Another positive year for EV battery makers, with plug-ins selling more and more, the demand for batteries just keeps on growing, with an increase of 54% regarding the previous year. The Big Three continue to call the shots, but BYD is closing the gap...
- The leader Panasonic is following the market growth, mainly thanks to battery-hungry Tesla, with VW now playing with the Big Boys, 2015 will be another great year for Panasonic
- AESC, the joint venture between NEC and Nissan, continues to lose share (36% in '12, 28% in '13 and 23% now), despite the success of the Leaf (Renault is to blame), and with Nissan outsourcing to LG in the future, it looks that the market share will keep on going down;
- LG Chem has been losing share, but with a new Chevy Volt coming along and the New Gen batteries coming in 2016, the future looks promising;
- BYD is this year star, with the Qin propelling sales and doubling share in the battery market, from 3% last year to the current 6%, while surpassing GS Yuasa at the same time, becoming thelargest of the small. Now with the battery-heavy Denza hitting the streets, it sure looks that BYD will continue to outperform the market and win even more market share;
- Lithium Energy Japan (GS Yuasa / Mitsubishi), it benefits from the success from the Outlander PHEV, but the 12kWh only can do so much to help improve sales;
- Samsung has a partnership with BMW, and with the bavarian maker plug-in sales getting better and better, Samsung is experiencing a sales surge, it's now #6 with 4% share.
- Beijing Power Pride (BPP), battery supplier for BAIC, is first on a series of chinese battery makers, growing from insignificance to a small player status, BPP is now #7 with 2% share, but there are others, like Air Lithium in #9 (Kandi provider), Tianneng in #10 (Chery provider), and Wanxiang in #11 (That's right, those of Fisker deal, they supply batteries for Zotye) .
A final remark for batteries chemistry, Li-Ion batteries dominate the market, but now they only own 88% vs 92% the year before, because chinese battery makers (Like BYD or BPP) prefer LiFePo4 (8% share now vs 4% in 2013).
