According to data released by SNE Research, a South Korean market research institute, in the first quarter of 2023, the global installed capacity of electric vehicle (EV, PHEV and HEV) batteries was 133 GWh, an increase of 38.6% year-on-year, continuing the growth trend since the third quarter of 2020, but the growth rate has slowed down significantly.
Ningwang and BYD lead the market
In the first quarter of this year, CATL still led the global power battery installed capacity ranking with 46.6 GWh of installed capacity, leaving many battery manufacturers in the dust. CATL's high sales volume also brought high profits, with first-quarter revenue up 83% year-on-year to 89 billion yuan, and net profit up 558% to 9.82 billion yuan. According to this calculation, the average daily income of CATL is more than 100 million yuan.
But behind this excellent performance data lies hidden concerns. CATL's installed capacity in the first quarter increased by only 35.9% year-on-year, which was less than the more than 100% increase in the same period last year, and its market share fell to 35% from 35.8% in the same period last year. In addition, although the gross profit margin of CATL in the first quarter increased by 6.8 percentage points year-on-year to 21.3%, it decreased slightly from the fourth quarter of last year.
However, analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence said that "CATL is likely to maintain strong sales momentum in 2023, and the decline in lithium costs will allow profit margins to continue to recover." Even if CATL's selling price is reduced, CATL can continue to cut production costs and improve profitability thanks to the passing on of part of raw material costs to customers, as well as larger production scales and lower lithium prices. ”
Image source: CATL
BYD, another major battery giant in China, surpassed LG New Energy with a market share of 16.2% and ranked second on the list. Since last year, BYD has been competing with LG New Energy for the runner-up, but this year seems to reveal the intention of competing with CATL. In the case of slowing down the growth of some manufacturers and the entire industry, including CATL, BYD's installed capacity has soared at a rate of 115.5%.
BYD's "fury" also benefits from its strong performance in the global electric vehicle market. BYD has improved its price competitiveness through vertical supply chain management integration such as internal battery supply and automobile manufacturing, dominating the global electric vehicle market. According to SNE Research, BYD's global electric vehicle sales in the first quarter were about 566,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 97%, leading the growth of the global electric vehicle market and promoting its good results in the global power battery market.
According to Li Yunfei, general manager of BYD's brand and public relations office, revealed at the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show, BYD has locked a sales target of 3 million vehicles this year, including overseas markets and the Chinese market. BYD is also about to enter the European and Korean markets, and the overseas business is becoming a new sales growth point for the company. In this context, BYD's competitiveness in the global power battery market will likely be further improved.
Japanese and South Korean manufacturers "suffer from enemies"
When BYD squeezed LG New Energy from the "second place", Japanese and South Korean battery manufacturers occupied the third to sixth positions in the list, but on the one hand, they faced the continuous encroachment of CATL and BYD on their market share, and on the other hand, they faced the strong pursuit of China's second-tier manufacturers, which can be described as "belly back enemy".
However, backed by the global electrification trend, South Korea's three major battery manufacturers still showed an overall upward trend in terms of installed capacity in the first quarter, LG New Energy, SK On and Samsung SDI increased by 37.5%, 5.1% and 52.9% year-on-year, respectively, ranking third, fifth and sixth. The growth of South Korea's three major battery manufacturers benefited from strong sales of customers' best-selling models, of which LG Energy Solution benefited from strong sales of Tesla Model 3/Y, Ford Mustang Mach-E and Volkswagen ID.3/4; SK-On continues to grow with models such as the Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6 and Volkswagen ID.4; Samsung SDI mainly benefits from the popularity of the BMW i4 and iX in the global market, and sales of the Rivian R1T/S have also increased.
Panasonic is the only Japanese battery manufacturer in the top ten in the global power battery market, ranking fourth. As one of Tesla's major battery suppliers, Panasonic provides batteries that are mainly used for Tesla's models in the North American market. Tesla delivered 170,000 electric vehicles in the U.S. in the first quarter, surging 55 percent year-over-year, thanks to sharp price cuts, according to estimates from the Automotive News Research & Data Center. Benefiting from this, Panasonic's global power battery installed capacity in the first quarter increased by 37.7% year-on-year, almost the same as the growth rate of the entire market, and its market share remained unchanged at 9%.
Image source: LG Energy Solution
China's second-tier battery manufacturers China Innovation Aviation, Guoxuan Hi-Tech, EVE Lithium Energy and Sunwoda ranked 7th to 10th. Among them, in the first quarter of this year, the installed capacity of China Innovation Airlines was close to Samsung SDI, but its market share remained unchanged (4.3%). From the perspective of the list, Samsung SDI is still the most wanted competitor of China Innovation Aviation, and the two sides are very similar in terms of installed capacity and market share. The installed capacity of Guoxuan Hi-Tech increased by 13.7% year-on-year, reversing the year-on-year decline in the previous two months, helping the revenue in the same period to increase by 83.26% year-on-year to 7.177 billion yuan, and the net profit attributable to the parent increased by 134.78% year-on-year to 75.6095 million yuan.
In contrast, EVE's installed capacity rose 75.5%, second only to BYD, with a market share increase of 0.4 percentage points. Since the beginning of this year, EVE's performance has been very eye-catching, not only beating Sunwoda in terms of installed capacity, but also frequently reporting good news about expanding production and starting construction. In March, EVE lithium energy storage and power battery project started construction in Shenyang, with a planned production capacity of 40GWh and a total investment of 10 billion yuan.
Sunwoda's installed capacity increased by nearly 30% year-on-year, and its market share fell by 0.2 percentage points. Last year, Sunwoda's performance in the global power battery market was very bright, with a year-on-year increase of more than 100%, but in the first quarter of this year, Sunwoda's performance seems understandable. In addition, Sunwoda's electric vehicle battery business could submit an initial public offering as early as June, as early as June, according to Bloomberg reported at the end of February, when the funds raised will help it further expand the market.
summary
In general, due to the positive impact of factors such as the further development of China's electric vehicle market and the US Inflation Reduction Act, the global power battery market showed a steady upward trend in the first quarter of this year, but the market pattern also showed some small changes.
In the first quarter of this year, the world's top ten battery manufacturers accounted for nearly 95% of the global power battery market share, compared with the share of the remaining battery manufacturers that was constantly eroded, only 5.3%. Among the top ten battery manufacturers, Chinese manufacturers led by CATL and BYD accounted for 60% (60.9%) of the market share, while CATL and BYD accounted for half of the market (51.2%). In contrast, the market share of South Korea's three major battery manufacturers fell by 1.3 percentage points year-on-year, less than a quarter (24.7%).