After SK On’s announcement that it has formed a joint venture with Hyundai to set up an EV power battery plant in the US, Samsung SDI as the other major South Korean battery supplier is following suit. In late April, Samsung SDI announced via its official website that it has reached a tentative agreement with GM to jointly build an EV power battery plant in the US. According to the reporting by various news agencies, the total investment in this project is estimated to surpass USD3 billion (or around CNY 20.79 billion). The construction of the plant is scheduled to begin at the end of 2023, and the plant is expected to enter operation in 2026. The plant is designed to have a production capacity of 30GWh per year.
Yoon-ho Choi, CEO of Samsung SDI, said that his company is excited to take this major step with GM in establishing a long-term partnership in the US EV market. Together, Samsung SDI and GM will do their best to develop and manufacture EV power batteries that offers the highest level of quality and safety. Ultimately, the Korean battery supplier will closely support US automotive giant in strengthening its position in the EV market.
If the agreement between the two parties is finalized, then the new plant will be Samsung SDI’s second joint venture in North America. On May 24, 2022, Samsung SDI announced that it will partner with Stellantis, which is the world’s fourth-largest carmaker, to invest more than USD 2.5 billion (or around CNY 16.829 billion) to establish an EV power battery plant in Kokomo, a city in the US state of Indiana. At that time, Samsung SDI reportedly said that the construction of the plant in Indiana will commence at the end of 2023, and the plant will enter operation in the first quarter of 2025. The production capacity of the plant in Indiana is set to reach 23GWh per year in the early phase, and the plant will later expand to attain 33GWh per year. With the planned expansion, the total investment in the plant is estimated to climb to USD 3.1 billion (or around CNY 20.868 billion).
Besides the projects in North America, Samsung also recently disclosed a plan to build a new plant in Hungary. The announcement was first made in January this year. The proposed plant in Hungary will be used to manufacture a wholly-new customized prismatic battery cell designed by BMW. According to the news coverage of this plan at that time, the construction of the new plant in Hungary could begin in the first half of 2023.
Samsung SDI already has two existing plants in Hungary. In 2016, Samsung SDI invested around KRW 400 billion (or around USD 353 million) to build its first EV power battery plant in Hungary. The plan for the second plant in the country was revealed on October 15, 2019. For the second plant, Samsung invested HUF 390 billion (or around CNY 9.2 billion) to build four production lines at the site. The second plant was originally designed to output 12 million battery cells per year, and this amount would be enough to meet the demand of 50,000 EVs per year. At the end of 2020, Samsung disclosed that the number of production lines at the second plant will be raised to eight. Also, on August 24, 2022, the board of Samsung SDI has approved a plan to expand the company’s production capacity in Hungary to 20GWh per year.
This article is a translation of a Chinese article posted by Martin at TrendForce. It contains information that is either sourced from other news outlets or accessible in the public domain. Some Chinese names are transcribed into English using Hanyu Pinyin.
