LG Chem becomes No. 1 EV battery supplier in H1

SEOUL, Aug. 3 (Yonhap) -- LG Chem Ltd., South Korea's leading chemical firm, became the largest supplier of electric vehicle (EV) batteries in the first half of the year, data showed Monday.

Based on the global usage of EV batteries, LG Chem's market share stood at 24.6 percent in the January-June period, up from 10.4 percent from a year earlier, according to market tracker SNE Research.

The data showed that 10.5 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of LG Chem's EV batteries were used in the first half of this year, compared with 5.7 GWh from a year earlier.

SNE Research attributed the hike to robust sales of the Tesla Model 3, the Renault Zoe EV and the Audi e-tron EV, which are all powered by LG Chem's EV batteries.

China's CATL came in second in the first half of the year with a 23.5 percent market share, down slightly from 25.1 percent from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, two other South Korean EV battery makers -- Samsung SDI Co. and SK Innovation Co. -- came in fourth and sixth place with a 6 percent market share and a 3.9 percent one, respectively.

The strong performance of the Korean EV battery makers came despite a sharp decline in the global usage of EV batteries due to the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

The combined global usage of EV batteries came to 42.6 GWh in the January-June period, down 23 percent from 55.3 GWh from a year earlier.

entropy@yna.co.kr
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