China’s largest battery maker Chaowei has admitted the domestic lead-acid E bike battery market has stopped growing and will only remain stable for the next five years.
While lead-acid remains the main choice for consumers because of cost, the market for E bike batteries as a whole will slow down simply because lithium-ion E bikes won’t factor either.
Speaking to BBB on the sidelines of the CIBF conference, the world’s largest battery show, Director of Chaowei’s New Materials Research Institute Dai Guiping said in China more people were simply switching from two wheels to four.
“People’s lives are changing. They want four wheels, not two,” said Dai. “I think the market will remain stable for three to five years, but there will be more and more demand for lithium-ion and more demand for cars.”
Last year, Chaowei’s total global and domestic battery sales amounted to 18.9 billion RMB ($290 million) with lithium-ion accounting for just 1% of that.
Dai said the company was confident in the domestic market, with overseas battery sales last year amounting to just $9.1 million.
“The Chinese market as a whole is strong, we will keep going,” he said. “Lead-acid is not growing, but we have new technologies and there is a very big future.”