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| Seen is Lucid Motors' electric vehicle Lucid Air, which will be powered by LG Chem's cylindrical battery cells. / Courtesy of LG Chem |
By Baek Byung-yeul
Demand for cylindrical battery cells are expected to soar as electric vehicle (EV) makers are increasingly trying to adopt round-style batteries in a bid to follow the success path of Tesla, which became the world's largest EV producer, industry officials said Monday.
Cylindrical battery cells have long been used for devices like cordless power tools that require high-power and high-value batteries. As they are cost effective and it's easy to maintain quality control, an increasing number of EV makers as well as producers of e-bikes, e-scooters and other light electric vehicles (LEVs) are adopting the round-style cells, the industry officials added.
According to data by market researcher SNE Research, the entire battery capacity of produced cylindrical battery cells for EVs will be at 76.4 gigawatt hours (GWh) in 2020 and will grow to 150 GWh in 2023 and 227.9 GWh in 2025.
LG Chem, which is known for pouch-style battery cells, has been increasing supply of cylindrical battery cells.
The world's No. 2 EV battery producer recently announced it will supply its cylindrical battery cell to a U.S. EV maker Lucid Motors.
Under the exclusive supply deal, the American company will use LG Chem batteries for its luxury EV Lucid Air from the second half of 2020 until 2023.
Lucid Motors will use what LG calls "next-generation cylindrical battery cells." Named the 21700, the new battery cell is 21-milimeters in diameter and 70-milimeters in height with a 50 percent increase in capacity compared to the 18650 battery cell ― 18-milimeters in diameter and 65-milimeters in height ― which Tesla uses for its EVs.
"LG Chem began mass producing cylindrical battery cells since 1998 for the first time among Korean manufacturers. Still we are focusing on producing pouch-style battery cells we also have our strength at producing different format of lithium-ion cells. To meet with demand of EV makers which want to use cylindrical battery cells we are producing round-style ones as well," a LG Chem official said.
Samsung SDI also has its edge in cylindrical battery cell market. The company entered the rechargeable lithium-ion battery business in 2000 and became one of the top players in the cylindrical battery cell market.
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| Samsung SDI's cylindrical battery cells / Courtesy of Samsung SDI |
"Cylindrical battery cells are not regarded as superior compared to other formats of battery cells because an EV car requires more than 7,000 small cylindrical battery cells while an EV using prismatic or pouch-style batteries only requires hundreds of battery packs. But to meet various demands for battery cells of EV makers, battery producers have been producing different formats of lithium-ion cells," an official in battery cell industry said. "The trend for adopting cylindrical cells for EVs has been led by Tesla and many EV makers are trying to follow Tesla's lead."
An industry analyst said demand for cylindrical cells will be on the rise starting 2020 with more EV makers adopting cylindrical cells, and Korean battery producers such as LG Chem and Samsung SDI are expected to enjoy soaring demand.
There is expected to be a boom in the demand for cylindrical cells in 2020. Chances are increasing that cylindrical battery cells will be tight in supply as more EV makers are adopting them for their EVs including delivery EVs and truck EVs," Chang Jung-hoon, an analyst at Samsung Securities, said in a report.
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