Korea's big 3 battery makers take up nearly 35% in EV market in 2020

[Graphics by Song Ji-yoon]

South Korea’s battery majors – LG Energy Solution Ltd., Samsung SDI Co., and SK Innovation Co. – doubled their global share in the electric vehicle (EV) power in just a year.

According to market tracker SNE Research on Monday, the combined market share of the three Korean names jumped to 34.7 percent in 2020 from 16 percent in 2019.

LG Energy Solution, the battery unit separated from LG Chem last year, ranked second in the global EV battery market with usage volume amounting to 33.5 gigawatt-hours (GWh) last year, climbing one notch from the previous year.

Samsung SDI remained unchanged at fifth with 8.2 GWh, up 85.3 percent from the previous year. SK Innovation jumped up three spots in the rankings to sixth with its EV battery usage volume more than tripling from a year ago to 7.7GWh.

China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL) ranked top by supplying 34.3GWh and taking commanding 24 percent in the market. Its battery use volume increased 5.4 percent from 2019 to 32.5GWh, beating LG Energy Solution by just 0.8GWh. Japan’s Panasonic ranked third and China’s BYD came in fourth, but their usage volume dropped 8.2 percent and 13.5 percent, respectively, to 26.5GWh and 9.6GWh.

The growth of LG Energy Solution was boosted by brisk sales of Tesla Model 3 in China, Renault Zoe and Volkswagen ID.3. EVs equipped with Samsung SDI’s batteries such as Audi e-tron EV, Ford Kuga PHEV and Volkswagen Passat GTE as well as cars with SK Innovation’s batteries such as Hyundai Kona EV in Europe and Kia Niro also showed robust sales last year.

Total battery usage volume for EVs around the globe reached 142.8GWh last year, up 21 percent from 2019. Demand for EVs had tumbled in the first half of 2020 amid the pandemic but began to recover rapidly starting the third quarter.

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