How Batteries Work and Why Lithium Matters
A battery does not store electricity. It stores a chemical reaction that has been paused: two materials that want to trade electrons, kept apart so the trade can only happen through your wire. This video explains how that works, why lithium became the answer, where lithium actually comes from, and what might replace it.
It starts with Alessandro Volta's letter to the Royal Society of 20 March 1800, describing a stack of copper and zinc discs separated by brine-soaked cloth. Every battery since has the same four parts: an anode, a cathode, an electrolyte that lets ions through but not electrons, and a separator that keeps the two sides from touching.
Why lithium? It is element number three, with one outer electron it gives up readily, which sets the push. And it has the lowest density of any metal: 0.534 grams per cubic centimetre, against 11.3 for lead (Royal Society of Chemistry).
The rechargeable lithium battery took three steps and three people, who shared the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Stanley Whittingham at Exxon built a titanium disulphide cathode, announced in 1976, but its lithium-metal anode grew whiskers that could short the cell. John Goodenough published a lithium cobalt oxide cathode in 1980, at four volts. Akira Yoshino at Asahi Kasei replaced the lithium metal with a carbon anode in 1985. Sony sold the first commercial lithium-ion cell in 1991.
Today there are two main cathode recipes. The IEA reports that LFP (lithium iron phosphate) made up over 55% of EV batteries deployed worldwide in 2025. BloombergNEF's survey of 9 December 2025 put LFP packs at USD 81 per kWh against USD 128 for NMC, and the average pack at a record low of USD 108 per kWh, down from more than USD 1,100 in 2010 (in 2020 dollars).
The USGS estimates world lithium production at 290,000 tonnes of lithium content in 2025, led by Australia, China and Chile, with batteries taking 88% of use. Lithium carbonate under US fixed contracts averaged USD 46,000 a tonne in 2023 and USD 9,000 in 2025; the IEA reports prices then more than doubled between January 2025 and April 2026.
And what comes next: CATL and Changan's sodium-ion passenger car, announced 5 February 2026, and solid-state batteries, where Samsung SDI's stated mass-production target is 2027.
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- Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019, press release (9 October 2019) and Popular information, nobelprize.org - laureates and affiliations; Whittingham at Exxon, titanium disulphide cathode, announced 1976, 'a couple of volts'; lithium whiskers causing short circuits; Goodenough's lithium cobalt oxide cathode, 1980, 'almost twice as powerful, at four volts'; Yoshino's petroleum-coke anode, 1985; first lithium-ion batteries sold in 1991; lithium's single outer electron.
- Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, 'Japan's role in developing the lithium ion battery industry', 24 August 2023.
- IEEE Spectrum, 'The First Battery: Dead Frogs Sparked the Voltaic Pile' - Volta's letter to Joseph Banks of 20 March 1800; copper and zinc discs separated by cardboard, blotting paper or cloth soaked in brine or acid; published in Philosophical Transactions on the last day of 1800.
- Royal Society of Chemistry periodic table - lithium: atomic number 3, density 0.534 g/cm3, the lowest of all metals, discovered 1817 by Johan August Arfvedson; densities of sodium 0.97, aluminium 2.70, lead 11.3 g/cm3.
- US Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026, Lithium - world production 2025 (estimated) 290,000 t lithium content; Australia 92,000, China 62,000, Chile 56,000; world reserves 37,000,000 t; batteries 88% of end use; 1994 production outside the US 6,100 t (foreword); US fixed-contract lithium carbonate average USD 9,000 per ton in 2025, down 31%; brine and hard-rock operations by country.
- US Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2024, Lithium - US fixed-contract lithium carbonate average USD 46,000 per ton in 2023; China spot about USD 76,000 per ton in January 2023 to about USD 23,000 in November 2023.
- International Energy Agency, Global EV Outlook 2026, 'Electric vehicle batteries' - 1.2 TWh of EV batteries in 2025; LFP over 55% of EV batteries deployed globally and two-thirds of electric car sales in China; CATL the world's largest battery producer; sodium-ion capacity just over 1% of lithium-ion; first sodium-ion electric car in China in late 2023.
- International Energy Agency, Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2026 (executive summary) and 2025 (overview) - lithium prices more than doubled between January 2025 and April 2026; lithium companies cut investment by around 40% in 2025; top three producers over 75% of mined lithium in 2024; China projected to supply over 60% of refined lithium in 2035.
- BloombergNEF, 'Lithium-Ion Battery Pack Prices Fall to $108 Per Kilowatt-Hour', 9 December 2025 - 2025 average USD 108/kWh, down 8%; stationary storage USD 70/kWh; LFP USD 81/kWh; NMC USD 128/kWh.
- BloombergNEF, post on X, December 2020 - pack prices 'above $1,100 per kilowatt-hour in 2010', in real terms. Shown only as a labelled figure beside the 2025 price, never on a common scale.
- CATL, press release, 5 February 2026 - with Changan, the 'world's first mass-production passenger vehicle equipped with sodium-ion batteries'; up to 175 Wh/kg; pure-electric range exceeding 400 km. The maker's own figures, attributed as such.
- S&P Global Mobility AutoTechInsight, 6 March 2024 - Samsung SDI plans to begin mass production of all-solid-state batteries in 2027. A stated target.
Not regulated financial advice.