Hype Cycle Assessment Of Emerging Technologies For Battery Production

Abstract

The demand for battery-powered electric vehicles is growing rapidly as more and more OEMs are shifting their strategy towards an all-electric vehicle fleet. The lithium-ion battery cell is considered as the core component in terms of performance, range and price of electric vehicles. Since the development of the functional principle of the lithium-ion battery, both the product and the associated production technology have evolved significantly. OEMs, start-ups, equipment suppliers and other players in the automotive industry are investing heavily in research and development of various technologies to improve both the battery as a product and its production. An essential aspect is to enable sustainable battery production. While breakthroughs in battery technology are regularly announced, the actual merits of the technologies and the potential remain uncertain until commercial deployment. The aim of this paper is to systematically identify upcoming breakthroughs and announced innovations to provide an overview of promising battery technologies that companies should focus on to enable the planning of resilient and sustainable production systems. Hence, a hype cycle assessment following Gartner was adopted as the underlying approach to evaluate battery technologies for deployment in electromobility and mass production. First, various technologies, innovations, research activities and announcements in the field of battery technologies were screened, recorded and classified in order to obtain an overview of the current state of developments on both product and production levels. This includes an overview of innovations in battery design and configuration as well as process technologies and production systems. Subsequently, these technologies are evaluated according to predefined evaluation criteria in order to enable a systematic classification of the individual technologies in the hype cycle. The result is a consolidated overview of emerging battery technologies for sustainable battery production and a display for further recommendations for relevant companies and stakeholders.