EqualOcean has been informed that China's battery industry is rapidly increasing its share of the global battery market, threatening the world's No. 1 company LG Energy Solution, whose share gap with China's CATL(Chinese: 宁德时代) narrowed to about 1 percent in the first four months of 2023, according to Business Korea.
Electric car lithium battery pack and power connections
Total usage of electric vehicle batteries produced by LG Energy Solution reached 24.1 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in the global market (excluding China) in the first four months of 2023, up 49.2 percent from 16.1 GWh in the same period last year, according to Energy market research firm SNE Research on June 8. The South Korean battery giant ranked first in the world in terms of battery usage. This is due to increased sales of the Tesla Model 3 and Tesla Model Y, Volkswagen ID.4 and Ford Mustang Mach E, all of which are powered by LG Energy Solution batteries.
In the global market, CATL's battery consumption nearly doubled to 23.0 GWh in the first four months of 2023, compared with 11.7 GWh in the same period of 2022.
CATL is also rapidly gaining market share. In the global market excluding China, LG Energy Solution's share was 27.8% in the first four months of 2023, the same as in the same period of 2022. However, CATL's share jumped from 20.1% in the first four months of 2022 to 26.5% this year, and the market shares of LG Energy Solution and CATL more than doubled to 35.1% and 14.0%, respectively, in 2021. However, their market shares shrank to 29.7 percent and 22.3 percent, respectively, last year, narrowing the gap to 1.3 percentage points in the first four months of 2023.
SNE Research said, "LG Energy Solution will hold the top spot in the global market excluding China through 2023, but CATL's continued strong growth threatens LG Energy Solution's top spot." "As growth in China's domestic market, the largest electric vehicle market, slows and competition among Chinese companies intensifies, we expect these companies to go global," SNE Research said. "Due to the price war started by Tesla, Chinese companies are expected to target overseas markets, especially lithium iron phosphate batteries, and automakers are adopting differentiated strategies to achieve vehicle prices."