Lithium-ion batteries are a type of battery that uses lithium metal or lithium alloys as positive and negative electrode materials and a non-aqueous electrolyte solution. They are rechargeable batteries that primarily function by the movement of lithium ions between the positive and negative electrodes. They generally use materials containing lithium as electrodes and are representative of modern high-performance batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries are mainly classified into three categories according to their application fields: energy storage batteries, consumer batteries, and power lithium batteries.
Lithium-ion batteries are also classified into three types according to their packaging: square batteries, cylindrical batteries, and pouch batteries.
The upstream raw materials for lithium batteries mainly include nickel, cobalt, manganese, lithium ore, and graphite ore, which constitute positive and negative electrode materials, electrolytes, electrode substrates, separators, etc.; the midstream involves assembling positive and negative electrode materials, electrolytes, electrode substrates, and separators into battery cells for manufacturing and packaging; the downstream is the application field of lithium batteries.
After decades of development, the number of lithium battery manufacturers in my country has grown from just a few to over a hundred, achieving a breakthrough in quantity and making my country the world's largest producer and consumer of lithium batteries. Driven by both policy support and subsidies, my country's lithium battery industry has given rise to numerous globally competitive companies.
Data shows that my country's lithium battery production has been growing steadily from 2015 to 2020. In 2019, my country's lithium-ion battery production reached 15.722 billion units. In 2020, my country's lithium-ion battery production reached 18.85 billion units, a year-on-year increase of 14.4%.
Data shows that power lithium batteries are the main application area, accounting for 53.95% of shipments in 2019; energy storage lithium-ion batteries accounted for 3.8 GWh of shipments in 2019, accounting for 2.89% of lithium-ion shipments; and consumer (3C) lithium batteries accounted for 56.8 GWh of shipments, accounting for 43.16% of lithium-ion shipments.
Currently, demand in the consumer lithium battery sector is relatively saturated. Looking ahead, with the development of the global new energy industry, electric vehicles will gradually become a major demand sector for lithium batteries, making power lithium batteries the concentrated area of growth in the lithium battery industry.
