Market research firm SNE Research reported on May 3 that the global EV battery energy consumption volume was 47.8 GWh in the first quarter of this year, up 127 percent from a year earlier.

“CATL accounted for most of the increase in Q1,” it said, adding, “Specifically, the use of CATL batteries jumped 320.8 percent year on year to 15.1 GWh and Panasonic and LG Chem could not catch up with it at all.”

On the other hand, the market shares of LG Chem, SK Innovation and Samsung SDI stood at 20.5 percent, 5.3 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively. Even their combined share is smaller than CATL’s. The combined share fell 6.9 percentage points in one year.

LG Energy Solution showed a growth rate of 89.3 percent with the popularity of Tesla Model Y, Volkswagen ID. 3 and Ford Mustang Mach-E increasing, and yet its market share fell from 24.6 percent to 20.5 percent. Samsung SDI, which supplies batteries to Audi and Fiat, grew 57.2 percent, but its market share fell from 7.7 percent to 5.3 percent. Likewise, the market share of SK Innovation fell from 5.5 percent to 5.1 percent while the use of its batteries increased 108.6 percent.

CATL raised its market share to 31.5 percent in the first quarter by supplying 15.1 GWh of EV batteries. In addition, a number of Chinese companies, including BYD, CALB and Guoxuan, led the market growth with particularly high growth rates. Specifically, those of CALB and Guoxuan amounted to 913.9 percent and 259 percent, respectively.

Japanese companies as a whole failed to show any meaningful growth although the partnership between Tesla and Panasonic is still solid. Most Japanese EV battery suppliers’ sales growth rates were lower than the market average in the first quarter. Panasonic’s share dropped from 26 percent to 16.5 percent in one year.