(Yicai) Aug. 12 -- Contemporary Amperex Technology, the world's biggest maker of electric vehicle batteries, has strengthened its commanding position in China from January to July, swelling its market share to almost 47 percent after it narrowed in the past two years.

CATL's market share in China rose to 46.5 percent in the first seven months of the year, from 43.1 percent a year earlier, while use of its EV batteries reached 112.7 gigawatt-hours, figures published by the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance showed on Aug. 9.

BYD, a Chinese EV and battery giant, ranked second with a battery loading volume of 59.88 GWh. Its market share fell nearly 5 percentage points to 24.7 percent, mainly due to slower growth in EV sales, particularly battery vehicles with large power batteries.

The market shares of Ningde-based CATL dropped to 43.5 percent last year from 51.9 percent in 2021, but it rebounded to 48.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, said Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the China Passenger Car Association.

BYD sold 1.95 million EVs in the first seven months, up about 29 percent from a year ago, according to data from the CPCA. That compared with an 88 percent surge in the same period last year.

Despite intensifying competition in the battery market, CATL and BYD continued their dominance over their rivals in China. The country's installed capacity of EV batteries rose 33 percent to 244.9 GWh.

Retail sales of new energy vehicles in China soared 37 percent to 878,000 units last month from a year earlier, with a penetration rate of 51 percent, accounting for over half of all auto sales for the first time ever, according to data released by the CPCA on Aug. 8.

Editor: Martin Kadiev