Battery Makers 2017

Batteries had a faster production growth rate (+70%) than EV's (+58%) in 2017, as the market became more BEV-oriented and a number of models had their batteries super-sized.

Panasonic continues to lead the charge, but has dropped share, Tesla continues to pull the company boat, but this year it had the help of Toyota, thanks to the Prius Prime, this time with a decently-sized battery (For a PHEV, at least).

With the all-important Model 3 ramp up happening in 2018, expect Panasonic to continue leading throughout the year.

As for BYD, it kept the Second Place, but lost significant market share, due to production constraints, which lead the company to bet more on PHEV models than in their battery-heavy BEV versions.

LG followed the market, mostly thanks to the battery-hungry Chevrolet Bolt, but behind it, CATL was a close Fourth, with the Chinese company jumping two positions in 2017, benefitting from the Chinese PEV rise, namely the BAIC EC-Series.

If the Chinese PEV market continues to grow in 2018 like it did last year, expect CATL to replace LG in the Battery Makers podium, making two Chinese companies in the Top 3.

And we are not considering Buses in this tally...

Pl	Battery Makers	2017 MWh	2016 MWh	% '17	%' 16
1	Panasonic	10.125	6.665	29	33
2 3	BYD LG Chem	4.693 3.523	4.020 2.285	14 10	20 11
	TOTAL	34.772	20.400

A small remark, these are provisional numbers, based in some battery-size assumptions (eg, Tesla) and should serve as an indication, not as carved in stone values.

Battery Makers 2016 (Cars)

Batteries had a faster production growth rate (+66%) than EV's (+40%) in 2016, as the market became more BEV-oriented and a number of models had their batteries super-sized.

Panasonic continues to lead the charge, but has dropped share, as Tesla is effectively pulling the boat all by itself, with Toyota back in 2017 with the Prius Prime, this time with a decently-sized battery (For a PHEV, at least), expect Panasonic to recover share this year.

As for BYD, with the Second Place secured, it just continues to win market share, but production slowed down in the last quarter of 2016, as the brand prepares itself for their new Li-ion batteries.

LG followed the market while waiting for the battery-hungry Chevrolet Bolt, but AESC lost significant share, as they grew slower and with rumors saying that Nissan will prioritize LG batteries in the next Leaf, it seems AESC will start to drop in the ranking in a not-so-distant future. 

After a close race with the Chinese CATL, Samsung ended the year in Fifth, profiting from the BMW sales boom and in minor part also from Mercedes stepping up production of their PHEV's, with BMW setting ambitious goals for this year, Samsung battery division should have a splendid 2017, maybe even outrunning AESC. 

Now consider this, if we add Buses batteries to the tally, BYD goes straight to #1 and CATL jumps from #6 to Third Place...

Pl	Battery Makers	2016 MWh	2015 MWh	% '16	% '15
1	Panasonic	6.665	4.552	33	38
2 3 4 5	BYD LG Chem AESC Samsung SDI Others	4.020 2.285 1.622 1.157 4.651	1.652 1.432 1.272 504 2.877	20 11 8 6 23	14 12 11 4 21
	TOTAL	20.400	12.289	100	100

A small remark, these are provisional numbers, based in some battery-size assumptions (eg, Tesla) and should serve as an indication, not as carved in stone values.

(China) Buses & Batteries 2016

With Chinese brands and market responsible for more than 95% of the global BEV Buses market, basically speaking of eBuses is synonymous with the Chinese market, so i have decided to recover the "China Buses" report and add a few lines regarding the other 5% of the market below.

Electric Buses Sales in China

Pl	Brand	2016
1	Yutong	21.428
2	BYD	14.903
3	Nanjing	7.921
4	Zuhai e)	6.000
5	Hunan	3.410

e) Estimate

Ending a series of articles on China, i left the juiciest of them to the end, Electric Buses.

