BYD, backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, has gone past LG Energy Solution as the world's second-largest electric vehicle (EV) battery producer, reinforcing China's dominance of the industry as EV adoption picks up pace globally.
The Shenzhen-based company, which is also the world's largest EV maker, now trails domestic rival Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), with the two players controlling a combined 52% of the global market, according to South Korea-based SNE Research.
BYD installed 29.4 gigawatt hours (GWh) of batteries between January and April, a jump of 108.3% from 14.1GWh in the same period last year, giving it a market share of 16.1%, according to SNE Research.
It beat LG's installation volume, which grew 49.3% to 25.7GWh, accounting for 14.1% of the global market. Ningde-based CATL supplied 65.6GWh of batteries, an increase of 55.6% year-on-year, accounting for 35.9% of the global market.
"BYD's increasing market share in the EV battery business was within expectations, because more carmakers are convinced of their products' quality," said Davis Zhang, a senior executive at Suzhou Hazardtex, a supplier of specialised vehicle batteries. "China will continue to play a leading role in expanding EV battery capacity around the world."
Chinese battery makers have been stealing a march over their global rivals amid galloping EV sales on the mainland. From January to April, EV sales rose 36% year-on-year to 1.84 million units, but the growth slowed from the 96% pace recorded in 2022.
Chinese EV battery producers are revving up their overseas expansion as international marques from BMW to Volkswagen place increasing orders for their products. Ford Motor announced a plan in February to cooperate with CATL on a US$3.5 billion EV battery factory in Michigan. Unlike typical joint ventures Ford will own the plant outright and produce CATL's low-cost lithium ferrous phosphate battery under license.
BYD's blade lithium iron phosphate battery packs have proved to be popular with drivers and car assemblers. The battery cells are arranged in a pattern that increases energy density while enhancing resistance to overheating. The blade batteries have also been supplied to Tesla's factory in Berlin.
One GWh of BYD's blade batteries can be used to power about 13,000 EVs, each with a driving range of about 500 kilometres.
Six of the world's top 10 battery makers are from China. Apart from CATL and BYD, CALB is in seventh place with a 3.9% share; Gotion High-Tech's 2.4% share places it eighth; Eve Energy is in the ninth position with a 1.8% share and Sunwoda ranks 10th with a market share of 1.5%.
The six Chinese firms controlled 62.5% of the global market in the first four months of this year, up from 60.4% in 2022.
