The combined market share of LG Energy Solution, SK On, and Samsung SDI reached 25.6 percent in the January-May period of this year, down 9.1 percentage points from 34.7 percent in the same period of 2021, said SNE Research, a market research company, on July 4.
Fifth-ranked SK On’s market share rose 1.6 percentage points from 5.2 percent to 6.8 percent, while LG Energy Solution, which is ranked second, saw its share plunge 9.2 percentage points from 23.6 percent to 14.4 percent. Samsung SDI at 6th place also suffered a drop of 1.5 percentage points as its share fell to 4.4 percent from 5.9 percent.
In May, the usage of LG Energy Solution’s batteries totaled 4.2 gigawatt hours (GWh), down 24.8 percent from the same month of the previous year. Its market share also fell from 26.4 percent to 12.5 percent. The usage of SK On’s batteries in May hit 2.2GWh, up 100.1 percent over the same period. Samsung SDI enjoyed an increase of 48.0 percent to 1.7GWh in the same period.
The Korean battery makers’ sluggish performance is blamed on the rapid growth of their Chinese rivals. From January to May this year, the total battery usage of electric vehicles registered around the world reached 157.4GWh, up 77.3 percent from the same period last year. CATL’s global market share rose by 5.6 percentage points from 28.3 percent to 33.9 percent. The market share of China’s BYD, the No. 3 player, also jumped from 6.9 percent to 12.1 percent during the same period.
CATL plans to accelerate the development of next-generation batteries and widen its gap with other battery makers. Recently, it has developed the CTP3.0 Kirin Battery, a next-generation battery that can enable an electric car to run 1000 km on one single charge, and announced that it will begin mass production of the battery model in 2023. The battery is said to be capable of holding 13 percent more electricity than Tesla’s 4680 cylindrical battery and can be charged up to 80 percent with a 10-minute fast charge.
