Elon Musk-led Tesla could soon be overtaken by Chinese and German entities in the race for lithium-ion batteries, a former chief of Credit Suisse’s research division said.

Giles Keating, who is now the chairman at investment consultancy Werthstein Institute, said that Tesla appears to be leading the ‘arms race’ for energy storage solutions for now. But China and Germany are racing to overtake the U.S. major in electric vehicles and battery systems.

Speaking on the topic, Keating said, “There’s a kind of arms race on batteries around the world. The Chinese are racing to overtake him; they'll have three times the capacity. And then in Germany, we've just heard announcement of a new plan for a $1 billion factory on batteries.”

The prediction follows on the heels of Musk’s announcement of plans to build the world’s largest lithium-ion battery plant in South Australia.

Meanwhile, construction of “Gigafactory 1” (Tesla’s highly anticipated 35-gigawatt-hour) is still in progress.

Batteries are fundamental to the renewable energy sector as these energy storage solutions are thought to be a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels like petroleum and diesel because they can be recharged rather than burned.