Battery deployment worldwide has grown tenfold since 2020, and China builds most of it

Global battery deployment exceeded 1.5 terawatt-hours in 2025, roughly ten times the total in 2020, as lithium-ion battery costs fell 93% between 2010 and 2025 and another 36% just between 2020 and 2025. Grid-scale battery storage installations grew nearly 19-fold over that same five-year span, and the research firm BloombergNEF projects annual grid battery deployments will double again by the end of the decade.

China continues to dominate global battery manufacturing, particularly for electric vehicles and grid storage, thanks to its economies of scale and control over mineral processing. The United States' Inflation Reduction Act incentivized domestic battery production, and the Trump administration has kept some clean-technology manufacturing incentives in place, but American manufacturers still struggle to compete with Chinese prices.

The European Union has set a target of producing 90% of its batteries domestically by 2030 but remains off track to meet it. Concerns about energy security have pushed some governments toward protectionist policies aimed at reducing reliance on Chinese battery supply chains, even as global demand for batteries keeps accelerating.

Based on reporting by Dan McCarthy for Canary Media. Read the original: https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/batteries/the-battery-era-is-here-and-china-is-supplying-it