In 2019, global deployment of nickel in passenger EV batteries amounted to 59,271 tonnes, an increase of 39% over the amount deployed in 2018, according to Adamas Intelligence’s web-based EV Battery Capacity and Battery Metals Tracker.

By EV type, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) were responsible for 76% of all passenger EV battery nickel deployed globally in 2019, up from 71% in 2018, while plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) were responsible for 4% (down from 5% in 2018) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) were responsible for 20% (down from 24% in 2018).

By country, China led the pack with 22,297 tonnes of nickel deployed (38% global market share), followed by the US (22%), Japan (9%), the Netherlands (4%), and Germany (4%), among the 95 countries tracked by Adamas Intelligence at the time of writing.

Despite passenger EV sales increasing by just 5% year-over-year in China in 2019, the amount of nickel deployed in the nation’s newly-sold EVs increased 56% year-over-year due to a growing consumer preference for long-range BEVs with high-capacity batteries, coupled with an ongoing shift by automakers to battery chemistries containing higher concentrations of nickel.

Overall, in 2019 the sales-weighted average amount of nickel deployed globally per EV was 12.9 kilograms (58.6 kilograms of nickel sulfate hexahydrate equivalent), an increase of 28% over the sales-weighted average in 2018.