EU Battery Industry

A 2020 study commissioned by EUROBAT to understand the ability of Europe’s battery ‎industry to cope with future demand linked to current and emerging battery ‎applications concluded that:

‎The EU represents around 17% of the global market with a turnover of €81 billion across ‎all battery technologies and applications. This will increase to 26% by 2030 with an EU ‎and global turnover of €35 billion and €135 billion respectively.‎

Li-ion and lead-based batteries will be the two mainstream technologies by 2030 and ‎both are needed to serve the anticipated increase in demand and applications.

The EU lead-based battery industry will maintain a strong position and be able to meet ‎projected growth, but will require ongoing investment in R&D and production ‎enhancement

If the current and scheduled giga plants come online effectively the European Li-ion battery industry will have the capacity to serve growing demand from 2023/24.

For automotive applications:

  • Across all levels of e-mobility, lead-based batteries will continue to be dominant in the 12V market – both for SLI (start, lighting, ignition) and auxiliary functionalities. By 2030, it is estimated that only 3% of new cars will be fitted with a lithium 12V battery.
  • For xEV traction batteries, lithium-based batteries will remain the exclusive chemistry.

For industrial batteries:

  • Lead batteries will still be dominant for UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) and Telecom applications in 2030.
  • Lithium-based batteries will be almost exclusively the preferred technology for Energy Storage Systems (ESS) by 2030.

For Motive Power applications, where today lead-based batteries still dominate, there will be a gradual shift to lithium-based by 2030.