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Lithium-ion batteries are expensive to manufacture and this is in part due to the high raw material cost and complex preparation processes. The most costly metal of most Li-ion is cobalt, a hard lustrous gray material that’s also used to manufacture magnets and high-strength alloys.
The first commercial Li-ion battery of the early 1990s was lithium iron cobalt. Its high specific energy made it popular for mobile phones, laptops and digital cameras. Other lithium-ion systems soon emerged, in part to substitute cobalt with the lower-cost manganese and nickel, as well as gain better load capability, improve safety and longer service life. Then came lithium iron phosphate, a lithium-based battery that uses no cobalt. It delivers excellent load capability and offers high stability, but this comes at the cost of lower specific energy [See BU-205: Types of Lithium-ion].
Batteries have a relatively short life span and some of the materials can be salvaged and reused. To this day, lead acid is the most commonly used battery and the annual world market is $US33 billion. This compares to $US16.6 billion for Li-ion, $US2 billion for NiMH, and $US1 billion for NiCd. All other chemistries only make us $US1 billion. Table 1 lists the cost of material per ton.