Developing a sustainable circular economy strategy for electric mobility: Assessing the role of Li-ion battery technology

Due to climate change as well as the growing capacity of new storage media for electric power, electric mobility represents a future vision for individual mobility on an environmentally friendly basis. We present a way to develop a future vision about this kind of economy and the elements its progression requires. Through systematic bibliometric and patent analyses we show that lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery has been a key enabling technology for electric mobility and future (electric) engine systems. However, a growing number of researchers are trying to shift away from conventional Li-ion battery technology and apply nanotechnology to other energy storage devices in order to make them more cost competitive and influence superior performance as compared to Li-ion batteries. A careful analysis and evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches is therefore indispensable.