How much more was built than used
A gigawatt hour is a unit of energy large enough to measure a whole country battery supply. The International Energy Agency counts global battery cell manufacturing capacity, the most the world could build running flat out, at more than 4,000 gigawatt hours by the end of 2025. Electric cars worldwide used 1,200 gigawatt hours of that capacity, up almost 30% from 2024. Dividing those 2 numbers gives more than 3 times as much capacity as cars alone used, a MAOWCE calculation, not a ratio the agency itself states. The agency states its own 3 times figure for 2024, on a wider base that also counts storage batteries, systems that store power for the electricity grid rather than a vehicle.
Where the capacity sits, and who actually uses it
Over 80% of the world battery manufacturing capacity sits in China. Inside the United States, companies headquartered in North America, largely Tesla, owned more than 35% of nameplate capacity, yet produced only about 3% of the batteries installed in electric cars sold worldwide in 2025. A newly built battery plant usually takes more than 5 years from opening to reach output close to what it was designed for, the agency says. Several automakers have also scaled back or withdrawn from battery joint ventures, the agency reports.
The 4,000 figure is the agency own more than 4,000, shown here as 4,000 exactly. The gap would be even wider if this chart also counted grid storage batteries, which are left out of both bars.
Show the numbers
| Capacity built | 4,000 |
| Used by electric cars | 1,200 |
Even inside China, a few companies use most of what is built
CATL installed 333.57 gigawatt hours of battery into vehicles sold inside China in 2025, 43.42% of the domestic market, down from 45.08% in 2024, according to CABIA, the China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance, reported by CnEVPost. BYD installed 165.77 gigawatt hours, 21.58% of the market, down from 24.74% in 2024. CALB installed 53.61 gigawatt hours. Adding CATL and BYD own reported shares, a MAOWCE calculation, puts the 2 largest makers at about 65% of everything carmakers inside China installed that year, leaving less for CALB and every other domestic maker in the same data.
CATL and BYD reported 43.42% and 21.58% of the domestic market this year, adding to about 65% combined, a MAOWCE calculation on the 2 reported shares.
Show the numbers
| CATL | 333.57 |
| BYD | 165.77 |
| CALB | 53.61 |
The gap is not free to hold open
Average battery pack prices fell 8% worldwide in 2025, after a 20% fall in 2024, the largest drop since 2017, the agency reports. Companies making cathode material, the metal compound inside a battery cell that stores its charge, kept expanding while losing money, the agency reports. LG Energy Solution, a battery maker, cut annual capital spending from about 9,000,000,000 dollars in 2024 to about 7,500,000,000 dollars in 2025, up from about 3,000,000,000 dollars in 2021, the agency states. Toyota planned to open a battery factory in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, by 2028, and has now delayed that start twice, citing weakening demand for electric cars, with no new date set, according to electrive.com. Toyota still owns the site, which cost about 6,000,000,000 yen, about 34,000,000 euros.
All 3 figures are the agency own approximate numbers, about 3,000,000,000 dollars, about 9,000,000,000 dollars and about 7,500,000,000 dollars, rounded here to billions for the axis.
Show the numbers
| 2021 | 3 |
| 2024 | 9 |
| 2025 | 7.5 |
Why capacity keeps coming anyway
The Mercator Institute for China Studies, a research institute known as MERICS, defines overcapacity as a company, country or market holding more production capacity than it can use profitably. It names batteries, alongside electric cars, solar panels and semiconductors, as 1 sector caught in this pattern in China today, and states the European Union has already lost solar panels, electric cars and electric car batteries to China. Provincial subsidies, cheap financing and local governments protecting their own employers, rather than letting weak producers close, keep capacity coming even where it does not sell, the institute reports. Zheng Zhajie, a director at the National Development and Reform Commission in China, described the same pattern at a press conference on manufacturing overcapacity broadly, not batteries specifically.
There are firms that are producing more but not increasing revenue or profit.
Zheng Zhajie, a director at the National Development and Reform Commission in China. Source 3.