China has become the world's largest producer of lithium-ion batteries

China has become the world's largest producer of lithium-ion batteries, and is on a global market with South Korea and Japan. Last week, a report released at the China (Qinghai) Lithium Industry and power battery International Forum held in Xining City, the capital of Qinghai Province in northwest China, said that China's power battery production capacity has reached 38 kWh, accounting for 60% of global production capacity. The main reason is because of the rapid development of electric vehicles around the world.

However, despite the boom in the market for electric vehicles, industry insiders remain concerned about the industry's future, as many major issues remain unresolved, such as the low level of technology related to resource use and battery production, and the lack of battery recycling systems.

China will produce tens of millions of electric cars every year by 2030, but the industry will still be under pressure if the bottleneck in power cell development is not addressed, said Zhangyongwei, Secretary general and chief expert of the China 100 Electric Vehicle Association, a non-profit group that promotes new energy vehicles.

Zhengmianping, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that although China has abundant lithium resources, the utilization rate of lithium is low due to backward technology and underdeveloped supporting industries. His team estimates that about 70 % of the lithium resources used in China are imported from abroad. In addition, says Zheng, China also lacks the natural resources of nickel and cobalt, two important materials used to make power cells. Another major problem is that China has not yet established a complete battery recycling system. He also said that about 70 % to 80 % of the electricity in used batteries of new energy vehicles is still available, and if properly handled, many basic metals can be extracted from it and then reused.

The first power batteries used in the Chinese market are about to be retired. In addition to launching a plan to encourage the reuse of electric car batteries, Chenqingtai, chairman of the China 100 Electric Vehicle Association, suggested that the authorities should also develop detailed rules for technology development and battery treatment plans.

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