A senior Beijing official has warned that China’s lithium-ion battery industry is about to enter a period of chaos in echoes of what happened in the lead-acid industry.
Serious local protectionism, an immature domestic EV market and a lack of uniform standards across the board will present signficant challenges to the industry’s progression, said Lin Cheng, at Beijing’s Institute of Technology.
Lin says China’s current EV industry is facing three issues: competing with traditional fuel vehicles which have a much higher mileage before refuelling; the high cost of the batteries; and the increasing number of small, scattered and unregulated companies jumping on the lithium bandwagon.
“Most enterprises have forecast battery shortages because technology, production, testing and other fields are not in place,” said Lin, who is the deputy director of the institute’s EV National Laboratory.
“We foresee that the next ten years will see a significant expansion in the battery business, and industries will face large reshuffles as industry consolidation becomes the new norm.”
China’s lead-acid industry was brought up short when the government stepped in to eliminate 90% of smaller, unregulated factories.
Lin’s comments were published on the industry web portal OfWeek.
