CATL is strengthening its leadership in the global battery market.
The global market for batteries used in electric and hybrid vehicles grew by 20 percent in the first half of 2026. CATL was able to expand its market share to around 40 percent, and together with BYD it dominates more than half of the entire global battery market for electric vehicles.
According to the latest analysis by South Korean market research firm SNE Research, the total capacity of battery cells produced for electric vehicles increased from January to June to 608.5 gigawatt-hours. This represents a 20 percent increase compared to the same period last year. However, this figure is misleading: the growth rate was actually much lower than that of the entire year 2025, when growth still stood at 31.7 percent. SNE Research takes into account not only battery cells for fully electric vehicles but also those for plug-in hybrids and conventional hybrid vehicles.
CATL, the market leader, accounted for 242.7 GWh of this production volume. The Chinese company managed to increase its sales by 25.3 percent compared to the previous year and raised its market share by 1.7 percentage points, from 38.2 percent to 39.9 percent.
Also from China, BYD secured second place with a production volume of 87.7 GWh. However, its growth rate was only 1.6 percent, with a market share of 14.4 percent. Together, CATL and BYD accounted for 54.3 percent, covering more than half of the global battery market for electric and hybrid vehicles.
In third place is the first South Korean manufacturer: LG Energy Solution (LGES) produced a total of 52.6 GWh in the first half of 2026, which was 8.4 percent more than in the same period in 2025. Yet its market share dropped from 9.6 percent to 8.6 percent.
In the top 10 of the largest battery manufacturers for electric and hybrid vehicles during the reporting period, there are seven Chinese companies (CATL, BYD, CALB, Gotion, EVE, SVOLT, and Sunwoda), two South Korean companies (LGES and SK On), and only one Japanese company (Panasonic).