The Rise and Rise of BYD
EV Battery sales are growing 80%YoY, which is even more than the plug-in car market (+/- 50%), something that can be explained by the increasing size of the average EV battery. With the longer range BEV's just around the corner, expect Battery sales to grow even faster than today.
- No surprises in the leadership, Panasonic is comfortably above, thanks to the continued success of battery-hungry Tesla, but sales to the VW Group have dropped, now that they are more focused on the less battery-heavy PHEV's. Looking at the rest of the year, expect sales to Toyota to restart in a significant way, thanks to the Prius Prime PHEV. So basically, here it's business as usual for Panasonic;
- No surprises in the leadership, Panasonic is comfortably above, thanks to the continued success of battery-hungry Tesla, but sales to the VW Group have dropped, now that they are more focused on the less battery-heavy PHEV's. Looking at the rest of the year, expect sales to Toyota to restart in a significant way, thanks to the Prius Prime PHEV. So basically, here it's business as usual for Panasonic;
- BYD is on a never-ending growing trend, being the only manufacturer to significantly improve share (17% now vs 14% in December '15 and just 6% in 2014!) in the ranking, all while tripling production YoY, thanks not only to the increase in EV production, but also in the average size of their batteries, with the largest being the 80kWh of the 2016 BYD e6;
- AESC, the joint venture between NEC and Nissan, has benefited from the recent uptick in Leaf sales, to hang on and maintain its market share (11%), while at the same time recovering the Third Place from LG Chem;
- LG Chem, with the Volt II not growing to the expected levels, the Korean hasn't been capable to follow the intense market growth, but there shouldn't be much worries here, as the New Gen batteries for the Chevy Bolt and others should pull them back into the Third Place;
- LG Chem, with the Volt II not growing to the expected levels, the Korean hasn't been capable to follow the intense market growth, but there shouldn't be much worries here, as the New Gen batteries for the Chevy Bolt and others should pull them back into the Third Place;
- Samsung has a partnership with BMW and with the German car maker plug-in sales improving, Samsung has also seen sales grow, albeit it wasn't enough to win market share, as many of BMW sales belonged to PHEV's.
- BPP / CATL is the first of a trio of Chinese battery makers in the second half of the ranking, with Wanxiang (SAIC provider) in #9, and Air Lithium (Kandi provider), with the first two experiencing surging sales and beating in six months what they had sold in the whole of 2015.
- A final mention for the #11 E-Power (151) and #12 Tianneng (119), two other Chinese battery makers that help China to obtain 33% of the batteries market, when in the same period last year, they had only 22%. This 11% share increase in only a year is probably one reason why the Chinese government felt confident enough to open the local batteries market to foreign battery manufacturers, as it feels that it will help develop the domestic EV market without killing local battery makers.
- In a fast growing market, Lithium Energy Japan (GS Yuasa / Mitsubishi) sales actually have dropped, hampered by the sales drop of the Outlander PHEV and lack of new models by the Japanese car maker, having inclusively been surpassed by the third Korean battery maker, SK Group, now #7, thanks to the continued success of the Kia Soul EV and, most importantly, their venture into the Chinese EV market, having been battery providers for some of BAIC all-electric plug-ins;
- A final mention for the #11 E-Power (151) and #12 Tianneng (119), two other Chinese battery makers that help China to obtain 33% of the batteries market, when in the same period last year, they had only 22%. This 11% share increase in only a year is probably one reason why the Chinese government felt confident enough to open the local batteries market to foreign battery manufacturers, as it feels that it will help develop the domestic EV market without killing local battery makers.
| Pl | Battery Makers | H1 2016 MWh | (H1) 2015 MWh | %'16 | % '15 |
| 1 | Panasonic | 3.088 | (1.931)4.552 | 37 | 38 |
| 2 3 | BYD AESC | 1.443 930 | (461) 1.652 (705) 1.272 | 17 11 | 14 11 |
| 4 5 6 | LG Chem BPP / CATL Samsung | 623 435 343 | (569) 1.432 (139) 397 (294) 504 | 7 5 4 | 12 3 4 |
| 7 | SK Group | 241 | (N/A) N/A | 3 | N/A |
| 8 9 | Mitsubishi/GS Yuasa Wanxiang | 236 230 | (241) 600 (157) 268 | 3 3 | 5 2 |
10 | Air Lithium (Lyoyang) | 164 | (N/A) 283 | 2 | 2 |
| TOTAL | 8.492 | 12.289 |
One of the big (un)known secrets is the electric Buses success in China, while i don't have actual sales numbers, a good reader of EV Sales provided me some numbers of the largest battery providers for electric buses in China:
1. BYD 1.161 MWh
2. CATL 1.099 MWh
3. Guoxuan 483 MWh
If BYD is not a surprise, CATL, or Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited, has such a high output for buses, that together with their car business (435 MWh) with BPP, makes it somewhat of a Dark Horse, as a reader in CleanTechnica once asked me if there could be such a thing in the Chinese Batteries business. It seems we found it...
As for Guoxuan, it is the first time i see them, does anybody has any input on them?