Market for nickel-cadmium batteries

Besides the lead/acid battery market, which has seen a tremendous development linked with the car industry, the alkaline rechargeable battery market has also been expanded for more than twenty years, especially in the field of portable applications with nickel-cadmium batteries. Today, nickel-cadmium batteries have to face newcomers on the market, such as nickel-metal hydride, which is another alkaline couple, and rechargeable lithium batteries; these new battery systems have better performances in some areas. This work illustrates the status of the market for nickel-cadmium batteries and their applications. Also, for two major applications—the cordless tool and the electric vehicles—the competitive situation of nickel-cadmium batteries; facing new systems such as nickel-metal hydride and lithium ion cells are discussed.