China’s domestic power battery installations reached 79 GWh in August, up 26.3% year on year and 5.9% from July, according to monthly data released on Tuesday by the China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance (CABIA).
CATL and BYD together accounted for 62.43% of the total, the highest combined share in recent months, as market concentration continued to intensify.
The world’s largest battery manufacturer installed 32.54 GWh in August, holding a 41.5% share.
Despite that, its share slipped 0.89 percentage points from July, when the company installed 31.40 GWh and grew 35.9% year on year.
CATL still remained far ahead of all rivals, with monthly volume nearly doubling that of the second-ranked supplier — BYD, which deployed 16.47 GWh and held a nearly 21% share, up 26.5% year over year.
Unlike CATL, BYD gained share month on month, adding 1.75 percentage points from July’s 14.26 GWh.
BYD’s battery division FinDreams supplies packs for the company’s own vehicles and a growing number of external customers, a model that has helped the Shenzhen-based group lift its overseas sales target twice this year.
Li Auto announced in August plans to put its own batteries in every model, a move that could redirect volume away from outside suppliers including BYD.
Mid-Table Suppliers Diverge
CALB held third place with 5.11 GWh and a 6.5% share, but growth was nearly flat at 1.6% year on year.
CALB lost 0.5 percentage points of share from July, when the company installed 5.16 GWh.
EVE Energy climbed to fourth from fifth in July, installing 4.67 GWh for a nearly 6% share.
Year-on-year growth of 70.4% made EVE one of the fastest-growing suppliers in the top ten.
Gotion High-Tech slipped to fifth with 4.61 GWh and a 5.9% share, growing 25.6% year on year but losing ground from the 4.66 GWh posted in July.
REPT Battero ranked sixth at 2.72 GWh, a 3.47% share and 75.5% year-on-year growth.
In July, REPT posted an even higher growth rate of 132.0% on 2.90 GWh but shed volume sequentially.
Sunwoda followed with 2.71 GWh, a 3.46% share and 10.6% annual growth.
Sunwoda supplies battery packs for Nio’s compact Firefly sub-brand and remains the only non-CATL supplier still active across the group’s product range.
ZENERGY placed eighth at 1.87 GWh.
ENERGEE and SVOLT tied for ninth and tenth with 1.80 GWh each, though SVOLT’s trajectory stands out: the company posted 4.0% year-on-year growth in August after contracting 20.0% in July, a partial recovery from a period of financial restructuring.
LG Energy Solution, the only foreign supplier in the top 15, ranked eleventh at 1.60 GWh and a 2.0% share.
LG gained 1.05 percentage points from July, the largest month-on-month share increase among all listed companies.
Industry Concentration
A total of 31 battery manufacturers supplied batteries for vehicles in August, two fewer than a year earlier.
The top 10 suppliers accounted for 74.3 GWh, or 94.1% of total installations, leaving the remaining 21 companies to split less than 5 GWh between them.
Beijing has signalled the trend will accelerate.
China’s newly published 15th Five-Year Plan for the auto industry calls for consolidation across the sector, including “strictly controlled” licensing for new manufacturers and government-backed mergers to eliminate overcapacity.
Earlier this year, CABIA and its energy-storage counterpart CNESA issued a joint call for battery makers to cap supplier payment terms at 60 days — a measure aimed at protecting smaller firms squeezed by the industry’s top-heavy structure.
LFP Dominance Deepens
Lithium iron phosphate batteries continued to extend their lead, accounting for 67.6 GWh of August installations, or 85.6% of the total.
Ternary (nickel-manganese-cobalt) battery installations stood at 11 GWh, or about 14%.
Over the first eight months of the year, cumulative domestic power battery installations reached 489.1 GWh, up 17% year on year.
LFP batteries totalled 402.7 GWh for the period, compared with 85.6 GWh for ternary.
By vehicle type, battery-electric vehicles accounted for 84.3% of power battery installations in August.
Plug-in hybrids, including extended-range models, made up the remaining 15.7%.
Output and Exports Surge
Combined production of power and energy-storage batteries reached 237 GWh in August, up 69.8% year on year and 8.8% from July.
Output for the first eight months totalled 1,523.9 GWh, up 57% year on year.
Combined sales of power and energy-storage batteries reached 223.1 GWh in August, up 65.9% year on year and 20.5% month on month.
Power battery sales totalled 146.8 GWh, or 65.8% of the combined figure, with energy storage at 76.3 GWh.
Exports remain a significant source of incremental demand.
China exported 42.4 GWh of power and energy-storage batteries in August, up 87.5% year on year and 20.4% from July, accounting for 19% of total sales.
Power battery exports reached 24.7 GWh and energy-storage exports 17.7 GWh.
Cumulative exports in the first eight months reached 259 GWh, up 49.6% year on year.
Export growth tracked the broader surge in new-energy vehicle shipments.
Chinese automakers exported 518,000 new-energy passenger vehicles in August, up 154.7% year on year, according to the CPCA.
Domestic retail sales of new-energy passenger vehicles reached 1.005 million units in August, lifting the retail penetration rate to a record 65.2%, up 9.9 percentage points from a year earlier.
