EV Battery Usage More Than Doubled In China As It Overshadowed Europe, US Combined

China secured more than half of the world’s electric vehicle battery usage in 2021, maintaining its lead in the fast-growing market, data from South Korea research firm SNE Research showed.

What Happened:  China’s electric vehicle battery usage more than doubled last year to reach 149.2 GWh, or half of the worldwide usage at 296.8GWh.

The country, which boasts of numerous electric vehicle startups such as Nio Inc NIO, Xpeng Inc XPEV, had seen its share fall from 56% in 2019 to 43.7% in 2020 and recovered to a certain extent in 2021. 

Europe secured the second rank, growing by 73.6% to 91.1GWh in 2021, while the U.S. grew its share by 99.6% at 40.2 GWh at the end of the year.

China’s EV battery usage was higher than the consolidated shares of Europe and the U.S. combined, SNE Research data showed.

See Also: Tesla, Nio Battery Supplier CATL Made Up For More Than Half Of China's Power-Battery Market In November

Why It Matters: China’s quick, subsidies-fueled adoption of the electric vehicle ecosystem — which includes battery electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids, and EV hybrids — has been driving the overall growth in the annual global electric vehicle battery usage.

China’s largest battery supplier CATL is known to be a global frontrunner in battery manufacturing for electric vehicles, with a 32.5% global market share.

CATL supplies EV batteries to Nio and the current global market leader Tesla Inc TSLA. 

Price Action: Nio shares closed 2.9% higher at $24.7 a share on Tuesday.