Whats the future of Ni-Cd, Ni-MH, and Li-ion?
Under the same weight or volume, Ni-Cd has only half of Ni-MH’s capacity. In terms of price/performance, Ni-MH is better than Ni-Cd. Further more, Cadmium causes environmental concerns. So, more than half of Ni-Cd’s market has been replaced by Ni-MH. As a result, the Ni-Cd market is shrinking. On the other hand, Li-ion has about 50% more capacity than Ni-MH. For applications that have restrictive limitations in weight or volume (such as mobile phone, PDA, notebook computer), li-ion is taking over Ni-MH’s share. As a result, Ni-MH’s market is going flat. In terms of price performance (dollar per watt*hour), li-ion is about the same as Ni-MH. Since li-ion uses materials which are abundant on earth, it will become cheaper than Ni-MH in the long run. So, li-ion market is still growing rapidly.
