The lithium batteries are divided into consumer batteries(3C batteries, Applied to the mobile phone, laptops, and digital cameras), power lithium batteries (EV, Light electric vehicles, power tools ), and Energy storage batteries (power stations, Communication base stations) according to the applications.

Power lithium batteries are also a kind of energy storage battery. It has higher performance requirements than conventional energy storage batteries because of the dimension and weight limitations and acceleration requirements at the startup of the electric vehicle, like higher energy density, faster charging, and discharging rate.

According to the standard, The power lithium battery can not be used in electric vehicles when the capacity is less than 80%. However, most energy storage devices do not need to move, so energy storage batteries have no direct requirements for energy density;  As for power density, different energy storage scenarios have additional requirements.

The energy storage battery has higher requirements for cycle life than the power lithium battery; the battery life of electric vehicles is generally 5~8 years, while the energy storage projects are usually more than ten years. The cycle times of power lithium batteries are 1000~2000 times, and the cycle life of energy storage lithium batteries is generally required to be more than 3500 times. 

The power lithium battery faces competition with the traditional fuel power source regarding cost. In contrast, the energy storage lithium battery needs to meet the cost competitiveness of the conventional peak and frequency modulation technology. In addition, the scale of energy storage power stations is basically above the level of megawatts or even hundreds of megawatts, so the cost of energy storage lithium batteries is lower than that of power lithium batteries, and the safety is also higher.

There are some differences between power and energy storage lithium batteries, but they all use lithium iron phosphate or ternary lithium battery cells. The main difference is the setup of the BMS management system:  battery power response speed and power characteristics, SOC estimation accuracy, and charge-discharge features.