EV Business Case Q4 - 2013

Batteries are critical for EV's

Batteries Edition

Just like engines in Formula One cars, batteries are the most important component for plug-ins and the one thing that usually car manufacturers don't build in-house, preferring to buy them/cooperate from established battery makers.

Digging a little deeper and finding out the relationships between EV and battery makers allows us to see a somewhat concentrated market, where three manufacturers dominate 80% of the market: AESC, Panasonic and LG. Let's look at them more closely:

- AESC is a joint venture between NEC and Nissan and they provide batteries for the Nissan Leaf and most of Renault's EV's, thanks to the global success of the Nissan Leaf and with the help of Renault sales, this is the #1 battery manufacturer, grabbing some 33% of the EV market in 2013;

- LG has been cooperating with GM and Ford, providing batteries for their EV's, and on top of that, it also sells batteries to Renault, allowing the South Korean company to have some 24% of the EV batteries market;

- Panasonic is the third musketeer and the one with the most high profile customers: Toyota and Tesla use Panasonic batteries, if the first is leader in hybrid cars and an important player in EV's, the second is currently the main consumer of battery cells thanks to the cell-heavy batteries of the Model S. With talks of Tesla and Toyota cooperating in the future and with Tesla ambitious growth plan, Panasonic should do well in the next few years;

 - Other contenders are Lithium Energy Japan (GS Yuasa / Mitsubishi), providing batteries for Mitsubishi, Siemens has a partnership with Volvo and Deutsche ACCUmotive is the provider for the Smart ED, others develop batteries in-house (BYD, Bolloré), while other battery makers are still on their first stages of EV partnership (Toshiba is teaming up with Honda and there's rumors that Samsung will cooperate with Renault).