The growing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) throughout the automotive industry will force a significant shake-up in the lithium-ion battery industry in the coming years.
"Electrification of [the] automotive industry is a game-changer," Alex Iasnikov, lead chemist at Titan International, told delegates at the annual Minor Metals Trade Association (MMTA) conference last week in Montreal.Consumer electronics have stood as the preeminent demand sector for lithium-ion batteries, but growth in demand from the automotive industry has quickly narrowed the gap and should serve as a major source of overall demand growth for the battery industry in the years ahead."In spite of the fact that the [consumer electronics] industry was growing at a quite healthy [compound annual growth rate] of 8-10%... it's really the electrification of [the] automotive industry that is changing the whole picture," Iasnikov said.Current projections are for lithium-ion battery demand from the automotive industry to grow at an annual rate of 20-30% through 2024, according to data supplied by Albemarle."We can see that next year the sale of automotive batteries will be almost on...