Since the start of the era of eco-friendly cars, LG Chem ranked in the electric car battery market first for the first time by outclassing Japan's Panasonic and China's CATL for the first time. Samsung SDI and SK Innovation also came in fourth and seventh, respectively, so the three major Korean battery makers broke into the top 10 club.
Research, a market research company said on May 7 that LG Chem took the top spot with a 27.1 percent market share in rankings in the world's battery use for electric vehicles (EVs, PHEVs and HEVs) in the first quarter of 2020.
LG Chem's battery use in vehicles increased a whopping 117.1 percent to 5.5GWh in the first quarter of 2020 from 2.5GWh in the first quarter of 2019. As a result, its market share rose to 27.1 percent from 10.7 percent in the same period of 2019.
Accordingly, LG Chem climbed to the top spot by beating not only China’s CATL, the first ranker of 2019 and Japan's Panasonic which placed first in the fourth quarter of 2020. In the case of Panasonic, its battery supply to Tesla decreased 3.8 percent from the same period of 2019 and Chinese battery makers such as CATL posted sluggish sales due to a stagnant Chinese market.
In addition to LG Chem, Samsung SDI and SK Innovation joined the Top 10 club, putting up a good fight. Samsung SDI rose by two notches to fourth place by increasing its production 34.0 percent to 1.2GWh in the same period, and SK Innovation took seventh place, climbing by two notches to 0.9GWh.
As a result, Korean companies’ market share in the electric vehicle battery market more than doubled to 37.5 percent from 16.4 percent in the same period 2019.
"As the European and US markets, major overseas markets, will be hit by the aftermaths of the novel coronavirus and the Chinese domestic market with many competitors of Korean battery makers will recover, the three Korean battery makers will face many difficulties," SNE Research said. "It is necessary for the three Korean battery makers to develop an appropriate market strategy."