In the first four months of this year, the global traction battery market grew by 21.8%, with China’s CATL remaining the leader.

SNE Research statistics on the dynamics of traction battery shipments for electric and hybrid vehicles currently only cover the first four months of the current year. The total capacity of traction batteries shipped from January to April this year increased by 21.8% year-on-year to 216.2 GWh. Predictably, Chinese manufacturers CATL and BYD consolidated their leadership.

At least, CATL increased the capacity of traction batteries delivered to the market by 30% to 81.4 GWh, which corresponds to a 37.7% share. As before, the market leader maintains a significant lead over the nearest competitor, BYD, which also produces a large number of electric and hybrid vehicles based on its traction batteries. Nevertheless, BYD holds a moderate 15.4% in the traction battery market, and the volume of its product shipments increased by 28.1% year-on-year to 33.2 GWh.

CATL increased its market share in the year-on-year comparison by more than two percentage points, from 35.3 to 37.7%, but at the end of the first three months of the current year, its share reached slightly higher at 37.9%. BYD’s market share decreased from 15.8% to 15.4% in a year-on-year comparison, but it did not exceed 14.3% in the first three months of the year.

Interestingly, from January to February, LG Energy Solution managed to push BYD to the second position in the world ranking, but at the end of the four months of this year, the Korean manufacturer dropped to third place with a share of 13%. The company increased the delivery of traction batteries not as strongly as its closest Chinese rivals, by 7.8% to 28 GWh. A year ago, LG Energy Solution accounted for 14.6% of the global traction battery market.

Beyond the top three, other market players are satisfied with much more modest positions. Samsung SDI accounts for 5.1%, SK On is limited to 4.8%, Panasonic from Japan slightly lags behind it with 4.7%, and its closest weaker competitor is the Chinese CALB with 4.3% of the market. Eve Energy (2.3%) settled in eighth position, Gotion High-Tech slightly lags behind it with a market share of 2.2%, and the top ten are closed by Sunwoda with a market share of 2%, which managed to push Svolt out of the top ten. Manufacturers of traction batteries outside the top ten together control no more than 8.7% of the market.

South Korean battery manufacturers have reduced their market positions by 2.4 percentage points to 22.8% in the four months of this year. Chinese companies are strengthening their position in the market, but it is becoming more difficult for other traction battery manufacturers to compete with the giants among the two largest manufacturers.