Panasonic Dominates EV Battery Cell Production Rankings … With Gigafactory On Horizon

José Pontes — founder of EV Sales, cofounder of EV Volumes, regular contributor to CleanTechnica and EV Obsession, and regular speaker on our Cleantech Revolution Tour circuit — has just rounded up some global EV battery cell production numbers for the first half of 2016. The thing about looking at electric car sales is that “not all electric cars are created equal.” Some have ~300 miles of electric range, while some have ~6 miles of electric range. EV battery rankings do a better job of highlighting this point.

Tesla’s Model S and Model X sell pretty well. The other cars that sell well, though, have far less electric range. As a result, Panasonic (producer of Tesla’s battery cells) absolutely crushes the competition in overall EV battery production.

Despite LG Chem providing batteries to the largest number of electric car models, it sits at #4 on the list, with about 20% of the total that Panasonic achieved. Its production grew a little bit compared to the first half (H1) of 2015, but not nearly as much as most other producers.

BYD, which dominates the Chinese electric car (and bus) market, solidly held onto the #2 spot. It actually gained a little bit of market share on Panasonic, essentially due to China’s increasingly strong EV policies and fast EV growth there.

AESC, which is the NEC + Nissan joint venture that produces the battery heart for Nissan’s record-holding Nissan LEAF, gained the bronze medal again this year, with precisely the same market share among the top 10 as last year (11%).

What will this list look like in a few years? I encourage you to read these pieces for some insight on that:

1. Tesla Gigafactory 1 — Honestly, What’s The Big Deal? (At Essence, It’s Not The Numbers)
2. Tesla Model Y, Tesla Transit, & Tesla Gigafactories — More Info
3. 3 Battery Alleyways Elon & JB Used To Give Big Auto & OPEC Nightmares
4. 11 Key Tesla Gigafactory, Model 3, Solar, & Elon Romance Takeaways From Today’s Statements