Transitioning to fossil fuel-free mobility and transport will triple the world’s demand for electric vehicle (EV) battery requirements in five years, a study by Juniper Research has found.
While current shipments are at 10 million per annum, the UK market data analyst and forecaster predicts that by 2027, 30m EV battery units per year will have to be shipped to answer the global call for fuel-free motoring.
According to Juniper, “the research identified falling vehicle costs, often directly caused by government subsidies, and increasing awareness around the environmental impact of current mobility services as key drivers behind the growth in electric vehicle battery production”.
The research furthermore predicts that this growth will be strongest within the commercial segment, with commercial electric vehicle battery pack shipments growing from 1.4m in 2022 to over 7m by 2027.
“Mass electrification of fleet vehicles is required for meeting corporate decarbonisation goals and will drive investment into electric vehicles from enterprises.
“In turn, this provides an opportunity for manufacturers to develop batteries designed for energy-intensive commercial use cases.”
Research co-author Damla Sat explained: “Developing longer-range vehicles by leveraging higher capacity battery packs will be critical to meeting expectations that foster commercial vehicle electrification, but will require extensive investment to develop new battery pack technologies.”
As for transport, Juniper found that EV utilisation would be adopted across commercial use cases, including heavy goods haulage and passenger transport.
“Scaling the production of new battery technologies is essential. This includes solid-state batteries and new chemical mixes.
“The most pressing issue for EV adoption is the rare earth minerals required in battery production, including cobalt, which is difficult to source in terms of both cost and the ethics around procurement.
“Accordingly, the research recommends that manufacturers must rapidly move to new, higher-capacity technologies, including solid-state batteries, to unlock energy-intensive-use cases.
