China captures more than 60 of the traction battery market
Hardware

China captures more than 60% of the traction battery market, while South Korea’s share shrinks to 23.7%

Chinese competitors are pushing other manufacturers of traction batteries for electric vehicles: last year they increased their market share from 48.2 to 60.4 percent, and six companies from China registered in the top ten in the industry. At the same time, the three largest South Korean manufacturers reduced their total share from 30.2% to 23.7%. Even under such conditions, two of the Korean manufacturers were able to significantly increase sales and operating profit.

    Image source: LG Energy Solution

Image source: LG Energy Solution

New statistics published by the agency SNE Research, the relevant data is provided by the South Korean edition. Business Korea. LG Energy Solution still occupies second place in the world rankings, but its share has fallen from 19.7% to 13.6% over the course of the year. At the same time, the company grew revenue 43% to $20.3 billion while operating income rose 58%. The fourth quarter of last year was particularly successful for LG Energy Solution, as it boosted the company’s revenue by 92% in one fell swoop. At this point, a joint venture with General Motors began marketing products in the United States. Since the Korean supplier also cooperates with Hyundai Motor, Honda Motor and Stellantis, it will certainly not be able to do without orders in the near future. In fact, LG Energy Solution already has a $300 billion order book. Last year, the company managed to produce traction batteries with a total capacity of 70.4 GWh and increased production by 18.5%.

SK On (SK Innovation) ranked fifth last year, its market share shrinking from 5.7% to 5.4%, although production volume in terms of capacity increased by 61.1%. Revenue rose 150% to $6 billion but ended the year with an operating loss due to high spending to build new facilities and expand traction battery production. The company is building factories in the US, Hungary and China and hopes to break even next year.

Samsung SDI settled for sixth place last year with a share of just 4.7%, down 0.1 percentage point. The company’s revenue rose 48% to $16 billion, while operating income rose 69%. Samsung SDI estimates that the EV traction battery market will grow by 40% this year. In the past year, it has increased the performance of traction batteries by 68.5%.

China’s CATL continues to lead the global market, nearly doubling its battery capacity to 191.6 GWh in the past year. The market share grew from 33% to 37%. The top 5 also includes the Chinese BYD, which was able to increase battery capacity by 167.1% to 70.4 GWh last year, increasing its share from 8.7% to 13.6%. Rounding out the top ten are four Chinese companies: CALB, Gotion, Sunwoda and Farasis. Last year they were able to increase the production of traction batteries by a factor of two to three.

About the author

Dylan Harris

Dylan Harris is fascinated by tests and reviews of computer hardware.

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