Competition among Korea, Japan and the United States over the market for hybrid and electric car batteries is heating up. The scale of the market for batteries for such vehicles is currently W1 trillion but is expected to grow to W10 trillion by 2015 (US$1=W1,250).

Japan was the quickest. Panasonic completed a battery production plant in which it invested 100 billion yen in February this year. Hitachi announced early this month it will expand production of car batteries to 70 times the current capacity by 2015.

In Korea, LG Chem began construction of an electric-car battery plant in Ochang, North Chungcheong Province in June, with an aim to take 20 percent of the global market by spending W1 trillion by 2013. Samsung SDI set up SB LiMotive, a joint venture with Germany's Robert Bosch, the world's largest maker of vehicle parts, last year, and the joint venture acquired U.S. battery maker Cobasys, the world's third largest maker of car batteries, on July 15.

In the U.S, IBM last month also declared its intention to enter the car battery market.

Hybrid cars, which use both gasoline and electricity as the mode of power, have shown great potential for market growth. The hybrid car market expanded over three-fold in just three years, from 165,000 units in 2004 to 509,000 in 2007. Consulting firm McKinsey predicted that the market will grow to 14 million units by 2020.

The competition is no longer confined to the private sector and now involves government. The U.S. government has been the most active, with a promise to invest US$2.4 billion in developing batteries to revive its declining automobile industry. The Japanese government launched a project to develop next-generation batteries, investing 21 billion yen over the next seven years. The project involves five carmakers including Toyota and Honda, seven battery firms like Panasonic and Sanyo, and 10 universities led by Kyoto University.

Here, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy designated Hyundai Motor, LG Chem and SB LiMotive as responsible parties for a national project to develop technologies for car batteries last year, providing W40 billion over the next five years.