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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
Supporting Information
| Country/Region | Production (GWh) | Additional Capacity (GWh) | Total Capacity (GWh) | Share of Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| China | 0.8 | 10.4 | 11.2 | 15% |
| Japan | 2.0 | 3.8 | 5.8 | 37% |
| Korea | 1.3 | 3.3 | 4.6 | 24% |
| United States | 1.0 | 3.6 | 4.6 | 19% |
| European Union | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 | 6% |
| Rest of World | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0% |
| Total | 5.4 | 22.1 | 27.5 | 100% |
| 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. | ||||