In this article, we will be taking a look at the 5 biggest battery manufacturers in the world. To read our detailed analysis of the battery sector, you can go directly to see the 12 Biggest Battery Manufacturers in the World.
5. SK Innovation Co., Ltd.
Market share as of July 2022: 6.5%
SK Innovation Co., Ltd. is an energy and chemical company that operates in the fields of oil exploration, batteries, and alternate energy and is based in Seoul, South Korea. It is a part of the SK Group and was the first to bring high-energy ternary materials to the EV market.
SK Innovation Co., Ltd. provides batteries to a number of major automotive manufacturers including Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft, Ford Motor Company, Volkswagen SA, Kia Corporation, and Hyundai Motor Company. It sold 17 GWh in 2021 and sold 10 GWh in the first half of 2022 with a year-on-year growth rate of 50%. It has announced plans to produce a new, cheaper lithium-iron-phosphate EV battery in 2025 and has made major investments in battery plants in the United States, expecting to reach an annual capacity of 150 GWh by 2026.
4. Panasonic Holdings Corporation
Market share as of July 2022: 9.6%
Panasonic Holdings Corporation is a manufacturer of a variety of electronic technology and solutions based in Kadoma, Japan. It specializes in lithium-ion batteries but also deals in lithium coin, nickel metal hydride, and valve-regulated lead acid batteries.
One of the reasons Panasonic Holdings Group has had such a high market share is because of its relationship with Tesla, for which it has been producing Tesla’s 2170 cylindrical batteries since 2016. These batteries are produced in its joint plant with Tesla which has a capacity of 37 GWh annually. In November 2022 it also broke ground on a $4 billion EV battery plant in Kansas with an aim to boost production of EV batteries to Tesla by about 10% by 2024. It has also signed partnerships with major companies including Toyota and the Lucid Group to become the primary battery supplier for their EVs.
3. BYD Company Limited
Market share as of July 2022: 11.8%
BYD is an integrated EV company that has a vertically integrated business model as it produces the batteries and other components for its EVs in-house and is based in Shenzhen, China. It recently overtook Tesla as the world’s largest EV maker due to its huge market in China. In 2022, it had 1.87 million EV deliveries.
In 2021, BYD Company Limited had sales of 26 GWh and increased the number of sales to 24 GWh in the first half of 2022 alone. It was the second lithium-ion cell producer in China to reach Tier One and was promoted to this level in the first half of 2021. The company already has more than 20 battery plants in China with a total capacity of 135 GWh by the end of 2021. It has started working on a plant in Zhejiang with an annual capacity of 20 GWh and plans to raise its capacity to 445 GWh by 2024.
2. LG Energy Solution, Ltd.
Market share as of July 2022: 14.4%
LG Energy Solution, Ltd. is a Seoul, South Korea-based chemical company with global sales. It is a subsidiary of LG Group and has been mass-producing South Korea’s first lithium-ion batteries since 1999. Along with producing batteries it also competes in grid-scale energy storage sectors.
The company supplies a number of EV manufacturers with batteries including Tesla in China, General Motors, and Volkswagen SA. It had sales of 61 GWh in 2021 and 28 GWh in the first half of 2022 and commanded a 14.4% of the total battery market share which makes it the largest non-Chinese battery manufacturer. The company has strong operating margins of 11.4% as of 2021 and a liquidity ratio of 1.73 as of September 2021.
1. Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited
Market share as of July 2022: 34.8%
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited is the world’s largest battery manufacturing company and is based in Ningde, China. It specializes in the production of lithium-ion batteries but also produces sodium-ion batteries and battery management systems.
The company is a supplier to a number of growing EV manufacturers including Hyundai, Honda, BMW, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen, GAC Group, Geely Automobile, SAIC Motor, Daimler, and more. It had sales of 99 GWh in 2021 and 69 GWh in the first half of 2022 alone. The large dominance in market share Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited has is because of its cost competitiveness, technological efficiency, expansion scale effect, and stable working capital security along with being a Tier One battery manufacturer. The company is also expanding fast. This includes a $3.5 billion battery factory project underway in collaboration with Ford Motors with an annual capacity of 35 GWh and an announcement of its second battery manufacturing plant in Europe with a capacity of 100 GWh. The company expects to raise production capacity to 670 GWh by 2025. The company has shown consistent growth in quarterly revenue, generating around $14.17 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2022, and has an expected CAGR of 24.56% per year.
See also Lithium Battery Production by Country and 15 Biggest Electric Car Companies in the World.
