Global Electric Vehicle Battery Shipments Almost Double Last Year

The global automotive battery market grew almost two-fold last year and five South Korean, Chinese and Japanese suppliers further solidified their presence as the top five in the market during the period.

Market research firm SNE Research announced on Feb. 5 that the global shipments of secondary batteries for use in electric vehicles (EVs) totaled 109.8 GWh last year with a year-on-year increase of 83 percent.
 

CATL accounted for 23 percent of the market, followed by Panasonic (21.9 percent), BYD (12.8 percent), LG Chem (10.2 percent) and Samsung SDI (5.5 percent).
 

The five companies’ combined market share rose from 56.1 percent to 73.4 percent from 2017 to 2018. Meanwhile, that of those other than the top 10 fell from 27.6 percent to 14.3 percent during the same period.
 

LG Chem increased its market share from 4.3 percent in 2016 to 8 percent in 2017, and then to 10.2 percent in 2018. During the period, Samsung SDI raised its share from 3.1 percent to 4.1 percent and then to 5.5 percent.

“The battery industry is going through restructuring with CATL and Panasonic competing for the top spot and the top five taking up a larger portion of the market,” SNE Research explained, adding, “Although the South Korean companies are yet to catch up with their Chinese and Japanese counterparts, the former’s shipments are likely to increase a lot this year and next year, when a large number of new EV models are scheduled to make their debuts.”