THE LITHIUM-ION SHAKEOUT

Assessment of Strategy and Execution for 10 Leading Lithium Ion Battery Vendors
1Q 2012 (Pike Research)

"Lithium ion batteries currently dominate the nascent market for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and are slowly becoming selected for use in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and stop-start vehicles (SSVs). As these vehicle segments grow to hundreds of thousands and then millions of vehicles sold per year, Li-ion production will enter volume production, lowering their cost and making the technology cost-competitive with alternative technologies such as Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries."

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"The Li-ion automotive market is currently led by Japanese and Korean companies that originally produced cells for the consumer electronics and computing markets. These veteran companies are being challenged by companies mostly from China and North America that are slowly gaining customers, mostly in their domestic markets. The Li-ion automotive market is entering a mature phase that will see some smaller companies fail or be acquired due to an inability to reach volume production. The market will likely see volatility during 2012 as some supplier agreements change hands…"