The battery war: who’s who in the new scenario posed by electric mobility

With the arrival of electric cara large group of companies must change category or disappear. Battery-powered cars have far fewer internal moving parts, fewer mechanical components, and yes, more electronics, but they will definitely use fewer contract industries to manufacture. From oil production to candle makersgearboxes, exhausts, engine valves, pistons, and so many other things that an electric car won’t have to use.

Although some enterprises have already begun to restructure their production system, including staff reductionthe change may not be seen as strongly now, but we also won’t have to wait until 2035 to appreciate the new storyline.

Internal combustion cars will continue to be manufactured until the middle of the next decade in developed countries and beyond in time for other markets around the world, but the growth of electric mobility will require greater investments in this technology and divestment in the current one, and the volume of production of “petroleum” cars will decrease, with which accounts will not close for everyone in the same way as has happened so far.

During, another industry has become the strongest in the sectoreclipsing everything around it, such as autonomous driving. battery manufacturing for these electric cars is the great challenge of the current automotive industry, and promises to remain so for a few years to come.

And the challenge is twofold for automakers around the world. The first of the obstacles is to ensure the supply, and the second is that more than 80% of the world’s lithium-ion batteries come from China. Although the best known are two, true industrial giants such as CATL there BYDthe reality is that in China, it’s not just them, but many small producers who want “their piece of the pie”.

CATL is by far number one. Not only in the current production, but in the infrastructures which are already being expanded and in the announcements of plans until the end of this decade. Today it is a supplier of brands as varied as Tesla, Ford, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo or the entire Stellantis group. They control the 37% of the global market batteries for electric cars.

The other major Chinese manufacturer is the company itself. BYDthe company that produces and sells more electric cars in the world even on Tesla, and that it not only manufactures cars and batteries, but also has its own fleet of ships to export them to any destination. Its production level is much higher than the rest of Chinese manufacturers and it is on an annual volume equal to that of Korea. LG Energyboth with the 14% of the global market.

The fourth largest battery manufacturer is Japanese panasonicwith who You’re here try to make the new ones work 4680 cells to launch the delayed Cybertruck pickup before the end of this year. Panasonic holds 7% of the battery market, just ahead of two other South Korean companies, SK-On and Samsung SDI, both with 5% of the market. The ranking published by the specialized consulting firm NES Search shows that among the top ten production positions are the other new Chinese companies that aspire to win some customers, mainly from CATL. These are CALB, Gouxuan, Sunwoda and Farasis Gan Zhou Energywho currently hold the remaining 4, 3, 2 and 1% of the electric car battery market.

“Automakers don’t want just one supplier,” he said. Siyi Mi, analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “He is not good at negotiating prices for battery supplies. That’s why The manufacturers cars bring in-house supplies or try to partner with smaller players to break the monopoly. This could cause CATL to lose some of the dominance it has over the rest today. According to analysts at Reference mineral intelligenceCATL’s share in world production could drop to 13% for 2030.

The problem, however, they must solve by Europe and the United States. Between them they have the largest number of automakers in the world, but they seem to be fighting instead of looking at the growth of more Chinese companies. The government of Joe Biden with his Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)which includes state aid for certain industries such as the automotive industry, has generated such interest in its own companies such as Tesla or third parties such as volkswagen, which even went so far as to suspend the German project to build its first large battery factory in Europe, to study whether it should be moved to the United States. In January this year alone, another big business, the Britishvolt battery factory, also collapsed, although this time it was due to a lack of funds.

What the automobile industry was asking of the authorities of the European Union was a reaction and setting up a scenario which allows better conditions for the development of electrification projects, otherwise, between the Chinese advance and the American seductionEurope will be hostage to other markets for the future of its electric cars.

It now seems that the European Commission is working on this, simplifying the approval of subsidies in key sectors such as batteries and renewable energies. The amendment gives EU member states more leeway to provide public funds in the form of grants, loans or tax credits.

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