There is an urgent need to decarbonize various industry sectors, including
transportation; however, this is difficult to achieve when relying solely on
today’s lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery technology. A lack of sufficient supply of
critical materials—including lithium, nickel, and cobalt—is a major driving
force behind research, development, and commercialization of new battery
chemistries that can support this energy transition. Many emerging chemistries
do not face the same supply, safety, and often durability challenges associated
with Li-ion technology, yet these solutions are still very immature and require
significant development effort to be commercialized.
Emerging Automotive Battery Chemistries: Hedging Market identifies
and evaluates various chemistries suitable for deployment in the automotive
industry and describes advantages, disadvantages, and development challenges for
each identified technology. Additionally, it outlines development timelines,
contending that, to benefit from these new technologies in a decade or so,
commercialization needs to begin today (e.g., de-risking critical material
supply chains, developing circular approaches). The report also proposes policy
interventions to enable developments of these new chemistries and to allow those
immature technologies to compete with well-established Li-ion batteries.
