Surprises abound in the new IDTechEx Research report, "Supercapacitor Markets, Technology Roadmap, Opportunities 2021-2041". In 2010, there were no Chinese manufacturers in the top ten supercapacitor manufacturers. In 2020, 40% of them are Chinese. This has been achieved by world-class R&D, being in one of the largest markets globally, strong investment and government support including protective trading. However, China is not leading in capacitor-supercapacitor hybrids where the USA saw a $7 million follow on order recently.

An exception to the commoditisation is small supercapacitors in the form of battery-supercapacitor hybrids BSH, aerospace and military ones working at 150C, capacitor-supercapacitor hybrids beating tantalum electrolytics on ripple and one fifth to one tenth of the size and weight and ones in odd formats such as to go in a watch or smart card. Those working at 85C, -40C and 3V as single cells are less common and in demand.

Several companies declare their supercapacitors to be "graphene" as a badge of honour. It can mean non-flammable, relatively non-toxic, no use of the volatile, toxic carcinogen acetonitrile, valuably improved series resistance, better voltage and energy density in a pure EDLC - all good things justifying higher price.

Raghu Das predicts, "Acquisitions and mergers will continue. One billion dollar supercapacitor businesses may be created by 2045. If the addressable markets we have analysed are strongly penetrated, then it will be much earlier. Given past disappointments, our upside forecast currently stands at $7 billion in 2041."

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Anatomy of the New Supercapacitor Industry - IDTechEx.com