The lithium-ion battery value chain: where it is made

Producer prices, industrial production, shipments, inventories and employment come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Census Bureau, and metal prices from the International Monetary Fund, all through the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis's FRED database; they refresh on this page at least twice a day. Grid-scale storage comes from the U.S. Energy Information Administration's monthly generator inventory (Form EIA-860M), which covers units of at least 1 megawatt. Pack prices are BloombergNEF's annual battery price survey as published in its press releases. Mineral production, reserves, import reliance and annual prices come from the U.S. Geological Survey's Mineral Commodity Summaries.

• Changes compare the latest reading with the same period a year earlier. For producer price indexes the headline is the year-over-year rate of change, and its comparison is the change in that rate, in percentage points.
• Battery manufacturing (NAICS 33591) covers all battery types made in the U.S., including lead-acid, not lithium-ion alone. Census's annual survey of storage-battery plants (NAICS 335911) was not published for 2023, and its 2022 jump in employment partly reflects new plants classified into the industry.
• Storage history counts battery units by the month they entered service and removes retired units in the month they retired, using EIA's latest inventory, so earlier months may differ slightly from the inventory EIA published at the time. Power capacity is nameplate megawatts; energy capacity is nameplate megawatt-hours. Planned capacity is what developers report to EIA; planned projects frequently slip or are canceled.
• Global EV battery deployment, EV sales shares, and mineral demand and supply by country come from the International Energy Agency's Global EV Outlook data and Critical Minerals Data Explorer, licensed CC BY 4.0. The IEA rounds to two significant figures, so regions may not sum exactly to the world total. Outlook figures are IEA scenarios (Stated Policies, or the base case for supply), not forecasts.
• The value-chain view combines IEA shares of world output (mining, refining, active materials, cells) with North American facility counts and capacities from the NAATBatt / NLR database. Active-material capacity in tons is converted to cell gigawatt-hours with Argonne National Laboratory's factors (ANL-24/14: 1.83 kg of cathode and 1.03 kg of graphite anode per kWh); only plants that report capacity in tons are counted, so the totals are a floor. IEA percentages for cathode, anode and cells give China's share and, for cells, the U.S. and EU shares; the remainder is shown as not broken out.
• EV battery recalls are U.S. vehicle recalls whose NHTSA subject or defect summary refers to the high-voltage (propulsion) battery: its cells, modules, pack, contactors or control module. NHTSA's open data does not carry the detailed component code, so the match is by keyword and may miss or include a few borderline recalls. Vehicle counts are the manufacturer's estimate of vehicles potentially affected.
• Cell plants and supply-chain facilities come from the Lithium-Ion Battery Supply Chain Database compiled by NAATBatt International and the National Laboratory of the Rockies (formerly NREL) for the U.S. Department of Energy; we credit DOE, NLR, the Alliance for Energy Innovation and NAATBatt, who do not endorse this page. Capacity is each facility's announced annual capacity, not output. Our own status checks, each linked to its sources, are shown beside the database's status and can be more recent.
• Company financials are as reported, company-wide unless marked as a segment, converted to U.S. dollars at each quarter's average exchange rate, so dollar growth includes currency moves. Chinese companies report under Chinese accounting standards (operating profit includes investment income and impairments), Korean companies under K-IFRS, Panasonic under IFRS with adjusted operating profit, and U.S. companies under U.S. GAAP. From 2026, LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI and SK On include the U.S. advanced manufacturing production credit (Section 45X) in revenue, so their 2026 revenue is not like-for-like with earlier years. SQM figures follow its Chilean-basis earnings releases. BYD is shown company-wide, which is mostly vehicles.
• Figures are as reported and subject to revision by the source. This page is for general information and is not investment advice.