EV Battery Market Dominated by Japanese and Korean Companies, China’s Companies Still Have a Long Way to Go

Despite of its bright future, the global sales of electric vehicles only totaled 549,000 units in 2015, which means it still holds great potentials. Battery is one of the most important parts in EVs. According to insideevs.com, there might be a variety of EVs labeled different brands, but the batteries inside to power these vehicles may just come from the very same supplier. The EV battery market of North America is mostly dominated by Japanese companies, followed by Korean companies. Japanese giant Panasonic alone holds 56% market shares. Panasonic along with another Japanese supplier take up almost 72% market shares in North America.

The total capacity of Panasonic’s battery sales in US totaled 1,837MW. Besides Tesla, its biggest customer, Panasonic also supply EV batteries to Volkswagen, Ford, Benz and Audi. AESC’s customers are mainly Japanese car manufacturers. Samsung’s customers include BMW, Porsche and Fiat while LG Chem’s are Hyundai Kia, Ford, Chevrolet and Volvo.

In 2015, the sales of EVs in US totaled 120,000 units, covering 25 models. Among all of the top 20 battery consuming models, most of them are PHEVs. Tesla is the unquestionable biggest battery consumer, boosted by its sales and the numbers of its battery cells, which also leads Panasonic the biggest battery supplier. Even though Nissan Leaf’s number of battery cells only totaled half of Tesla’s Model S, but AESC still successfully launched itself as the second biggest battery supplier, due to Leaf’s huge sales. Samsung and LG Chem only secured the No.3 and No.4, even though they have more customers.

In 2016, the Korean suppliers will narrow the gaps between them and their Japanese rivals. To start with, Samsung and LG Chem will supply batteries to more manufacturers. Secondly, the January sales of the new Chevrolet Volt surpassed Model S and Nissan Leaf, and Chevrolet is Samsung’s customer. Thirdly, Hyundai’s newly launched Ioniq PHEV, powered by LG Chem’s battery, will reach to dealers all around the world.

Besides BYD, who has many years of experience in contract manufacturing and its own battery production lines, other Chinese domestic automakers all tend to purchase batteries from foreign suppliers for their EVs. By now, Samsung and LG Chem have all built their battery plant in Xi’an and Nanjing, China, to meet Chinese carmaker’s demands.

In 2015, the sales of EVs in China totaled 207382 units, represents 37.7% of the global sales. BYD is the biggest EV manufacturers in the world with annual sales of 61,726 units. But due to BYD only produces batteries for its own models, the promotion of its battery products could be limited.

For the time being, BYD’s EV orders mostly come from governments and enterprises of developed countries. This Chinese domestic carmaker’s electric bus K9 has been sold internationally. But in the passenger vehicle section, there is very little Chinese models competing in the international EV markets.

Thanks to Chinese government’s preferential policy, the sales of Chinese domestic alternative energy vehicles surged in 2015. But still, there is a long way before China’s EV manufacturers and battery suppliers to compete in the international market.