But is the industry over-responding to the allure of a new opportunity?
Observers don’t think so.
In fact, if the industry hopes to manufacture enough batteries to support the aggressive EV sales targets set by automakers and governments, the eruption of investments might be merely scratching the surface. The U.S. government, for instance, has set a target of having half of all U.S. new-vehicle sales be electric by 2030. That target alone would require a supply of some 8 million new EV batteries a year.
McKinsey expects global demand for lithium ion batteries to grow to about 3,500 gigawatt-hours by 2030, a dramatic increase from the 2019 capacity of about 220 GWh. Horetsky said that will require the opening of 200 or more new battery factories around the world in the coming years, including many in North America to support EV production here.
“A lot of that capacity has been announced now, but we’re still seeing that there are more projections of demand than supply, especially as we head toward 2030 and more of these regulations kick in,” Horet
