RANKED: Top 20 automakers by battery metals spending 

Electric Vehicle Market Dynamics

The global market for passenger electric vehicles, encompassing both plug-in and traditional hybrids, experienced substantial growth last year, albeit falling shy of the 30 million unit mark. Despite this, the sector demonstrated a robust year-over-year expansion of 18%. When assessing the total battery capacity deployed, a more indicative metric for gauging battery materials demand than mere unit sales, the electric car market witnessed an even more impressive surge of 22%.

Data compiled by Adamas Intelligence, a Toronto-based EV supply chain consultancy, reveals that 2025 marked the first calendar year in which battery capacity deployment exceeded 1 TWh. To contextualize this figure, the corresponding total for calendar year 2021 was 286 GWh. This translates to a nearly fourfold increase in the global market within a span of just four years, and a tenfold increase compared to 2019, effectively weathering the challenges posed by the pandemic.

Battery Metals Market Recovery

The EV Metal Index correlates metals demand with prevailing prices within the EV battery supply chain. This provides a unique perspective on the battery metals market, highlighting the significant downturn experienced by raw material suppliers in recent years. However, recent indicators suggest a more optimistic outlook. The aggregate raw material expenditure for lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, and manganese contained within the batteries of EVs sold during 2025 reached $15.6 billion, reflecting an 11% increase compared to the preceding year.

While $15.6 billion might appear modest, it's crucial to acknowledge that the installed tonnage figures do not account for any losses incurred during processing, chemical conversion, or battery production scrap. Yield losses often reach double-digit percentages, particularly during initial startup phases, resulting in substantially higher required tonnages and revenues at earlier stages of the supply chain.

Although this figure remains approximately half of the extraordinary level observed in 2022, the forecast for 2026 suggests another year of robust growth, driven by the continued upward trajectory of lithium and nickel prices, coupled with sustained high cobalt prices. Market analysts anticipate that increased investment in battery recycling technologies will play an increasingly important role in mitigating price volatility and ensuring a stable supply of critical materials.

Automaker Spending and Battery Chemistry

While lithium and graphite maintain relatively consistent demand within the EV sector, the demand for nickel and cobalt has been influenced by automakers' ongoing efforts to reduce cobalt usage in NCM (nickel-cobalt-manganese) and NCA (nickel-cobalt-aluminum) batteries. Furthermore, the accelerating adoption of LFP (lithium-iron-phosphate) cathode chemistries has also impacted demand.

In 2025, LFP packs accounted for nearly half of the total battery capacity deployed, despite their limited presence outside of China, where they now command a 70% and growing market share. The impact of LFP's growing presence in North American and European markets is partially offset by the parallel trend towards higher nickel content NCM batteries (60%-plus nickel content, and increasingly 80% and above), which remain the preferred chemistry outside of China.

A closer examination of individual automaker spending reveals significant disparities in battery metals usage and costs. Despite selling nearly 500,000 more fully electric vehicles than Tesla (and 2.2 million plug-in hybrids), BYD's bill of materials was $710 million lower than that of its Texas-based competitor. BYD's in-house manufactured batteries cost the Chinese company $1.1 billion in 2025, approximately the same as in 2024, despite selling 230,000 more BEVs and PHEVs than the previous year.

BYD’s strategy of focusing on an all lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery-powered model line-up concentrated at the lower end of the market, combined with a sales mix that is now predominantly plug-in hybrids, resulted in sales-weighted average material costs of just $247 per EV, compared to $1,082 for each Tesla model sold. Even when considering only fully electric vehicles, BYD's spending on raw materials remains significantly below the average, at $366 per BEV. LFP-powered Models 3 and Y manufactured in China contribute substantially to Tesla's sales, but the slow expansion of LFP cell factories outside of China means that these nickel, cobalt, and manganese-free powerpacks are largely absent from Western automakers' lineups. Volkswagen, encompassing brands such as Audi, Porsche, and Skoda, spent $1,624 per BEV. Volkswagen's EV sales are split 70:30 between BEVs and PHEVs, contributing to its higher spending, with the majority of its budget allocated to battery nickel and cobalt. Volkswagen's Powerco has commissioned an LFP battery plant in Germany and is constructing another in Spain, with production targeted for sometime next year.

General Motors faces an average battery metals bill of $1,664, even after a rise of 17.6% year-on-year, driven by increased usage of nickel, cobalt, and manganese, as well as a 20% rise in EV shipments due to the popularity of the Equinox SUV and Silverado pickup. Approximately 85% of GM's batteries come from its venture with LG Energy Solution, Ultium. However, GM is shifting away from this strategy after recruiting a Tesla battery executive in 2024, moving away from its heavy, one-size-fits-all packs. While GM initially pursued NCMA batteries, the compelling cost savings associated with LFP are prompting the company to retrofit its Tennessee NCMA plant to produce LFP batteries.

Toyota, in contrast, spent an average of just $185 per EV sold in 2025, totaling $830 million, up 7.2% year-on-year. This reflects the Japanese automaker's focus on conventional hybrids (HEVs), where battery capacity typically does not exceed 2kWh. Last year, nine out of every ten Toyota (including Lexus) electrified vehicles sold were HEVs fitted with primarily nickel-metal-hydride batteries, demonstrating that the traditional Prius and similar models remain a significant source of battery nickel demand, along with a substantial amount of rare earth elements.