Chinese firms have been unveiling new lithium-ion cells with longer ranges, shorter charging times and more charging cycles in their lifespans, at a frequency unseen anywhere else in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But with the global demand for EV batteries projected to jump up to tenfold<\/a> by 2030, companies worldwide have been racing to develop next-generation technologies to seize future market shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The innovation rush is driven by various motivations, mainly to cut cost and avoid supply chain bottlenecks. But it could also benefit the environment and climate by reducing carbon emissions during the mining and production of certain minerals, according to a report<\/a> by consulting firm McKinsey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhoever wins the battery war will win it all,\u201d Chinese economist Ren Zeping said<\/a> in 2022. Ren noted that the technologies and performance of batteries is the \u201ccore\u201d of taking the EV sector forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Currently, commercial EVs use one of two main types of lithium battery \u2013 those that contain iron and phosphate, known as LFPs, and those that contain nickel, manganese and cobalt, known as NMCs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The primary distinction between them is that NMCs usually have a greater energy density while LFPs are safer, Liu Chenguang, an assistant professor at Xi\u2019an Jiaotong-Liverpool University specialising in battery materials, tells Dialogue Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Energy density typically measures how much energy a battery contains in proportion to its weight, and is a key performance metric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two types have an equal footing in the EV market globally, but in China, LFPs have become far more popular over the past few years because they are safer, according to Mao Shiyue, a researcher at the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) think-tank. They are also cheaper than NMCs given the high cost of cobalt and nickel, Mao tells Dialogue Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[LFPs] can be charged and discharged for more times, and they have a longer lifespan, too,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LFPs are also more environmentally friendly<\/a> than NMCs because cobalt and nickel are heavy metals that can be harmful to humans<\/a> and the environment<\/a>, particularly the aquatic environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mining operations can damage nature and local communities by eroding soil, disrupting habitats and diminishing biodiversity. EV and battery manufacturers have been put under increasing scrutiny due to such adverse impacts, particularly as countries like Indonesia<\/a> \u2013 the world\u2019s largest nickel producer \u2013 have lowered labour and environmental standards to boost their mining industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ingredients for the batteries of EVs \u2013 as well as for their bodies \u2013 are among the minerals with \u201cthe strongest links to deforestation\u201d, according to a new report<\/a> published by environmental NGOs Aidenvironment and Rainforest Foundation Norway. This makes the automotive industry the second most important driver of mining-related deforestation globally after construction, the report said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CATL\u2019s Shenxing Plus is an LFP battery. So is BYD\u2019s signature Blade Battery, which powers all the brand\u2019s EVs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lithium technologies are expected to advance quickly over the next few years. However, companies in China and beyond are frantically pursuing alternative batteries not centred around lithium, in part because the minerals needed to make the current options come from just a few countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These elements are often described as \u201ccritical raw materials<\/a>\u201d or \u201ctransitional minerals<\/a>\u201d, and they mostly include lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite. Their concentrated supply chains can lead to problems such as dramatic price swings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lithium: <\/strong>The largest lithium reserves<\/a> found so far are in Latin America (mainly Chile<\/a>, and some in Argentina<\/a>) and Australia. But Australia dominated the production side, putting out 52%<\/a> of the global supply in 2021, followed by Chile and China at 25% and 13%, respectively. In 2022, China held around three-quarters<\/a> of the world\u2019s lithium-refining capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cobalt: <\/strong>Around three-quarters<\/a> of the world\u2019s cobalt was produced by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2021, with Australia being a distant second with 3%. Cobalt\u2019s reserves are relatively more spread out<\/a>, with the DRC holding 48%, Australia owning 18% and Indonesia having 7%. China refined 67%<\/a> of the world\u2019s cobalt in 2020, followed by Finland and Japan, which accounted for 10% and 5%, respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nickel: <\/strong>Indonesia was the largest producer of nickel globally in 2023, with its reported share varying from 40.2%<\/a> to 55%<\/a> of the worldwide total. Australia ties with Indonesia as the most nickel-rich nations at 19.6%<\/a> of the global reserves, followed by Brazil (14.9%) and Russia (7%). Around 70%<\/a> of the world\u2019s nickel is refined in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manganese: <\/strong>South Africa tops the chart for manganese<\/a> reserves, boasting 32.1% of the global total. Ukraine and Brazil both have 17.3%, ranking joint second, followed by Australia, with 12.4%. The production landscape is more diverse. The mineral, which is also used in making steel and aluminium, is mined in more than 30 countries<\/a>, with South Africa, Australia and Brazil being among the major producers. China processes around 90%<\/a> of the battery-grade manganese sulphate used in EV batteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Graphite:<\/strong> Turkey, Brazil and China have the largest natural graphite reserves<\/a>, accounting for 27.3%, 22.4% and 15.8% of the global total respectively. China dominates global production of natural graphite at 65%<\/a>, followed distantly<\/a> by Madagascar, Mozambique and Brazil. China also makes up more than 75%<\/a> of the global production of synthetic graphite and more than 90% of the battery-grade graphite used to make anodes.