Battery production is one of the most hotly-desired toll processing tasks by manufacturers, and one of the biggest reasons for this is the increase in demand for high-capacity lithium-ion batteries for electric cars.
With a ban on new petrol and diesel cars expected by the end of the decade, it is interesting to look back at the prototype vehicles and early successes that made it possible.
In terms of an electric car that was widely successful, popular and inspired several technological leaps forward in terms of EV design, no car has potentially changed as much about motoring as the Toyota Prius.
The Toyota Prius was the first mass-produced hybrid car ever put on sale in 1997, the same year as the all-electric and controversial Toyota RAV4 EV and GM EV1.
A hybrid car differs from a conventional battery-electric car through the use of both an electric motor and an internal combustion engine, with one or both of these coming into effect automatically depending on the needs of the driver at the time.
This differs from several modern hybrid cars which use a plug-in hybrid system, where the engine is used purely as an electric generator to charge the internal batteries.
The first version won several awards and produced over 37,000 models before being replaced by the second-generation model in 2000, which was the first to be sold outside of Japan.
There were several changes beyond Toyota breaking even with each machine sold. It featured air conditioning and power steering as standard, as well as space for four passengers and the driver, albeit with some of the passenger legroom compromised to fit more batteries.
Because of the hybrid system and the greater efficiency it allowed, the car has been regularly had amongst the best fuel economies of any car available in the UK, which offsets the greater initial environmental and financial cost.
It proved that it could be done and that people would buy an EV. This led to a new generation of EVs such as the Nissan Leaf, the Chevrolet Volt and the Tesla.