2015: Battery demand 62 percent behind supplies

By Hybrid Cars on 03/01/2010 – 2:58 pm PST -- Transportation

If America is going to compete in the battery-powered revolution, we have to build more battery-powered cars, especially cost-effective ones like conventional hybrid cars. Moreover, we might have to electrify the entire federal fleet. Only way to save the US battery industry?

By 2015, the supply of lithium-ion batteries will outweigh demand by about 62 percent according to Mary Ann Wright, manager of advanced auto batteries for Johnson Controls.

Similarly, last week, analysis showed that this over-capacity would force about 60 battery makers worldwide to consolidate into just 6 or 8 manufacturers. More important, the winners will be determined by revenues.

Based on US manufacturing plans, how can US automakers and battery manufacturers compete in the world’s ever-important battery market place without a serious increase in the output of battery-powered vehicles? Isn’t that the only way to game-winning, or at least competing, revenues?

Electrify every federal fleet, suggests Mrs. Wright. Good idea. How about also making more cost-effective battery-powered vehicles. For instance, if Toyota can sell 1/2 a million hybrid cars per year, why can Ford only sell 30,000?