Total global electric vehicle battery consumption reached 352.7 gigawatt hours (GWh) in the January-April period, up 13.8% year-on-year, according to data released Tuesday by South Korean market research firm SNE Research.
CATL’s battery installations reached 141.4 GWh during the period, an increase of 19.8% compared to the previous year.
The Chinese battery giant maintained its dominance in the global market from January to April, achieving a total market share of 40.1%. This is more than the 38.1% recorded in the same period last year, although slightly less than the 40.7% recorded in the period from January to March.
Runner-up BYD saw a slight decline in the first four months of the year, with total battery installations of 50.0 GWh, down 2.4% from a year earlier.
BYD’s global market share was 14.2% in the January-April period, keeping it firmly in second place globally. This is less than the 16.5% it had a year ago, but more than the 13.7% share achieved in the first three months of the year.
The combined market share of the two Chinese giants reached 54.3%, which further confirms the dominance of Chinese companies in the electric vehicle battery market.
South Korea’s LG Energy Solution (LGES) ranked third in the world with 32.0 GWh of batteries installed in the first four months of the year.
Although total LGES consumption grew by 8.3% year-on-year, its market share fell to 9.1%, from 9.5% a year earlier, as the overall market grew faster.
China’s CALB announced that it installed 18.1 GWh of electric vehicle batteries from January to April, an increase of 39.3% compared to the previous year. It thus took fourth place with a market share of 5.1%.
China’s Gotion High-tech (SZSE: 002074) followed close behind in fifth place with a 4.4% share. Its installations reached 15.6 GWh, with year-on-year growth of 30.2% in that period.
South Korea’s SK On saw a significant decline, with its installations down 7.9% year-on-year to 12.3 GWh.
The company ranked sixth globally with a share of 3.5%, down from 4.3% a year earlier, with the decline primarily attributed to slowing electric vehicle sales among key customers in North America and Europe.
Japan’s Panasonic recorded installations of 12.0 GWh during the period, down 3.7% from the same period last year.
Its share of 3.4% placed it in seventh place in the world, compared to 4.0% a year ago, primarily due to the slowdown in sales growth of its key customer, Tesla, in certain regions.
Chinese companies Eve Energy, Svolt Energy and Sunwoda ranked eighth, ninth and tenth respectively in the global market, with battery installations of 11.5 GWh, 9.3 GWh and 8.7 GWh. Their market shares were 3.3%, 2.6% and 2.5%.
These three Chinese companies achieved year-on-year installation growth of 30.3%, 37.2% and 17.6% in the period from January to April.
Among the world’s 10 leading companies, seven of them were from China, and together they held 72.2% of the global market.
That combined share increased by 2.1 percentage points from the previous year, further narrowing the market space for Japanese and South Korean competitors.