Three biggest battery manufacturers from South Korea have maintained their positions as the leaders in the global electric vehicle market.
According to a market research company SNE Research on December 4, LG Energy Solution was placed first based on amount of global electric vehicle battery use between January and December with 21,770 MWh. CATL and Panasonic were ranked second and third respectively with 19,836 MWh (21.9%) and 19,524 MWh (21.5%). Samsung SDI and SK Innovation were ranked fourth and fifth respectively.
The reason why the three South Korean battery manufacturers are doing so well in the global electric vehicle market is because global auto makers in Europe with German auto makers at the center have been asking for more of South Korean batteries. The European electric vehicle market is growing at a rapid as European countries are providing more incentives for electric vehicles in order to tighten their environment regulations.
LG Energy Solution, Samsung SDI, and SK Innovation built production plants in Eastern Europe in order to target Volkswagen, Benz, and BMW and have been increasing their supplies of batteries.
Sales of Hyundai Motor Company’s Kona EV have also been on a rise in Europe. According to an automotive market research company called JATO Dynamics, 52.61 million units of Kona EV were sold in Europe in October. This number ranked third after Volkswagen’s ID.3 and Renault’s Zoe.
SK Innovation, which supplies batteries for Kona EVs that are sold in Europe, was ranked third in October after overtaking CATL. The growth of the company within the global electric vehicle is rising at an extremely fast rate. It is expanding its customer list of major auto makers by increasing energy density through pouch cells that are currently used the most in the global electric vehicle market.
SK Innovation also plans to target the Chinese market by operating its plant in China. Although the Chinese market is the biggest electric vehicle market in the world, it is not easy to target the market due to presence of many local Chinese companies. As a result, SK Innovation looks to separate itself from Chinese companies within the Chinese market with batteries that have increased energy density.
Staff Reporter Kim, Jiwoong | jw0316@etnews.com