In recent years, the production of batteries for electric cars has exploded. Currently, Asian companies dominate the market authoritatively.
Each car with electric motor or hybrid propulsion system consists of batteries. With higher or lower capacities, they represent a large part of the cost of a vehicle.
According to Deloitte, global sales of electric vehicles, estimated for 2.5 million units by 2020, will increase 12 times – to 31.1 million – in 2030 representing almost a third of the new vehicle market.
Here are the largest manufacturers of batteries for electric and hybrid cars, companies whose future looks even brighter than that of IT equipment.
CATL
At the end of June 2021, the Chinese company CATL reached an annual battery production capacity of 65.45 Gigawatt hours (GWh). Plants are currently under construction that will provide an additional capacity of 92.5 GWh.
Global leader in the industry by market share CATL has among its customers big names in the field of production of electric cars such as Volkswagen, General Motors, BMW or Daimler. To these are added many Chinese car companies.
The company announced in August a plan to set up a production base in Shanghai that will pave the way for a collaboration with the Chinese plant of Tesla Inc.
LG Energy Solution
The South Korean company estimates that it will reach a production capacity of 155 GWh by the end of this year and intends to raise this value to 430 GWh by 2025. Coarsely, this would mean the supply of batteries for about 7.2 million vehicles. electric.
LG plans to invest more than $ 4.5 billion by 2025 in its battery production business in the United States alone. Plans include two new plants – built with GM in Ohio and Tennessee – that would allow LG to manufacture a total of 70 GWh of batteries in the United States, where it already has a unit with an annual production capacity of 5 in Michigan. GWh.
In China, where it produces cylindrical batteries for Tesla, the company has invested about 4.8 billion dollars, and in Poland it has financed a production capacity of 70 GWh with about 6 billion dollars.
LG and Hyundai Motor Group announced this summer that they will jointly invest $ 1.1 billion to set up a battery factory in Indonesia.
Panasonic
The Japanese company produces cylindrical NCA (nickel-cobalt-aluminum) batteries in the United States, at a factory in Nevada, but also in facilities in Japan. Almost all production is reserved by Tesla.
Although they avoided revealing their total production capacity, the Japanese announced in the spring of 2021 that they plan to expand the Nevada 35 GWh plant due to increased demand from Tesla. The Nevada plant opened in 2014.
Panasonic also plans to start testing a new cylindrical battery designed with Tesla this year. The company also has a partnership with Toyota Motor established in February, Prime Planet Energy & Solutions, to develop “prismatic” batteries.
Panasonic officials also announced that they were considering building a battery factory in Norway to target the European market, but did not provide further details.
SK Innovation
According to the latest data, SK Innovation has a global production capacity of 40 GWh of which 27 GWh in China, 7.5 GWh in Hungary and the rest in South Korea.
The company plans to grow more than fivefold, to 220 GWh, by 2025, the expansion being concentrated mainly in the US.
SK Innovation is already building two battery plants in Georgia, with a total production capacity of 21.5 GWh, which will begin production in early 2022. Together with Ford Motor Co., it will also develop three more power plants in the United States. batteries with a combined annual capacity of 129 GWh.
Samsung SDI
A division of the Korean giant Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, the company has battery factories in Hungary, China and South Korea. Unfortunately, there is no data on its total production capacity and no clear information on investments.
However, in July, Reuters announced that Samsung SDI, which has Ford and BMW customers, could build a battery factory in the United States. Depending on the outcome of negotiations with Stellantis and Rivian, the company could invest in new production capacity, also in the US.
