The world wide battery market is now worth about fifty billion US dollars, of which roughly five point five billion dollars is allocated to rechargeable (secondary) batteries. The growth is estimated at 5 percent annually through 2009. Australia, Pakistan, Brazil, Germany and Japan will record some of the most robust market gains.



Currently the strongest growth area within the battery sector is the automotive market, which is having sound double-digit development. In the automotive space, HEVs are driving a surge in demand for lithium and other chemical technologies, while the core SLA battery market continues to underpin earnings and show robust growth due to after-market sales and the expanding worldwide fleet of motor cars. Almost fifty% of the current 15 billion dollar lead acid battery market is due to the replacement category. Despite recent rises in lead prices, the SLA battery market is likely to see continued growth owing to its reliability, rugged construction, low cost of maintenance, better performance compared with other technologies, and the inability to develop a commercially viable alternative technology that could replace Sealed lead-acid batteries in all these aspects.

Another raging growth sub-category is the portable computer battery market which is expected to increase from 1.5 billion in 2006 at a CAGR of approximately nine%.

The reality above are copious proof of just how hot the battery market is for venture capitalists at present, and what a vast return they expect if a battery technology find should occur. A revolution in this space might be akin to the holy-grail, due to dependance on batteries for portability.

Of the many chemical technologies, the Lithium rechargeable battery market is projected to be USnine billion dollars in 2015. Of this growth, the Lithium rechargeable battery market for HEVs is envisaged to rise from virtually zero in 2004 to roughly US one billion dollars in 2015 ? the equivalent of a 50% year-over-year CAGR. The overall market for Lithium batteries is increasing much faster in terms of production, but as a result of device cost decreases due to better efficiencies in the manufacturing processes and increases in production volumes, aggregate revenue growth is not forecast to speed up so quickly.

The storage battery market is extremely rivalrous and hence vast sums are invested on R-and-D each year. New chemical technologies,coupled with advancements in old technologies leads industry pundits to predict improvements in battery capacity (for equivalent size and weight) of 3 to 4 times over the next four years. This approximate doubling of capacity every 2 and a half years is analogous to moores law in the computer sector which sees memory power doubling every 18 months.

In terms of disposable batteries, on average a consumer purchases these types of batteries four times a year. Disposable batteries are estimated to have the largest margins per square foot in most retail stores, and they are often an distress buy by the consumer. These types of batteries are sold in more retail establishments than any other products, period. This is obviously due to the huge array of devices that are reliant on batteries ? Many pundits consider battery sales as virtually recession proof.

From an environmental position, expendable batteries are obviously problematic, due to their very nature. The worlds landfills are full of the often toxic byproducts of the disposable battery boom. In light of this the European Union has come up and put in place legislation called the European Directive on Batteries, which has finally been agreed to and will come into force in 2010, introducing recycling to the market. It is hoped that the United States and other notable countries will follow this development closely and introduce their own environmental bills.