Rosy Projections for Advanced Battery Makers

The axiom about supplying picks and shovels to miners as the pathway to financial success seems to be playing out for advanced battery makers as well...

According to The 2007 Advanced Automotive Battery Industry Report, global sales of hybrid vehicles, estimated at 384,000 vehicles in 2006, will reach 1.1 million units in 2010 and 2 million units by 2015. Sales are obviously contingent on a number of factors (continued high oil prices, HEV model availability, etc) but the need for capable batteries looks significant.

Currently, that means nickel metal hydride batteries, but that looks to change. The author of the report, battery expert Dr. Menahem Anderman, suspects that NiMH batteries will continue to capture a dominant part of the market for the immediate future, but that adoption of lithium ion batteries will row rapidly, moving from a projected 5% of market share in 2010 to 36% in 2015.

Dominant NiMH suppliers Panasonic and Sanyo are rapidly developing their lithium ion capability, but are being chased by advanced battery technology being supplied by new companies using nano-technology techniques like Altairnano, A123, and others.

As these new companies to capture the business of automakers (e.g. A123 with GM, and Altairnano with start up Phoenix Motorcars), we could be looking at a new chain of dominant suppliers.