Fact #921: April 18, 2016 Japan Produced the Most Automotive Lithium-ion Batteries by Capacity in 2014

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Japan produced about 2 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of automotive lithium-ion battery cells in 2014, which is more than any other country/region. In 2014, China had the greatest potential for increased production with 10.4 GWh of additional capacity commissioned or under construction. The United States produced about 1 GWh or 19% of the world’s total capacity (5.4 GWh) of automotive lithium-ion batteries. In the next few years, the United States will substantially increase production of lithium-ion batteries due to the Tesla Gigafactory which is scheduled to begin production in 2017. Data on the Gigafactory are not included in the figure below. It has a planned production of 35 GWh of lithium-ion batteries per year when fully operational, although not all of them will be for automotive purposes.

Manufacturing Production and Capacity for Automotive Lithium-ion Battery Cells by Country/Region, 2014

Graph showing manufacturing production and capacity for automotive lithium-ion battery cells in China, Japan, Korea, U.S., and European Union in 2014.

Fact #921 Dataset

Supporting Information

Automotive Manufacturing Capacity and Production of Lithium-ion Batteries, 2014
Country/RegionProduction
(GWh)
Additional Capacity
(GWh)
Total Capacity
(GWh)
Share of
Production
China0.810.411.215%
Japan2.03.85.837%
Korea1.33.34.624%
United States1.03.64.619%
European Union0.31.01.36%
Rest of World0.00.00.00%
Total5.422.127.5100%
Note:
Total capacity includes factories that were fully commissioned, partially commissioned, and under construction at the time the data were collected. Data on the Telsa Gigafactory are not included.

Sources: CEMAC 2015 Research Highlights, March 2016.

Data on the Tesla Gigafactory: Tesla Motors, Tesla Gigafactory web page, accessed March 10, 2016.

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