In the end of 2015, China had 170.000 of the 173.000 ebuses circulating in the World. That's right, 98% of them were in zooming in The Big Red Giant, which i think says it all about the role of that country on the change happening towards eMobility.

For more on how that came to be, please click here.

But, what about in 2016?

Just focusing on all-electric Buses, sales grew to 115.700 units in 2016, which represents some 20% market share, with Yutong still in the lead, followed by BYD and Nanjing.with the first growing 36% YoY and the second more than 50%.

With this kind of growth and market share, it is expected that China goes all-electric in this category in less than 10 years, maybe five, so it is no wonder that large cities like Shenzen are already envisioning an all-electric 15.000 fleet of Buses...In 2017.

Regarding Batteries, CATL produced 5.250 MWh of batteries for Yutong Buses, while BYD added 4.828 MWh of batteries to its already impressive score (4.020 MWh) in passenger cars, ending the year with an amazing 8.848 MWh of batteries.


Source: http://m.nev.ofweek.com/2017-01/ART-71011-8420-30092804.html


And now a few words on the Europe eBuses scene, fleet numbers are in the hundreds, with BEV sales being leaded by BYD (Alone or with ADL help) and the Polish brand Solaris. Other important players are VDL and Volvo, both betting more on PHEVs.

In the USA, the market is even smaller, with BYD being the major driving force there, owning more than half of the market.

Batteries by Car Maker - June 2016

BAIC EU260

Tesla and the Rest 

After the latest report on batteries, there were readers asking for the breakdown by Automakers, instead of battery makers, so here are is a Top 5 ranking battery use by Car Maker.

Pl	Model	H1 '16 (MWh)
1	Tesla (Panasonic)	2.484
2	BYD (BYD)	1.416
3	Nissan (AESC)	930
4	BAIC (BPP/CATL)	435
5	BMW (Samsung)	343

- As expected, Tesla is miles away from the rest of the competition due to their XL-sized batteries. For those asking for the calculation methodology, as there is no breakdown available between the 90/75 kWh batteries, i made the calculation using an average of 85 kWh;

- BYD is a comfortable Second. Numbers went down slightly regarding the Batteries report, because Denza batteries figures were removed;

- Nissan is Third, helped by the increase in size (30kWh) of most of its units sold;

- Below Nissan, we have a surprise, with BAIC jumping to Fourth, battery-wise, thanks to an all-electric, and battery-heavy line-up. For example, its EU260 sedan has a 41.4kWh battery, enough for...You guessed it, 260 kms;

- In Fifth we have BMW, dragged down by most of its sales (68%) being made of small-batteries PHEV's;

Finally, outside this Top 5, the remaining Best Selling brands are Volkswagen (Panasonic), hindered by a PHEV-heavy (62%) line-up, adding just 263 MWh to the market, Mitsubishi (GS Yuasa), suffers from the same syndrome with 236 MWh.

On the LG Chem side, Renault is the best representative, being #6 in the ranking with 314 MWh, thanks mostly to the success of the Zoe, Chevrolet has a rather low result of 221 MWh, surely to be greatly improved with the Bolt. 

The #10 Best Selling EV brand, Ford, shows some really paltry results, contributing with only 68 MWh to LG (Fusion Energi and Focus Electric) and 28 MWh to Panasonic (C-Max Energi), to a grand total of...96MWh, or almost one tenth of Nissan. That's what you get when you only have 7.6KWh PHEV's and a compliance BEV.

Batteries June 2016 (Updated) w/ Bus batteries ranking draft

The Rise and Rise of BYD 

EV Battery sales are growing 80%YoY, which is even more than the plug-in car market (+/- 50%), something that can be explained by the increasing size of the average EV battery. With the longer range BEV's just around the corner, expect Battery sales to grow even faster than today.