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Cost control sits high among Chinese firms\u2019 reasons to seek alternatives. A battery typically carries 40%<\/a> of the price tag of an EV, and the ability to minimise production cost is critical for firms to survive the nation\u2019s brutal EV price wars<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Between June 2020 and November 2022, the prices for lithium carbonate, a key ingredient for lithium-ion batteries, soared nearly 14 fold, Phate Zhang, founder of Shanghai-based industry outlet CnEVPost, tells Dialogue Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat was when Chinese car and battery makers started to seriously look for alternative battery technologies that are not only cheap, but also suitable for mass production,\u201d he says. \u201cSodium-ion batteries are one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n These batteries use sodium, a highly abundant element that can be extracted from sea salt<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n CATL debuted its first-generation sodium-ion battery in 2021 amid those rapid price hikes. \u201cAfter that, quite a few Chinese companies also announced their plans to develop sodium-ion batteries,\u201d Zhang says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For western companies, however, it is their less developed supply chains for battery materials \u2013 such as mining and refining \u2013 that forces them to think outside the box.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By avoiding the use of so-called critical raw materials, companies can reduce \u201cgeological and geopolitical constraints\u201d, Maximilian Fichtner, an expert in energy-storage materials, tells Dialogue Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fichtner is executive director at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm, a battery research centre in Germany, and a professor in solid-state chemistry at the universities of Ulm in Germany and Swansea in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He stresses the importance of switching \u201cfrom less abundant and maybe toxic materials, coming sometimes from politically unsecure regions, to materials which can be obtained everywhere on Earth\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regulations, such as the European Union\u2019s Batteries Regulation<\/a>, are also pushing companies \u2013 Chinese or not \u2013 to reduce their cells\u2019 carbon footprint and pursue sustainable production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For one, a battery carries 40-60%<\/a> of the embedded greenhouse gas emissions in the production of an EV, according to estimates by McKinsey. A previous analysis projected<\/a> that producing enough cobalt to facilitate the global energy transition will lead to at least 4.7 million tons of CO2 emissions by 2030, equivalent to the total fossil fuel and industrial emissions of Albania<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cutting the demand for some \u201chigh risk\u201d minerals and battery chemistries will allow the industry to reduce its negative impacts on biodiversity and forests, Julia Naime, senior supply chain advisor at Rainforest Foundation Norway, tells Dialogue Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But she also warns that \u201ccaution is needed so that alternative battery chemistries do not create other adverse impacts on nature or people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other battery technologies are also being developed across the world, from magnesium-ion batteries<\/a> to zinc-air batteries<\/a>. Both magnesium and zinc are more abundant than lithium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sodium-ion batteries are likely to be the first to make headway because they are close to commercialisation and can achieve similar performance to LFP cells, according to a report<\/a> by the Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although sodium-ion batteries are cheaper and more sustainable, their \u201cmain bottleneck currently is the low energy density,\u201d Zhang says. Sodium-ion batteries support a shorter range than a lithium-ion battery of the same weight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The technology is therefore more likely to be used in low-speed and small EVs, as well as electric trikes and scooters. An industry insider told Dialogue Earth that it is also considered an ideal solution for the energy storage sector as companies look for safe, reliable and cost-effective methods to store renewable power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moreover, sodium-ion batteries deal effectively with cold temperatures, explains Cory Combs, associate director at Trivium China, a Beijing-based research group. \u201cIf you\u2019re looking at, say, the Scandinavian market or the Russian market, this might actually be a really good way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n From UK-based Faradion to the US\u2019s Natron Energy, global firms are racing to make a breakthrough in the potentially revolutionary sodium-iron battery technology. The huge interest could see the market balloon by nearly six times, from USD 860 million in 2022 to USD 4.8 billion in 2032, according to market analyst Precedence Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China is a strong player in this industry. Patents related to the technology filed by the country jumped 109 fold over the past decade, dwarfing Japan and the United States, according to analysis<\/a> by Nikkei Asia. It is also the first country to mass produce EVs powered by these new cells, with two models currently on offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One was launched<\/a> by battery manufacturer Farasis Energy and automaker JMEV, both based in Jiangxi. The other, Huaxianzi, was the brainchild of Jiangsu-based HiNa Battery and Yiwei, a subsidiary brand of the Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group. Both models rolled off the production line last December and the companies claimed they had a range of around 250 kilometres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BYD and CATL are also in the mix, with the former having started building a USD 1.4 billion<\/a> sodium-ion battery plant in Jiangsu and the latter reportedly<\/a> working on its second-generation sodium-ion cells. CATL has