Business | Power drain

Why most battery-makers struggle to make money

This is not your classic boom-and-bust cycle

Workers install an electric battery on an assembly line in Slovakia
The battery business needs a tune-upPhotograph: Getty Images

Boom-and-bust cycles all tend to look the same. A consumer fad or industrial urgency fuels demand for a product. Prices rise. Producers invest in capacity. By the time new supply materialises it outstrips already sated demand. Prices crash. Then, at some point, things get so cheap as to set off another demand upswing. And so on.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Power drain”

How to raise the world’s IQ

From the July 13th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Business

AI will not fix Apple’s sluggish iPhone sales any time soon

The technology is not yet ready for prime time on phones or other devices

Japan’s sleepy companies still need more reform

The country’s corporate-governance crusade has a long way to go


Is the era of the mega-deal over?

Nippon’s acquisition of US Steel is not the only mega-merger falling apart


Brian Niccol, Starbucks’s new CEO, has a “messianic halo”

But the turnaround king has his work cut out

Can IKEA disrupt the furniture business again?

It wants to help you sell your Billy bookcase

The mystery of the cover letter

Why do recruiters still ask for them?