German battery market grows by 17 pct in 2019

Source: Xinhua | 2020-06-24

The German battery market grew by 17 percent to 4.2 billion euros (4.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019, the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (ZVEI) announced on Tuesday.

Lithium-ion batteries had the largest market share at 1.6 billion euros and grew by 21 percent compared with the previous year, according to ZVEI. The total market for other battery systems, including zinc-air batteries and nickel-cadmium batteries, even grew by 40 percent to 1.7 billion euros.

"Market volumes show the importance of different battery systems for many applications," said Christian Eckert, managing director of batteries division at ZVEI. The German battery market "continued to grow significantly in 2019."

According to ZVEI, the growing demand for electrical energy storage systems in Germany had been driven by the transition to electro-mobility and the continuous expansion of renewable energies.

Lithium-ion batteries are a "key technology for the market ramp-up of electro-mobility" and are also used in mobile phones, hearing aids and power tools. According to ZVEI, the market volume for lithium-ion batteries had increased more than eight times between 2013 and 2019.

The market for lead-acid batteries which are used in traditional combustion cars, on the other hand, dropped to the level of 2013 due to the "weakness of the automotive industry," according to ZVEI.

The resulting weakness of the lead-acid battery market was only "temporary," said Eckert, adding that lead-acid batteries had "proven their worth" for other mass market applications such as the emergency power supply of medical equipment.