Tough Competition with Chinese and Japanese Makers

LG Chem and Samsung SDI ranked fourth and sixth in electrical vehicle (EV) battery shipments for the first 10 months of this year.

South Korean electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturers’ global market share is falling amid competition with Japanese and Chinese companies.

According to SNE Research on Dec. 4, LG Chem and Samsung SDI ranked fourth and sixth in the EV, plug-in hybrid EV and hybrid EV battery shipments for the first 10 months of this year, respectively. Both fell one notch compared to the same period of last year.

This year’s top six consists of LG Chem, Samsung SDI, CATL, BYD, Panasonic and AESC. The two South Korean companies’ growth rates are much lower than those of the two Chinese and two Japanese suppliers. Panasonic posted growth of 100.3% during the period, when CATL, BYD and AESC grew 130.6%, 137.8% and 108.1%, respectively. Meanwhile, LG Chem’s and Samsung SDI’s growth rates stood at 38.6% and 21.4%, respectively.

LG Chem’s total battery capacity was 5.2 GWh, up 38.6% from a year ago, yet its growth rate was much lower than the global market average, 80.8%. Samsung SDI’s total battery capacity increased 21.4% to 2.3 GWh and it fell from fifth to sixth in one year.
 

Panasonic topped the list for the second consecutive year. It posted a total battery capacity of 15.3 GWh during the period with a year-on-year growth of 100.3%. Its global market share rose from 21.4% to 23.7%, too. At present, Tesla is purchasing EV batteries only from Panasonic. They are planning to build EV battery manufacturing facilities in Shanghai.
 

CATL and BYD came in second and third, respectively. CATL’s total capacity rose from 5.7 GWh to 13.1 GWh and the Chinese company’s market share rose 4.3 percentage points while BYD increased its capacity to 8.0 GWh and LG Chem’s and Samsung SDI’s market shares fell 2.4 and 1.8 percentage points.

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