Already a subscriber?The future will be battery-powered, we are told. Silent electric cars will replace their gas-guzzling predecessors. Energy storage packs will power houses and offices, filled with the electricity generated by wind and solar. Eventually, electric ships and planes will help eliminate emissions altogether. The electrified economy will need terawatts of storage.
Earlier this month, SK On, the South Korean battery giant, declared that it was in a state of “emergency management” after continuing losses andamong the Western car makers that make up its biggest customers. The company has recorded 10 quarters of consecutive losses and delayed plans for a giant battery factory in Kentucky amid a sales slowdown.
“Too much production capacity was established in too short a space of time, encouraged by the rapid price gains in 2021 and 2022,” says Lusty. have pushed prices down dramatically, in some cases to $US50 per KWh – half the global average just a year ago. Bloomberg New Energy Finance has estimated that battery manufacturers will be able to produce five times the cells that the EV industry requires. Much of this extra capacity will go into other areas, such as home storage, but often, this requires different types of cells.While electric vehicles are flying off forecourts in China, in the rest of the world they remain a striking minority of the market. EVs accounted for 13.
Earlier this month, SK On, the South Korean battery giant, declared that it was in a state of “emergency management”.