"Direct Hit from US EV Market Slump"... K-Battery Big 3 Retreat in Q1

In the first quarter of this year, all three major Korean battery manufacturers experienced declines in both sales volume and market share in the global electric vehicle (EV) market, excluding China. This was largely due to a slowdown in the North American EV market, which is the largest market.

On May 8, SNE Research, a secondary battery market research firm, announced that total battery usage in electric vehicles (including plug-in hybrid vehicles and hybrid vehicles) sold in the global market excluding China for January to March this year reached 117.4 gigawatt-hours (GWh), representing a 17.4% increase compared to the same period last year.

However, during the same period, the combined market share of the three Korean battery makers—LG Energy Solution, SK On, and Samsung SDI—fell by 8.3 percentage points (P) to 29.6%. All three companies posted negative growth, with LG Energy Solution's installed volume decreasing by 0.1% year-on-year, SK On declining by 10.2%, and Samsung SDI dropping by 27.7% compared to the same period last year.

As a result, in the first quarter, LG Energy Solution's market share dropped below 20% to 17.3%, while SK On (7.7%) and Samsung SDI (4.5%) also saw their shares decline.

SNE Research explained, "This was due to both a 28.4% decrease in EV sales in the U.S. market and a slowdown in EV sales by major automakers, which led to reduced battery usage."

In contrast, Chinese battery manufacturers such as CATL and BYD expanded their market shares even outside China. While demand is slowing in North America, the EV market in Europe, Asia, and other emerging markets has continued to grow, resulting in an increase in the adoption of Chinese batteries.

In the first quarter of this year, CATL recorded an installed volume of 39.7 GWh outside China, a 32.0% increase year-on-year, maintaining its first-place market share at 33.8%. BYD's installed volume grew by 60.6% year-on-year, achieving a 9.6% market share and ranking third.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.