Supercapacitors may ‘hammer’ lithium-ion battery market

According to market research company, IDTechEx, supercapacitors are improving faster than lithium-ion batteries in most respects. A gradual increase in the supercapacitor component and decrease of the battery component is a real prospect according to the company, which forecasts that the global market value for supercapacitors will be $6.5bn (£3.8bn) by 2024.

Commenting on supercapacitors, Chairman of IDTechEx, Dr Peter Harrop, said, ‘They are safer and have ten times the power density. They have replaced Lithium-ion batteries in most Chinese buses, despite greater up-front price. Supercapacitor sales are under 3% of lithium-ion battery sales today, partly replacing them and partly doing things batteries can never do. Supercapacitor sales will be over 10% of Lithium-ion sales in ten years as they grab more Lithium-ion business despite such batteries improving by a factor of two in energy density.’

Go to http://www.idtechex.com to see IDTechEx’s report on supercapacitators.