also said<\/a> that its sodium-ion batteries would be used in a model by Chinese automaker Chery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other contenders have also upped their game. Swedish start-up Northvolt announced<\/a> late last year that it had developed a \u201cstate-of-the-art\u201d sodium-ion battery for energy-storage systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Northvolt\u2019s chief executive and co-founder, Peter Carlsson, told the Financial Times<\/a> that the technology, which could be \u201cworth tens of billions of dollars\u201d, would open up markets for the company including the Middle East, Africa and India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another buzzword is \u201call-solid-state batteries\u201d. Also known simply as \u201csolid-state batteries\u201d, these replace the liquid or gel electrolytes in traditional lithium-ion batteries with solid electrolytes. Solid-state batteries could also charge faster and have lower carbon footprints than the current lithium-ion options, according to Scott Gorman, a senior research scientist at CPI, a technology innovation centre in the UK. The latter is down to the fact that they use fewer materials, Gorman wrote in a CPI blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But their high manufacturing costs could pose a roadblock. Solid electrolytes are harder<\/a> to design and more expensive to fabricate \u2013 factors that have restricted their mass production. The cost to produce solid-state batteries can be four to 25 times higher than that of conventional lithium-ion batteries, Nikkei Asia<\/a> reported, citing the Japan Science and Technology Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCompanies like Toyota, CATL, and China Aviation Lithium Battery (CALB) are heavily investing in this technology, working to overcome challenges related to manufacturing costs and temperature sensitivity,\u201d Yang tells Dialogue Earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The race to master solid-state battery technology is fully on, which could bring new dynamics to the future battery sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Governments and blocs around the world \u2013 from the United States to European Union \u2013 have included its development as official strategies, according to analysis by TrendForce<\/a>, a market intelligence firm. Beijing has instructed the country to \u201cfast-track the research, development and industrialisation\u201d of solid-state batteries in its strategy<\/a> for the new-energy vehicle industry from 2021 to 2035.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BMW plans to roll out its first \u201cdemonstrator\u201d vehicle featuring a solid-state battery before 2025<\/a> after partnering with US firm Solid Power for the technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n German firm PowerCo SE, a battery subsidiary of Volkswagen, said<\/a> in January that its tests had shown that a solid-state battery from its partner, California-based QuantumScape, maintained more than 95% of its original capacity after more than 1,000 charging cycles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Toyota last year said that it intended to halve the size, cost and weight of batteries for its EVs following a \u201cbreakthrough\u201d in solid-state batteries, the Financial Times<\/a> reported. The Japanese automaker, which is working on the technology through a joint venture<\/a> with Panasonic, plans to mass produce the cells as early as 2027<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n South Korea\u2019s Samsung SDI has set up a pilot line for solid-state batteries and is also eyeing mass-production in 2027<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China\u2019s CATL is similarly aiming to commercialise its solid-state battery in 2027, but only for small-scale production, the company\u2019s chief scientist, Wu Kai, said<\/a> at an industry forum in April. Large-scale production would continue to face problems such as high production costs, Wu noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Shanghai-based NIO is reported<\/a> to have developed a type of \u201csemi-solid-state\u201d battery pack that can travel 1,070 kilometres on a single charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China has also set up a dedicated fund of six billion yuan (USD 828 million) to fast-track the development of solid-state cells, an industry insider told Caixin<\/a>. A battery manufacturer must team up with an EV maker to apply for the fund, the publication said, citing the source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The period around 2028 is expected to be a \u201ctipping point\u201d for the cells\u2019 mass production, TrendForce predicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All-solid-state batteries could be a game changer for the battery sector. TrendForce<\/a> pointed to \u201ca significant gap\u201d in the \u201cpatent layout\u201d between Chinese companies and their international competitors for the technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn the future competition for [all-solid-state batteries], companies from Japan, South Korea, Europe and the US have the opportunity to surpass China and reshape the competitive landscape of the future EV battery industry,\u201d it wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Zhang thinks the race is too early to call because the technology is still being developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\nLFP vs NMC<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/2REKE5C_A-worker-at-a-nickel-mine-in-Indonesia_Hariandi-Hafid_Alamy.jpg\")
<\/div>Searching for new options<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sodium-ion: the star<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/div>China: A strong player<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
All-solid-state batteries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey offer higher energy densities, improved safety as they are less prone to catching fire, and potentially longer lifespans,\u201d says Yang Li, associate dean for research and impact at Xi\u2019an Jiaotong-Liverpool University\u2019s school of science.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFull on global race<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Two](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Toyota-president-Koji-Sato-at-a-press-conference_Yoshio-Tsunoda_Alamy_2T18M80.jpg\")
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