The global battery market is worth roughly fifty billion US dollars, of which roughly six billion dollars is allocated to rechargeable (secondary) batteries. The growth is estimated at five percent annually through 2011. Australia, India, The United States, Italy and South Korea will record some of the most robust market gains.



Currently the most powerful growth area within the battery sector is the automotive market, which is going through secure double-digit growth. 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 support earnings and show steady growth due to after-market sales and the expanding global fleet of motor vehicles. Almost 45 percent of the current fourteen billion dollar lead acid battery market is due to the replacement category. Despite recent increases in the price of lead, the Sealed lead-acid battery market is likely to see significant growth owing to its reliability, hard construction, low cost of repair, 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 blistering growth sub-category is the personal computer battery market which is expected to rise from 1.5 billion in 2006 at a CAGR of approximately eight percent.

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

Of the many chemical technologies, the Lithium rechargeable battery market is projected to be 7 billion dollars by the year 2015. Of this growth, the Lithium rechargeable battery market for HEVs is projected to rise from virtually zero in 2005 to approximately US3 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 amount, but as a result of device cost reductions due to enhanced efficiencies in the manufacturing processes and increases in production volumes, aggregate revenue growth is not forecast to change so quickly.

The storage battery market is extremely competitive and hence vast sums of money are spent on research and development each year. Advanced New chemical technologies, along with advancements in old technologies leads industry pundits to predict advances in battery capacity (for equivalent size and weight) of 3 to 4 times over the next 6 years. This approximate doubling of capacity every 2 and a half years is analogous to moores law in the computer sector which sees cpu power doubling every 18 months.

In terms of single-use batteries, ordinarily a consumer purchases these types of batteries 5 times a year. Disposable batteries are calculated to have the largest margins per sq foot in most retail stores, and they are often an distress purchase by the end-user. These kinds of batteries are sold in more retail establishments than any other products, period. This is obviously due to the vast range of devices that are reliant on batteries ? Many experts consider sales as pretty much recession proof.

From an environmental view, disposable batteries are obviously problematic, due to their very nature. The worlds landfills are laden with the often poisonous byproducts of the disposable battery boom. In light of this the European Union has come up and positioned 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 America and other notable nations will follow this development closely and introduce their own environmental legislation.