U.S. Lithium-Ion Battery Imports from Japan

## What this measures

The value of lithium-ion batteries (HS 8507.60) entering the United States from Japan each month, in billions of U.S. dollars.

## 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

Imports from Japan were $0.25 billion in August 2026, against $0.21 billion a year earlier; the record month is July 2026 at $0.29 billion. For whole years they were $0.67 billion in 2013, $0.63 billion in 2020, $1.13 billion in 2023, $1.75 billion in 2024 and $2.50 billion in 2025. The first eight months of 2026 total $1.87 billion, against $1.59 billion a year earlier. Higher means more batteries from Japan. Compare with the total (trade.li_ion_batteries.us_imports) and with imports from China.

## 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. This is the Japan row of the Census country detail. 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.