China's Share of U.S. Lithium-Ion Battery Imports

## What this measures

Imports of lithium-ion batteries (HS 8507.60) from China divided by U.S. imports of them from every country, each month, as a percent.

## Why it matters

Lithium-ion batteries power electric vehicles and grid storage, and the United States imports most of the cells and packs it uses. Imports are a monthly read on both build-outs, and the origin split shows how much of that supply comes from China as tariffs and the clean-energy tax credits' sourcing rules push buyers toward other countries.

## How to read it

China’s share was 37.0% in August 2026, against 62.5% a year earlier; the record is 80.0% in December 2023. By value over whole years China supplied 37.4% in 2013, 70.7% in 2023, 69.1% in 2024 and 59.3% in 2025, and 39.1% in the first eight months of 2026. Single months swing widely, so read the yearly figures for the trend. Higher means the United States leans more on China for batteries. A falling share can mean less from China, or simply more from elsewhere: read it with the dollar series.

## What it does not say

HS 8507.60 covers lithium-ion accumulators of every size: EV cells and packs, grid storage modules and cells for phones and laptops shipped on their own. Batteries already inside imported vehicles, phones or computers are not counted. Values are nominal U.S. dollars, not seasonally adjusted, so compare a month with the same month a year earlier. The country is the country of origin as declared at the border. Census revises recent months.

## How it's built

Palanor reads U.S. general imports for HS 8507.60 by country each month from January 2013. Palanor divides imports from China by the all-countries total. Daily runs re-read the last 14 months so revisions carry through.

## Source

U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. International Trade in Goods, monthly HS6 detail, via the Census International Trade API. Census trade data are in the public domain. This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.