Comparison between leading Chinese and Japanese lithium battery companies: Can BYD beat Panasonic?

Major listed companies in the industry: Currently, the listed companies in the domestic lithium battery industry mainly include BYD (300750); BYD (002594); BYD (002074); Yiwei Lithium Energy (300014); Farasis Energy (688567); Xinwanda (300207); Payne Technology (688063); Boliwei (688345); Desay Battery (000049); Mengshi Technology (002684); Blue Lithium Core (002245); Penghui Energy (300438); Zhongtian Technology (600522); and ZTE (000063).

Key data of this article: Development history, product layout, financial data, lithium battery market competition pattern, lithium battery shipments, and prices of Panasonic and BYD

Comparison of development history: Panasonic started early

Panasonic is the leading lithium battery company in Japan, while CATL is the leading lithium battery company in China. Panasonic was founded in 1918 and started producing lithium primary batteries in 1960. It entered the Chinese market in 2015 and built a super factory in Dalian. In 2019, it built a super factory in Shanghai. The company's business mainly includes five divisions: home appliances, environmental solutions, Internet solutions, automobiles, and industrial solutions. Among them, lithium batteries are included in the automobile division.

Compared with Panasonic, BYD started later. BYD was founded in 1995. From 2000 to 2002, it became the first Chinese lithium-ion battery supplier for Motorola and Nokia respectively. In 2002, the company was successfully listed on the main board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In 2011, the company was listed on Shenzhen Stock Exchange. In 2020, the company officially launched the " blade battery ", which made a major breakthrough in the field of battery research.

Layout comparison

——Lithium battery product layout: Panasonic's products are more comprehensive

In terms of lithium battery product layout, Panasonic's product types cover power batteries , energy storage batteries and consumer batteries, while BYD is only involved in power battery business and has a relatively simple product structure.

——Layout of lithium battery industry chain: Panasonic's business accounts for a large proportion

In terms of industrial chain layout, Panasonic's business includes five divisions: home appliances, environmental solutions, Internet solutions, automobiles, and industrial solutions. Among them, lithium batteries belong to the automotive division. Home appliances and environmental solutions are the company's two largest businesses, followed by automobiles, which accounted for 17.8% in 2020. In terms of the battery business, lithium batteries accounted for 6.09% of total revenue.

BYD's business is mainly automobile-related business in the downstream of the lithium battery industry. In 2020, automobile-related business accounted for more than half, and battery business accounted for a relatively small proportion, accounting for 6.9%.

Performance comparison: Panasonic is more than twice that of BYD

In terms of revenue, from 2018 to 2020, Panasonic's lithium battery business revenue first increased and then decreased, while BYD's lithium battery business revenue increased steadily. In 2020, Panasonic's lithium battery business revenue was 27.07 billion yuan, and total revenue was 424.019 billion yuan; BYD's lithium battery business revenue was 12.088 billion yuan, and total revenue was 156.598 billion yuan.

Overall, Panasonic is larger in terms of both lithium battery business revenue and total revenue, and its lithium battery business revenue is more than twice that of BYD, but the gap between the two is shrinking year by year.

Market share comparison: Panasonic ranks third in global market share but the decline is large

In terms of market share, according to the installed capacity data of power lithium batteries , overall, from 2019 to 2021, the market shares of Panasonic and BYD both showed a downward trend. Among them, Panasonic's market share declined relatively rapidly, falling by 7.6 percentage points in a year and a half, and BYD's market share fell by 2.8 percentage points.

In the first half of 2021, Panasonic's market share was 17.7%, ranking third in the world, and BYD's market share was 6.6%, ranking fourth in the world.

Capacity planning comparison: BYD has a larger capacity

In terms of production capacity, Panasonic's lithium battery production capacity will reach 8888Gwh in 2021. From a medium- and long-term perspective, Panasonic's lithium battery production capacity will reach 151Gwh in the future. According to BYD's company announcement, the company plans to reach a total production capacity of 110Gwh by the end of 2021, which is half of Panasonic's. According to BYD's project statistics, the cumulative production capacity of the power battery projects currently disclosed is 165Gwh. It is expected that the company's lithium battery production capacity will reach 250Gwh in the future.

Comparison summary of Japan's Panasonic vs. China's BYD

Overall, Panasonic is in a relatively leading position compared to BYD, but as Panasonic's lithium battery business is sluggish or even declining, BYD is expected to catch up.