Next-Generation Battery War: Who Will Inherit the Throne of Lithium-Ion?

At the twilight of the lithium-ion era, a fierce competition among next-generation batteries to claim the throne has begun.

Our daily lives are hard to imagine without lithium-ion batteries powering smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles. Thanks to this unsung hero that has dominated the tech world for the past 30 years, the mobile revolution and electric vehicle era became possible. However, behind this dazzling success lie hidden limitations in safety, performance, and resources, signaling the end of the powerful king’s reign. Now, it is time to meet the contenders aiming to claim the throne: the next-generation batteries.

Part 1: The King is Weary – The Inevitable End of Lithium-Ion Batteries

The current king, lithium-ion batteries, is struggling under the weight of three major challenges: fire hazards, performance limits, and resource supply chain issues.

Crack in the Crown 1: Fiery Temper – Safety Crisis

Lithium-ion batteries inherently carry fire risks due to their flammable liquid electrolytes. When the separator is damaged causing an internal short circuit, an uncontrollable chain reaction called “thermal runaway” begins.

Tragic incidents such as the Mars Arisel factory and Pangyo data center fires all involved lithium-ion batteries. Particularly, “dendrites”, lithium structures that grow like branches on the anode surface during charging, damage the separator and act as hidden assassins triggering thermal runaway. These issues have fueled strong market demand for “non-flammable batteries.”

Crack in the Crown 2: Performance Wall – Energy Density Limit

Although lithium-ion battery energy density has more than doubled over the past 20 years, it has now nearly reached the theoretical maximum of graphite anode-based structures. This directly causes the limited driving range of electric vehicles and the widespread “range anxiety” among drivers. Current technology cannot keep up with market demands for longer-lasting and more powerful performance.

Crack in the Crown 3: Resource Shackles – Supply Chain Crisis

Key minerals like lithium, cobalt, and nickel face volatile prices and are heavily concentrated in countries such as China, creating serious geopolitical risks. This is more than a cost issue; it threatens national security as a critical vulnerability. Additionally, environmental destruction and human rights concerns during mining have intensified the urgent need for cheaper, stable, and ethical alternatives.

Table 1: Summary of Core Limitations of Lithium-Ion Batteries

Part 2: The Challengers – Meeting the Successors to the Battery Throne

As the lithium-ion era fades, next-generation battery contenders armed with different technologies are vying for the throne. When I first encountered these technologies, it felt like a scene from a sci-fi movie.

Absolute Safety – All-Solid-State Battery (ASSB)

Solid-state batteries start from a simple yet revolutionary idea: replacing the flammable liquid electrolyte with a non-flammable solid electrolyte.

This change alone ensures ultimate safety and increases energy density, enabling an electric vehicle era with ranges over 800 km. However, challenges remain, such as low ionic conductivity due to difficulty ions have passing through solids, and high manufacturing costs. Currently, Samsung SDI, Toyota, and QuantumScape are fiercely competing to commercialize by 2027.

Table 3: Solid-State Battery Development Competition Status (2027–2030 Outlook)

The People’s Battery – Sodium-Ion Battery (Na-ion)

Sodium-ion batteries tackle resource issues head-on by using abundant and inexpensive “salt” (sodium) obtainable even from seawater instead of costly lithium. They are 30–40% cheaper than LFP batteries and maintain performance even in harsh cold conditions down to -20°C.

Though sodium atoms are larger than lithium, resulting in lower energy density, they are an excellent alternative for price-sensitive entry-level electric vehicles and energy storage systems (ESS). Currently, China’s CATL is leading this field with plans for mass production by 2025, making rapid catch-up by domestic companies essential.

The Sky Flyer – Lithium-Sulfur Battery (Li-S)

Lithium-sulfur batteries use lightweight sulfur as the cathode, boasting an unmatched gravimetric energy density. They can store the same energy at half the weight of lithium-ion batteries, making them game changers in aviation mobility sectors like urban air mobility (UAM) and drones, where weight is critical.

However, a fatal weakness is their short lifespan caused by the “shuttle effect,” where active materials are lost during charge/discharge cycles, making them unsuitable for electric vehicles. LG Energy Solution is leading development in this area, strategically betting to capture the future aviation market.

A Quick Comparison of Core Next-Generation Battery Technologies

Each battery type has clear strengths and weaknesses and is optimized for targeting specific markets.

Table 2: Overview of Next-Generation Battery Contenders

Conclusion: An Era of ‘Coexistence,’ Not Winner-Takes-All

The outcome of the next-generation battery war will not be a winner-takes-all scenario where one technology dominates everything. Rather, a ‘coexistence’ era is likely, where each technology leverages its strengths to divide the market.

• First, the lithium-ion era is ending. It faces clear limits in safety, performance, and resources.
• Second, the future is about the right technology for the right place. Solid-state will target premium EVs, sodium-ion will serve entry-level EVs and ESS, and lithium-sulfur will focus on aviation mobility markets.
• Third, the ‘Battery of Things (BoT)’ era is coming. Battery innovation will become a platform technology supporting not just electric vehicles but the entire future industry, from autonomous robots to smart cities.

Amid this massive wave of change, which next-generation battery do you think will change our lives first? Imagine the future these technologies will bring and keep an eye on trends in the related industries.