A parking bay reserved for electric car charging can be seen on display in London, Britain, October 19, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo Acquire

Focus: Synthetic graphite for EV batteries: Can the West crack China's code?

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2023-11-21 20:30:06

A parking bay reserved for electric car charging can be seen on display in London, Britain, October 19, 2018. REUTERS/Simon Dawson/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights

Sept 12 (Reuters) - New investments in the United States and Europe aim to challenge China’s stranglehold on a key ingredient used in most electric vehicle batteries – graphite – but industry experts said that will be an uphill battle.

The focus is shifting to a new front: Synthetic graphite, an element developed in the late 19th century, but only redirected toward EVs in the past decade.

Its application is growing quickly. Synthetic graphite could account for nearly two-thirds of the EV battery anode market by 2025, estimates Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

Each EV on average needs 50-100 kg (110-220 pounds) of graphite in its battery pack for the anodes, the negative electrodes of a battery, about twice the amount of lithium.

While the market for synthetic graphite is expected to grow more than 40% over the next five years to $4.2 billion in 2028, according to researcher Mordor Intelligence, companies looking to carve out a new direction face formidable competition from China.