- No surprises in the leadership, Panasonic is comfortably above, thanks to the continued success of battery-hungry Tesla, but sales to the VW Group have dropped, now that they are more focused on the less battery-heavy PHEV's. Looking at the rest of the year, expect sales to Toyota to restart in a significant way, thanks to the Prius Prime PHEV. So basically, here it's business as usual for Panasonic;

- BYD is on a never-ending growing trend, being the only manufacturer to significantly improve share (17% now vs 14% in December '15 and just 6% in 2014!) in the ranking, all while tripling production YoY, thanks not only to the increase in EV production, but also in the average size of their batteries, with the largest being the 80kWh of the 2016 BYD e6; 

- AESC, the joint venture between NEC and Nissan, has benefited from the recent uptick in Leaf sales, to hang on and maintain its market share (11%), while at the same time recovering the Third Place from LG Chem;

- LG Chem, with the Volt II not growing to the expected levels, the Korean hasn't been capable to follow the intense market growth, but there shouldn't be much worries here, as the New Gen batteries for the Chevy Bolt and others should pull them back into the Third Place;

 - Samsung has a partnership with BMW and with the German car maker plug-in sales improving, Samsung has also seen sales grow, albeit it wasn't enough to win market share, as many of BMW sales belonged to PHEV's. 

- BPP / CATL is the first of a trio of Chinese battery makers in the second half of the ranking, with Wanxiang (SAIC provider) in #9, and Air Lithium (Kandi provider), with the first two experiencing surging sales and beating in six months what they had sold in the whole of 2015.

- In a fast growing market, Lithium Energy Japan (GS Yuasa / Mitsubishi) sales actually have dropped, hampered by the sales drop of the Outlander PHEV and lack of new models by the Japanese car maker, having inclusively been surpassed by the third Korean battery maker, SK Group, now #7, thanks to the continued success of the Kia Soul EV and, most importantly, their venture into the Chinese EV market, having been battery providers for some of BAIC all-electric plug-ins;

- A final mention for the #11 E-Power (151) and #12 Tianneng (119), two other Chinese battery makers that help China to obtain 33% of the batteries market, when in the same period last year, they had only 22%. This 11% share increase in only a year is probably one reason why the Chinese government felt confident enough to open the local batteries market to foreign battery manufacturers, as it feels that it will help develop the domestic EV market without killing local battery makers.

Pl	Battery Makers	H1 2016 MWh	(H1)   2015 MWh	%'16	% '15
1	Panasonic	3.088	(1.931)4.552	37	38
2 3	BYD AESC	1.443 930	(461) 1.652 (705) 1.272	17 11	14 11
4 5 6	LG Chem BPP / CATL Samsung	623 435 343	(569) 1.432 (139)    397 (294)    504	7 5 4	12 3 4
7	SK Group	241	(N/A)   N/A	3	N/A
8 9	Mitsubishi/GS Yuasa Wanxiang	236 230	(241)   600 (157)    268	3 3	5 2
10	Air Lithium (Luoyang)	164	(N/A)   283	2	2
	TOTAL	8.492	12.289

One of the big (un)known secrets is the electric Buses success in China, while i don't have actual sales numbers, a good reader of EV Sales provided me some numbers of the largest battery providers for electric buses in China:

1. BYD 1.161 MWh

2. CATL 1.099 MWh

3. Guoxuan 483 MWh

If BYD is not a surprise, CATL, or Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited, has such a high output for buses, that together with their car business (435 MWh) with BPP, makes it somewhat of a Dark Horse, as a reader in CleanTechnica once asked me if there could be such a thing in the Chinese Batteries business. It seems we found it...

As for Guoxuan, it is the first time i see them, does anybody has any input on them?

