Slight Decrease in K-trio’s Market Shares from 25.9 to 25.6%p in Global[1] EV Battery Usage[2] From Jan to May in 2022
- Chinese battery makers post triple-digit or even higher growth, and SK-On sees a skyrocketing growth of 131.6%.
In the ranking of battery installation for global electric vehicles (EV, PHEV, HEV) sold from January to May in 2022, CATL and LG Energy Solutions stayed in the 1st and 2nd places whereas SK-On, propped up with the biggest growth among the three battery makers in Korea, maintained the 5th position.
From Jan to May in 2022, the amount of energy held by batteries for electric vehicles registered worldwide was 157.4GWh, a 77.3% increase compared to the same period of the last year. Since the 3rd quarter in 2020, the market has continued this upward trend.
Driven by a strong market for electric vehicles in China, many Chinese battery makers have led the market growth with CATL and BYD performing as frontrunners. To be specific, most of the Chinese battery manufacturers including CALB and Sunwoda have seen their market shares increasing.
On the other hand, the Japanese makers including Panasonic are still in a downtrend, exhibiting the growth rate mostly below the market average.
(Source: Global EVs and Battery Monthly Tracker – June 2022, SNE Research)
LG Energy Solutions ranked 2nd with 22.6GWh, a 7.9% increase compared to the same period of last year. SK-On posted 10.8GWh, sweeping 2.3 times increase from the previous, but its share in the entire market slightly declined. Samsung SDI marked a record of 6.9GWh, a 32.5% increase.
The major drive behind the K-trio’s growth is sales of electric vehicle models equipped with batteries of each company. SK-On has seen such a high growth in this time of period thanks to the sales increase of Hyundai Ionic 5, KIA EV6, and Niro. Samsung SDI was largely propped up with the increasing sales of BMW i3 and i4, and PIAT 500. Meanwhile, even though the sales volume of Tesla Model 3 and Y, to which batteries of LG Energy Solutions and CATL are installed, increased from April, it seems the automaker has not been fully recovered yet.
(Source: Global EVs and Battery Monthly Tracker – May June, SNE Research)
The global EV battery usage in May 2022 was 33.7GWh, more than 1.5 times higher compared to the same month of last year. With the major markets in China, Europe, and the US, all in an uptrend, the growth rate of makers in China is noteworthy as a significant number of Chinese companies have been leading the market growth. The EV battery market has been consistently growing for the past 23 months even during the pandemic. Again, the market shares of Chinese makers have been getting larger on a continuous basis.
The market shares of the K-trio from January to May 2022, however, have decreased by 0.3%p from the last month. It should be closely observed how these Korean battery makers, exhibiting outstanding performances in competitions with the global top 10 battery makers, will respond to changes of the market and their competitors.