H1 2020: Automotive Battery Cells from Korea Increased despite a Shrinking Market

H1 2020: Deployment of automotive Battery cells from Korean players increased immensely in an otherwise shrinking market.

42.6 GWh of battery cells were deployed in registered xEVs between January-June 2020, which corresponds to a market decline of -23% YoY.

The lower demand in batteries was caused by low sales numbers of xEVs in China and the USA as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, Chinese players with focus on the domestic market deployed significantly less battery cells compared to H1 2019. 

On the other hand, the xEV market in Europe (+50% YoY) and other regions (>10%) continued to grow despite the pandemic. This especially helped the Korean players, e.g. LG Chem continued its growth thanks to the strong sales of Renault Zoe, Audi E-tron EV (95kWh), and the Porsche Taycan, Chinese Tesla Model 3. SDI's growth was driven by the Audi E-tron EV (71kWh), Volkswagen Passat GTE, and e-Golf. 

Outlook: The xEV market in China is recovering quickly, which will help the Chinese players to regain market share. CATL will probably reclaim the first rank till the end of 2020.