Samsung SDI to supply General Motors with cylinder batteries

Samsung SDI is planning to supply cylinder batteries to US car giant General Motors, TheElec has learned.

The pair will be announcing the formation of a joint venture that will build a battery factory with an annual capacity of at least 30GWh, sources said.

Last month, General Motors said it was open to using all battery types, not just pouch batteries, which it procures from LG Energy Solution.

General Motors CEO Marry Barra said at the time that the Ultium Platform’s strength was its flexibility to use any type of battery.

Samsung SDI, in preparation for the supply deal with the US car giant, last month announced that it plans to spend 40 trillion won for the next ten years to procure cathode needed in batteries from Posco Chemical.

Posco Chemical has a joint venture with General Motors called Ultium Chem, which will be producing cathode.

Samsung SDI has been considered the least aggressive among South Korean battery makers in expanding their customers and production capacity.

But last year, Samsung chairman Lee Jae-yong met his counterpart at BMW, chairman Oliver Zipse, during his visit to Europe.

Following this, Samsung SDI has been more aggressively expanding its spending to increase production capacity.

The company is planning to build a new factory near its existing facility at Goed, Hungary, to supply batteries to BMW.

The new factory is internally called Stage 2; the second factory at the Goed facility is called Stage 1.

Meanwhile, sources said Samsung SDI will be looking to supply its cylinder batteries to Volvo as well.