The world wide battery market is now worth roughly fifty-five billion US dollars, of which roughly 6 billion dollars is allocated to rechargeable (secondary) batteries. The growth is estimated at five% annually through 2012. Indonesia, Pakistan, Ecuador, Germany and Japan will record some of the strongest market gains.
Presently the strongest growth area inside the battery sector is the automotive market, which is having strong double-digit growth. In the automotive space, HEVs are driving a tide in demand for lithium and other chemical technologies, while the core SLA battery market continues to sustain revenues and show steady growth due to after-market sales and the expanding global fleet of motor vehicles. Almost 50 percent of the current 13 billion dollar lead acid battery market is due to the replacement category. Despite recent increases in lead prices, the Sealed lead-acid battery market is likely to experience continued growth owing to its reliability, tough construction, low cost of maintenance, better performance compared with other technologies, and the inability to develop a commercially viable alternative technology that could replace SLA batteries in all these aspects.
Another fervent growth sub-category is the PC battery market which is expected to rise from one point five billion dollars in 2006 at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 8 percent.
The reality above are abundant grounds of just how hot the battery market is for venture capitalists at the moment, and what a vast return they expect if a battery technology breakthrough should occur. A revolution in this space might be akin to the holy-grail, due to dependency on batteries for portability.
