of lithium batteries is mainly graphite. Graphite is mainly divided into natural graphite and artificial graphite.

Among them, the price of artificial graphite is relatively higher than that of natural graphite.

Although lithium battery negative electrode materials have not received much attention globally. 

However, the demand for lithium battery negative electrode materials continues to grow.

Part.3electrolyte

Lithium battery electrolytes are mainly divided into three types: liquid, gelled and solid electrolytes.

Currently, liquid electrolytes dominate the market for lithium battery electrolytes. 

he composition of liquid electrolytes mainly consists of organic solvents, solutes, and functional additives.

At present, electrolyte companies around the world are mainly researching the composition of additives and have their own additive technologies.

 However, both liquid electrolyte and gelled electrolyte have safety risks.

 Therefore, a large number of electrolyte companies around the world are constantly researching solid-state electrolytes.

Part.4the diaphragm

Lithium battery separators mainly include three types: PP/PE/PP three-layer composite film, single-layer PE separator, and single-layer PP separator.

 Although PP/PE/PP three-layer composite film has a lower cost and does not cause environmental pollution, the production process is more complex and difficult to meet the requirements of ultra-thin.

Single layer PE membrane can meet the requirement of ultra-thin, but its cost is particularly high. 

The cost of single-layer PP membrane is not high, but it will quickly heat up in case of short circuit.

In addition, membranes are mainly manufactured through dry and wet methods.

 The dry process is relatively simple and can produce single-layer and composite films, while the wet process can only be applied to single-layer films.

Therefore, most companies worldwide will extensively use dry process membranes for manufacturing.

04 Global Application of Lithium Batteries

Part.1 3C Domain Aspect

The 3C field mainly refers to the fields of electronic products, communication, and computers. 

In recent years, lithium batteries have been widely used in mobile phones, tablets, and laptops.

 According to different market demands, the proportion of different forms of batteries in the market also varies.

Currently, lithium battery companies from China, South Korea, and Japan dominate the 3C industry.

 The global lithium battery companies mainly include ZTE, Apple, Sony, Samsung, Panasonic, etc.

Part 2: In terms of the electric vehicle market

Traditional electric vehicles have a long development time due to their high economic efficiency. 

However, several electric vehicle traffic accidents that have occurred globally have hindered the development of the traditional electric vehicle market. 

Due to the much higher energy storage capacity of lithium batteries compared to traditional batteries, they have good development potential.

Therefore, the application of lithium batteries in electric vehicles has received great attention.

 Due to the widespread use of lithium batteries in electric vehicles, the production cost of lithium batteries has been reduced. 

However, the application of lithium batteries in electric vehicles has not developed as expected.

Part 3 Energy Storage Market

For the application of lithium batteries in the energy storage market, most countries' enterprises are still in the initial stage of demonstration.

The application cost of lithium batteries in the energy storage market is relatively high, and research and development can only continue with government funding.

In response to the application of lithium batteries in the energy storage market,

 it is difficult for lithium batteries to have rapid development in the energy storage market for a period of time. 

Therefore, cost issues have become a barrier to the application of lithium batteries in the energy storage market.

05 Development Trends of Lithium Batteries Abroad

In the development of lithium batteries abroad, Sony has mainly applied high-capacity lithium polymer batteries and used the latest high-capacity lithium polymer batteries in laptops. 

In the energy storage market, Sony Corporation has independently developed power storage devices.

In the future development trend, Sony will mainly focus on flexible packaging battery technology.

Samsung's future development will mainly focus on continuous creation. In IT batteries, Samsung mainly uses square and flexible packaging batteries.

In terms of electric vehicles, Samsung has production bases in multiple countries such as the United States, China, and South Korea.

LG achieves economic benefits by reducing its products. In terms of electric vehicles, LG has conducted research on the layout of electric vehicles and actively developed new technologies,

 resulting in its market share of electric vehicles reaching a quarter. In addition, LG has developed household energy storage devices in the energy storage market, 

reflecting its enthusiasm in the research and development process.

06 Overall Development of Domestic Lithium Batteries

Due to the impact of the global economy, the development of lithium batteries in China has been slow. China's lithium batteries have made great progress in the 3C field. 

However, in the field of electric vehicles, the development speed of lithium batteries is slow and cannot achieve the expected development speed. 

This has led to the bankruptcy of most enterprises in this field in our country. At present, the revenue from lithium batteries abroad is about ten times that of China. 

This requires our country to gradually recognize the current development trend, possess certain strength, and improve the development speed of lithium batteries in our country.

07 Conclusion

In summary, with the development of technology, lithium batteries have been widely used by people worldwide. 

At present, the materials that make up the positive electrode, negative electrode, electrolyte, and separator of lithium batteries have made great progress worldwide. 

Various materials directly affect the development status of lithium batteries.

Regarding the application of lithium batteries in the 3C, electric vehicle, and energy storage markets,

 the author analyzed the development trends of lithium batteries at home and abroad, and found that the development of lithium batteries in China lags far behind that of developed countries abroad. 

Therefore, China should clarify the market situation and development environment of domestic lithium batteries, 

redefine development goals, and improve the development of lithium battery enterprises in China.