BYD widens its lead over Tesla supplier LG as global EV battery usage hits 133 GWh

LG has fallen behind BYD in the global EV battery market, as Tesla's main competitor widened its market share lead before the South Korean battery maker. BYD again notched a big gain in the January-March quarter with a comfortable 16.2% market share of the global EV battery installations that reached 133 GWh of total capacity in Q1, a 38.6% year-on-year increase.

BYD's share increase seems to have come directly from the world's biggest battery maker CATL whose piece of the pie fell from 37% at the end of last year, to 35% now. CATL makes LFP batteries for Tesla's bestselling Model 3 and Model Y versions which helps keep it abreast of the pack, while Tesla's other cell suppliers LG and Panasonic actually notched higher results.

LG has now dropped to third place in the largest EV battery makers ranking with 14.5%. That's still an increase over its 13.6% market share a quarter ago, yet BYD's EV orders simply skyrocketed in that time. With the introduction of its first affordable EV for the mass market - the BYD Seagull - the automaker's share of the global battery cells production may increase even further this current quarter.

Tesla's Panasonic, which has big plans for 4680 battery production on US soil to take advantage of the newly minted federal subsidies, also recorded a 2% market share increase. Actually, everyone in the top 5 but the global leader CATL posted a widened market share, which seems to have been at the expense of the "Other" category, as the top 10 EV battery makers now hold 95% instead of 91% of the market on last count:

1. CATL: 35%
2. BYD: 16.2%
3. LG: 14.5%
4. Panasonic: 9%
5. SK On: 5.3%
6. Samsung: 4.9%
7. CALB: 4.3%
8. Gotion: 2.2%
9. Eve Energy: 1.8%
10. Sunwoda: 1.4%
11. Other: 5.3%

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