Despite recent safety issues, the lithium-ion battery market is expected to be worth more than $22 billion by 2016…

Frost & Sullivan suggests that lithium-ion safety incidents may only affect demand in the short term, with long-term growth of the technology set to rise dramatically in the next few years. Fastest market growth is expected to be seen in the industrial sector, with the highest industrial growth in battery demand to come from the Asia-Pacific region. Currently, Europe holds the highest revenues for industrial lithium-ion batteries, despite China, Japan and South Korea accounting for around 85-90% of global industrial lithium-ion battery production.

China is set to grow dramatically in the lithium-ion battery market in the near future. Already boasting the highest concentration of lithium-ion battery manufacturers, the Chinese Government’s encouragement of electric vehicle adoption, grid scale energy storage and smart grid technology are all set to boost the country’s place in the market further. Frost & Sullivan also points to the acquisition of bankrupt US battery production companies by Chinese firms as a reason to expect China to become a strong manufacturing leader.

Likewise, for this reason, as well as the less-than-expected adoption of electric vehicles, the strength of the USA in the lithium-ion battery market is set to decrease, although manufacturers who previously focused on these areas are now starting to re-evaluate their strategies and move toward production for industrial uses instead.

In Europe, Germany and Switzerland are highlighted as strong contributors to the energy storage and battery R&D market, with demand from consumer, industrial and automotive segments.

Frost & Sullivan also points to the potential growth of the consumer segment in Latin America, China and India, where this part of the market is yet to develop to maturity.

Source: http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/press-release.pag?docid=274194514