SEOUL, Oct. 22 (BNA): South Korea’s Samsung SDI and automaker Stellantis NV said Friday that they plan to establish a joint venture (JV) to produce electric vehicle (EV) cells and battery modules in the United States.
Stellantis’ partnership with the battery maker comes less than a week after it signed a similar agreement with LG Energy Solution in South Korea, backing its goal for EVs to account for more than 40% of its sales in the United States by 2030, Reuters reports.
Stellantis, which was formed in January by the merger of Italian-American carmaker Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA, said it wants to secure more than 130 GWh of global battery capacity by 2025 and more than 260 GWh by 2030.
Through these two joint ventures, the world’s No. 4 car manufacturer was able to secure an annual battery production capacity of 80 gigawatt-hours, which can power about 1.2 million electric vehicles.
Global automakers are investing billions of dollars to accelerate the transition to low-emissions mobility and prepare to phase out internal combustion engines.
The two companies said the Stellantis-Samsung SDI project aims to be operational by the first half of 2025 with an initial annual battery production capacity of 23 gigawatt-hours.
In a statement, they said the joint venture’s annual battery production capacity could increase to 40 gigawatt-hours in the future.
They did not provide any financial details of the deal.
The batteries produced in the US joint venture will be supplied to Stellantis plants in the US, Canada and Mexico. Factory site under review.
Samsung SDI, a subsidiary of South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), already owns EV battery plants in South Korea, China and Hungary, which supply customers such as BMW (BMWG.DE) and Ford Motor.
Samsung SDI shares closed nearly 2% higher at 737,000 won ($627), the highest level since late last month. The KOSPI (.KS11) index closed down 0.04%. Shares of Stellantis rose 0.8%.
($1 = 1,174.8900 won)