Samsung SDI, a South Korea-based battery and electronic materials manufacturing company and a subsidiary of Samsung Group, has announced plans to invest $3bn (Won3.97trn) to build an electric vehicle (EV) plant following a joint venture deal with General Motors (GM) of the US. Construction is expected to start in 2026 and and on completion the facility will have annual production capacity of 30 gigawatt- hours.
In a statement to announce the deal, GM chair and CEO Mary Barra said: “GM’s supply chain strategy for EVs is focused on scalability, resiliency, sustainability and cost-competitiveness. Our new relationship with Samsung SDI will help us achieve all these objectives. The cells we will build together will help us scale our EV capacity in North America well beyond 1 million units annually.”
Yoon-ho Choi, Samsung SDI’s president and CEO, added: “It is a great pleasure to take the very first step to create a long-term industry-leading partnership with GM in the US EV market. We will do our best to provide the products featuring the highest levels of safety and quality produced with our unrivalled technologies to help GM strengthen its leadership in the EV market.”
The location of the new US facility has not yet been announced but Samsung SDI and GM plan to operate the facility jointly, and it is expected to have production lines that will build nickel-rich prismatic and cylindrical cells.
