The market for batteries for electric cars rose by 70%

14 March 2018

Leading companies from Japan, South Korea and China

Not the first in the list of the largest manufacturers of traction batteries for electric vehicles include Panasonic, LG Chem, Samsung SDI, and BYD. InsideEVs blog dedicated to electric cars, summed up in 2017. The leaders have kept their seats, however, in 2018, the first three can change.

In General, the results of 2017 has been positive. The production of batteries increased from 20.4 to 34.8 GW⋅h, i.e. 70 %. However, note that this statistics covers only passenger cars, i.e. no hybrids, including support for external charging, it does not include.

The industry leader remains Panasonic. And where would he go if Tesla work with him? The Japanese company has released a battery of 10.1 GW⋅h, demonstrating a growth of 52 %. Chinese manufacturer BYD has kept the silver, but it increased the release of only 17 %, from 4 to 4.6 GW⋅h. But LG Chem is growing even faster than leader +54 %, to 3.5 GW⋅h

In fourth place was not Samsung SDI, and gaining momentum, the Chinese company CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd). Most likely, its battery will be used in future electric vehicles of Volkswagen AG, which in the foreseeable future will claim the title of one of the industry leaders. Experts expect that by the end of 2018 CATL will be included in three leading manufacturers.

Thus already today the Chinese company ahead of competitors in adjacent market — the production of hybrid trucks and buses China. In this segment of CATL in 2017 has released a battery of 12 GW⋅h followed by BYD (8,4 GW⋅h) and Optimum (6.7 GW⋅h).