Batteries December 2015

BYD Reaches #2 

- No surprises in the leadership, Panasonic is high above thanks to the continued success of battery-hungry Tesla, with VAG plug-ins compensating for the Toyota sales drop, here it's business as usual for Panasonic;

- BYD is on a never-ending growth trend, being the only manufacturer to significantly improve share (14% now vs 6% last year) in the ranking, all while tripling production YoY; 

- LG Chem has stopped the bleeding, with the Volt II ramping up production and the New Gen batteries coming later in the year, it seems the future is once again bright for the South Korean manufacturer, but the question now is: "Will a reinvigorated LG be able to remove BYD from the Second Spot?";

- AESC, the joint venture between NEC and Nissan, continues to lose share (Down 12%(!) YoY), with the Leaf sales losing steam and with Nissan outsourcing batteries to LG in the future, the future is bleak for the Joint Venture;

 - In a fast growing market, Lithium Energy Japan (GS Yuasa / Mitsubishi) sales have risen on a modest rate, hampered by the small battery volume each Outlander PHEV has;

- Samsung has a partnership with BMW and FIAT, and with both auto manufacturers plug-in sales improving, Samsung has beaten last year result by a large margin, albeit it wasn't enough to win market share. 

- Epower is the first of a series of small chinese battery makers at the bottom of the ranking, with BPP in #8, Air Lithium (Kandi provider) in #9 and Wanxiang in #10, an interesting fact is that all of them have increased share regarding last year.

China is Rising...

Pl	Battery Makers	2015 MWh	2014 MWh	%'15	% '14
1	Panasonic	4.552	2.726	38	38
2 3	BYD LG Chem	1.652 1.432	461 886	14 12	6 12
4 5	AESC Mitsubishi/GS Yuasa	1.272 600	1.620 451	11 5	23 6
6	Samsung	504	314	4	4
7	Epower	489	N/A	4	N/A
8 9 10	Beijing Pride Power (BPP) Air Lithium (Lyoyang) Wanxiang	397 283 268	121 N/A N/A	3 2 2	2 N/A N/A
	TOTAL	12.289	7.167

Batteries - September 2015

BYD Chasing Silver 


- No surprises in the leadership, Panasonic is high above thanks to the success of battery-hungry Tesla, and with VAG plug-ins compensating for the Toyota sales drop, it's business as usual for Panasonic;

- AESC, the joint venture between NEC and Nissan, continues to lose share (Down 10% share regarding last year), with the Leaf sales losing steam and with Nissan outsourcing batteries to LG in the future, the future is bleak for the Joint Venture;

- LG Chem has stopped the bleeding and with the New Gen batteries coming late next year, it seems the future is once again bright for the South Korean manufacturer;

- BYD is on a never-ending growth trend, being the only manufacturer to significantly improve share (12% now vs 6% last year) in the ranking, all while doubling the volume achieved last year in just 9 months. With LG Chem and AESC close, it wouldn't be surprising if it could reach #2 by the end of this year; 

 - In a fast growing market, Lithium Energy Japan (GS Yuasa / Mitsubishi) sales have risen on a modest rate, hampered by the small battery volume each Outlander PHEV has;

- Samsung has a partnership with BMW and FIAT, and with both auto manufacturers plug-in sales improving, Samsung has improved share (Up 1% to 5% share) and has already beaten last year result. 

- BPP (BAIC provider) is the first of a series of small chinese battery makers at the bottom of the ranking, with Epower in #8, Wanxiang in #9 and Tianneng in #10 (Chery provider), an interesting fact is that all of them have increased share regarding last year.

China is Rising...

Pl	Battery Makers	Jan -Sep '15 MWh	2014 MWh	%15	%'14
1	Panasonic	2.875	2.726	38	38
2 3	AESC LG Chem	1.023 916	1.620 886	13 12	23 12
4 5	BYD Mitsubishi/GS Yuasa	902 404	461 451	12 5	6 6
6	Samsung	359	314	5	4
7	Beijing Pride Power (BPP)	249	121	3	2
8 9 10	Epower Wanxiang Tianneng	206 191 125	N/A N/A 77	3 3 2	N/A N/A 1
	TOTAL	7.615	7.167