's battery is expected to maintain its No. 1 position as it is in high demand in passenger cars such as the Model 3, Model Y, SAIC Mulan, and the Chinese commercial vehicle market, according to SNE Research.

Global battery installations for electric vehicles (EVs) maintained strong growth in the first quarter, with China's CATL and (OTCMKTS: BYDDY) continuing to hold the top two positions.

In the first quarter, global EV battery consumption totaled 133.0 GWh, up 38.6 percent from 95.9 GWh in the same period last year, according to a report released yesterday by South Korean market research firm SNE Research.

Among them, CATL installed 46.6 GWh of batteries in the first quarter, up 35.9 percent from 34.3 GWh in the same period last year.

The Chinese power battery giant continued to rank No. 1 in the world with a 35.0 percent share, down from its 35.8 percent share a year ago and up from its 33.9 percent share in the January-February period.

CATL's battery is expected to maintain its No. 1 position as it is in high demand in passenger cars such as the Tesla Model 3, Model Y, SAIC Mulan, GAC Aion Y, and the Chinese commercial vehicle market, SNE Research said.

BYD installed 21.5 GWh of power batteries in the first quarter, up 115.5 percent from 10.0 GWh in the same period last year.

The company ranked second with a 16.2 percent share in the first quarter, up from 10.4 percent a year earlier and down from 18.2 percent in January-February.

BYD is gaining popularity in the Chinese domestic market with its price competitiveness through a vertically integrated supply chain, including self-supply of batteries and vehicle manufacturing, SNE Research said.

BYD is known to enter the South Korean market soon following Europe, drawing attention to the change in its growth trend, SNE Research added in the report.

LG Energy Solution's power battery installation from January to March was 19.3 GWh, up 37.5 percent year-on-year.

The South Korean company ranked third in the world with a 14.5 percent share, down from 14.6 percent a year earlier.

Japan's Panasonic was fourth with a 9.0 percent share, South Korea's SK On was fifth with a 5.3 percent share and Samsung SDI was sixth with a 4.9 percent share.

China's CALB, Gotion High-tech, Eve Energy and Sunwoda ranked seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth respectively, with shares of 4.3 percent, 2.2 percent, 1.8 percent and 1.4 percent respectively in the first quarter.

Global EV battery market share in Jan-Feb: CATL 33.9%, BYD 18.2%