400% increase in battery 'megafactory' capacity forecast by 2028

Specialists forecast a 400% increase in the capacity of battery 'megafactories' worldwide by 2028. Consultants Benchmark Mineral Intelligence forecast that approaching 60% of 1.1TW/h production capacity will be in China and less than 20% in Europe. Battery production at scale is seen as a key route to reducing the cost of electric vehicles and improving range. 

 

If the projections prove correct, it would represent a very rapid advance in battery production capacity. The first very large battery factory - Tesla's massive Gigafactory in Nevada - only began limited production in 2016. At the time, the plant was projected to be the largest building in the world by footprint, and that it would single-handedly be capable of doubling the world’s lithium-ion battery production capacity.

 

Many other projects - a number on a similar scale - are now in the pipeline. In just a decade, it's expected that lithium-ion battery megafactories around the world will have a combined production capacity equivalent to 22 Tesla Gigafactories.

 

Most of the production capacity will be located in China, which is expected to have 57% of the global total.

 

Benchmark's research suggests that the top 10 megafactories will have a combined 299 GWh of capacity in 2023, which will be equal to almost half of the global production total.