Over the last decade, electric vehicles have been transformed from an elaborate science experiment to a legitimate transportation option for countless drivers around the world. Underscoring this, according to analytics firm Rho Motion, some 17.1 million light-duty passenger EVs were sold globally in 2024. That’s a whopping 25 percent year-over-year increase. Electric vehicle deliveries have been moving in the right direction, but they could be slowing down.
EV Sales Might “Remain Sluggish”
According to a recent report from Reuters, electric vehicle sales may “remain sluggish” until the first half of 2026. This comes from Choi Joo-sun, the chief executive officer of Samsung SDI, a South Korean battery manufacturer.
While speaking at a battery exposition, Joo-sun also said he expects that in the first quarter of this year, the company’s earnings will bottom out before starting to gradually rebound in the second quarter. As Reuters reported, Samsung SDI posted a 2024 fourth-quarter loss of around $177 million.
This somewhat downward trend is echoed by Samsung SDI’s major competitor, LG Energy Solution, another South Korean battery company. Kim Dong-myung, the CEO of this high-tech firm also expects earnings to start improving in the second half of 2025. For the October-to-December period, LG Energy Solution posted an operating loss of $158 million. That compares unfavorably to the roughly $234 million profit they made during the same period a year earlier.
Building Batteries Is A Big Business
Samsung SDI is a major battery manufacturer for electric vehicles. According to Rho Motion, this company was the fifth-biggest battery builder in the world last year, moving up one spot, beating Panasonic. Overwhelmingly, Samsung SDI builds battery packs for electric vehicles. Unlike rival companies, very few of its production goes to stationary energy storage systems.
In comparison, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited, or CATL for short, is the world’s biggest battery manufacturer, and by a country mile. This Chinese company builds a staggering number of batteries for EVs, and appears to make more stationary energy-storage systems than Samsung SDI makes batteries. BYD, another Chinese firm, one that’s also an automaker that focuses on building electric vehicles, comes in second place after CATL. Next is LG Energy Solution, and then comes CALB, the China Aviation Lithium Battery Company.
Many of the world’s top battery manufacturers are based in China, and to a lesser extent, South Korea. This makes sense when you look at the sales of electric vehicles. Some 17.1 million were delivered globally last year, around 11 million of which were sold in China, a 40 percent year-over-year increase.
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