There is a massive amount of money that stands to be gained from the coming wave of plug-in hybrid, electric vehicles, as well as grid storage for solar and wind power. Hundreds of billions of dollars are at stake, which has some of the biggest companies in the world making plans to take over this quickly-growing market.
ABB is one of the largest engineering conglomerates in the world, and the Switzerland-based company wants to establish itself as a “leading entity” in the energy storage market, reports PV Magazine. ABB’s specialty has been in robots, power solutions, and automation though, which is why ABB has teamed up with China’s BYD Automotive, which wants to become the world leader of electric vehicles. Together the two companies hope to dominate the battery market for utilities, but they’ll have plenty of competition from all corners of the world for a market segment estimated to be worth $750 billion by 2020.
The most obvious contender is the current market leader Panasonic, which has teamed up with Tesla to build the first battery Gigafactory. Capable of making up to 500,000 batteries per year, the Gigafactory will make or break Elon Musk’s ambitions. Countless analysts have asked time and again whether Tesla plans to be more than just a car company, and with Musk’s involvement in solar power company SolarCity, it’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility.
There’s also #2 battery maker LG Chem to consider, especially since the announcement that the company had signed a battery deal with Audi reportedly worth billions of dollars. LG is also working with GM to provide battery packs to its plug-in vehicles, among other automakers, and its plans surely extend beyond vehicles as well.
Even iPhone maker Foxxconn wants in on the battery market, building itself a new $812 million battery factory in northern China. But ABB and BYD are already well-placed to take on the massive potential for batteries in China, having recently collaborated on a fast-charging network across the quasi-communist country. Apparently the two companies got along so great, that they believe they can become the leading supplier of batteries around the world.
Can they?
Source: http://cleantechnica.com/2014/09/10/abb-wants-1-battery-supplier/
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