Automakers, investors and government agencies are investing money in order to increase the number of emission-free electric vehicles. Since the car manufacturers like Ford Motor, General Motors and Volkswagen have made huge decisions to shift to an emission-free, electrified automotive future, one thing is certain: Companies will require tons of batteries.
Need for this crucial element will make it lower in amount, urging a global rush which has all high-end manufacturers, investors and startups involved. Everyone is prompted to make the technology and factories which will put out millions of electric vehicles. Want to check out used cars for sale in Dubai? Go visit the CarSwitch website.
Old times vs future expectations
Previously, batteries were considered to be one of the least important car tools. But since things are shifting dramatically, batteries will be the future of the automotive industry. Making cars has not considerably changed in the last 50 years, but the battery business is ready for boom. Technology is ever evolving and a supply of capital has the ability to create the next Henry Ford.
An energy research and consulting firm, Wood Mackenzie, estimated that electric vehicles will form 18% of the new car sales in 2030. This will definitely elevate the need for batteries by about 8 times as much as factories can presently create. This is a narrow estimate. A few analysts estimate sales to go even further.
Insight on different governments and automakers
Automakers are involved in a battle to achieve the chemical formula for producing the most energy at a minimum price and smallest package. Battery business is controlled by companies such as Panasonic, Tesla, SK Innovation, LG Chem and BYD China- almost all of them are in China, South Korea or Japan.
However, a lot of newcomers are joining the fun. Investors who are worrying about the profits are splurging money on startups which they claim to be near breakthroughs. The previous chief executive of Aston Martin and presently the vice president of InoBat Auto (battery startup), Andy Palmer said: “I think we’re in the infancy stage. There is more money than there are ideas.”
A Silicon Valley start-up, QuantumScape, which boasts Bill Gates and Volkswagen as it’s investors, is cooking up a technology which could make batteries more affordable, dependant and faster to recharge. However, it has no big sales. It might even fail to sell or make batteries. But even then, in the eyes of stock market investors, this company is more important than Renault.
European Union and China are giving government funds for battery innovation. China is investing the most because it is passionate about dominating electric vehicles. In answer to this, Chinese government assisted Contemporary Amperex Technology to become a huge battery supplier overnight.
The European Union is making its own battery production so that it does not end up relying on Asian or Chinese suppliers. Not long ago, the European Commission revealed that it will invest $3.5 billion USD to support battery production and research. A portion of this fund will go to Tesla as a prize for the company’s decision to make a factory alongside Berlin.
Numerous battery factories are preparing or in the construction phase in the US, such as a factory G.M is making with LG in Ohio. However, according to the analysts, government funds for EV and battery production will be important to have a booming business in the US.
A group manager in the Center for Integrated Mobility Sciences at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (a unit of the US Energy Department), Margaret Mann said: “There’s no secret that China strongly promotes manufacturing and new development. I am not pessimistic about the US ability to gain ground in battery production. But I don’t think all of the problems have been solved yet.”
Entrepreneurs belonging to this area said that this was the beginning and US companies can still overpower the Asian suppliers in the automotive industry. A chief executive of QuantumScape (located in San Jose, California), Jagdeep Singh, said:
“Today’s batteries are not competitive. Batteries have enormous potential and are critical for a renewable energy economy, but they have to get better.”
For the most part, all of the funds splurging in the battery innovation is great. It allows capitalism to focus on solving the universal issue of environmental degradation.
But this rearrangement of the automotive industry will have some victims. For example, the companies which make tools for internal combustion engines, or manufacturers and investors that pick the wrong technology.
