Market and Technology Trends

Automotive Powertrain and Electrification 2025 - Vol 1 - Focus on e-axles, batteries, and DC chargers

May 2025

High voltage vehicle platforms, high C-rate battery cells, and super high power DC charging, jointly pushing EV market to 44.6M cars by 2030

YINTR25491

Key Features

2020-2030 forecast for global and regional xEV (light vehicle) production (Munits)
2020-2030 forecast for power converters for xEV (Munits and M$)
2020-2030 forecast for battery packs for EV (Munits and M$)
2020-2030 forecast for DC chargers for EV (Munits and M$)
Supply chain update with a focus on China.
Technology evolutions in e-axles, such as new converter topologies, high voltage system integration (all-in-1), power module-inverter co-design, inverter brick, 800V and above platforms, hybrid powertrains; in batteries, such as battery packs, high C-rate cells, pack cooling, and BMS; in DC chargers, such as integration of BESS and Megawatt chargers

What's new

Power converter topology update
GaN based OBC
Power module-inverter co-design
Inverterbrick
1000V high voltage platform
Hybrid powertrain (PHEV, REEV, & HEV)
SiC MOSFET & Si IGBT architecture mix
AI for powertrains

Report Objectives

This Automotive Powertrain & Electrification 2025 - Vol 1 – Focus on e-axles, batteries, and DC chargers report is spun off from Yole Group’s Power Electronics for xEV 2024 report.

This report has a wider range of coverage. All three key sectors in electrification are investigated: automotive powertrains, battery packs, and off-vehicle DC chargers
Analyze the current status of xEV adoption till 2030 at a global scale with individual focuses on key markets: China, Europe, the US, Japan and Korea, and the Rest of the World (RoW)
2020-2025-2030 forecasts in global xEV, power converters, battery packs, and DC chargers
Detailed supply chain summaries on all levels: market performance and major players in all the sectors. Plus a focus on China, with major players and their ranking. An overview of the increasing vertical integration toward power module packaging among Chinese OEMs
For e-axles, new converter topologies, high voltage system integration (all-in-1), power module-inverter co-design, inverter brick, 800V and above platforms, hybrid powertrains, SiC MOSFET and Si IGBT architecture mix, are examined in detail
For battery packs, battery pack trends, high C-rate cells, pack cooling, and BMS, are examined in detail
For DC chargers, topologies of charging station with integrated battery energy storage systems and Megawatt chargers, are examined in detail
The report also briefly discusses AI for powertrains, and 48V powernet, which will be further covered by other Yole Group’s reports. The Automotive Powertrain and Electrification 2025 - Vol 2 – Focus on Power Electronics report will focus on power modules and devices.

Global xEV market continues growth, reaching 65% share by 2030

xEV
Although global automotive market is under growth pressure, xEV is still on track of growth, largely led by China. PHEV, including REEV, is gaining popularity. Both BEV and PHEV gained more than 20% growth in 2024. the combined xEV share in global light vehicle market will go beyond 65% in 2030.
China will keep its dominance in BEV and PHEV, with increasing export, while Europe is starting a new wave of growth since 2025.

E-axles
The market value of all power converts combined will grow with 10.6% CAGR2024-2030, thanks to constantly cost reduction measures.
Inverter is the main part of converter market, seeing 10.8% annual growth between 2024 and 2030, with an increasing trend of integration to e-axles.

Battery packs
The total annual demand in GWh for Li-ion battery packs for xEV will grow from 780 GWh in 2024 to around 2.2 TWh by 2030. The total annual market in billion dollars for Li-ion battery packs for xEV will grow with a 12.7% CAGR2024-2030.
The battery cell accounts for a significant portion of the global battery pack cost, around 70% of the total battery pack market. Although the cell price ($/kWh) is decreasing, the overall cell capacity per pack is increasing, thus keeping the cell’s share of the cost within a battery pack high.

DC chargers
The DC fast charging market is projected to grow at a 17.9% CAGR2024-2030.
The introduction of 1-megawatt chargers is set to elevate this segment to a new level, both in terms of technology and market value. Despite some slowdown in EV market growth, the overall momentum remains strong. We are still far from market saturation in any region.

Supply chain re-shaping in the era of OEM vertical integration and tariff wars

xEV
With its absolutely leading position in electrification, China has incubated complete and competitive supply chains from raw materials to end vehicles. More and more players along the value chain are leveraging this advancement for both local (in China) and global markets.
The on-going tariff wars are greatly disturbing the abroad expansion of Chinese EV OEMs, which has been on the rise in the past years. More local production, especially in Europe and Southeast Asia, is expected.

E-axles
The vertical integration of automotive OEMs is steadily growing, stretching from inverters even to key components. This trend is further fueled by technical integration of multiple sub-systems, making OEMs the major designing party in the value chain, while conventional T1-suppliers fit better to provide key components or build-to-print services.

Battery packs
Currently, the production of lithium-ion battery cells is dominated by Asian companies, with China accounting for over 63% of the market, followed by South Korea and Japan. Among these, CATL from China leads in electric vehicle (xEV) battery cell manufacturing with a 19% market share, followed closely by Chinese BYD, and then LG Energy Solution from South Korea and Panasonic from Japan.

DC chargers
The heavy-duty vehicles in the USA lead to high potential market value for EV charging (1 MW charging with potentially liquid cooling). At global scale, the key players are looking to the USA as the next and biggest market. SK signet, Autel, Kempower have already invested and established factories, while Alpitronic and revived Tritium are planning to do in the next year.

800V and more, fast charging batteries, and ultra high power charging shaping the future

E-powertrain
AI is re-shaping each corner of all industries with automotive powertrain no exception. Large language model (LLM) based optimization has been implemented in the designs of multiple systems. Cloud BMS is getting popularity enabled by AI.

E-axles
3-in-1 integration is turning to be mainstream, while the trend of building more sub-systems (all-in-1) is speeding up. With the advancement in MCU, 1-chip solution for powertrains is on the horizon. On the other side, modularity approach, such as inverter bricks, is rather popular to reach a balance between scale and flexibility
Dedicated converter designs get more focuses with the increasing popularity of hybrid powertrains.

Battery packs
Optimizing battery packs involves choices in manufacturing, materials, mass, volume, safety, and structural design. For high-range EVs, NMC is the leading battery cell cathode chemistry, while Cobalt-free LFP and advanced LFP batteries are gaining traction.
The modular approach is the most common for integrating cells into vehicles, while the cell-to-pack approach is increasingly used, with fast chargeable Lithium-ion batteries. This has led to a trend of increasing battery C-rates from 0.5-1 C to levels of 4C, 6C, and beyond.

DC chargers
Despite many announcement about the 1 MW charger, this level of power will not be deployed alone. Distributed architecture (vs all-in-one) will be prevalent in high power charging station. There will be the possibility to charge up to 1MW (beyond 600 kW) but not only.
Megawatt charging still needs joint efforts between connectors, chargers, OEMs, charging operators and electricity providers. The integration of battery in the charger is no longer an option, it becomes a grid requirement.