Chinese Batteries
Samsung SDI held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in Xi’an, China on Oct. 22. The company started the construction of the manufacturing facilities in June last year with Anqing Ring New Group amd Xi’an Gaoke Group, and the factory was put into operation in September this year. Its annual production capacity has reached about 40,000 EV batteries, and every component from battery cells to modules can be produced there.
Samsung SDI recently announced that it was supplying batteries to 10 Chinese vehicle manufacturers and OEM suppliers, and will invest a total of US$600 million in it by 2020 so that it reaches US$1 billion in sales. The company is betting on a rapid growth of the Chinese EV and EV battery markets with the State Council of China having recently announced that charging infrastructure capable of covering five million EVs would be built by 2020.
According to market research firms such as IHS and B3, in the meantime, the global EV market is estimated to grow from 2.2 million units to 6.3 million units in size between 2014 and 2020. In particular, the Chinese EV market is expected to jump to 160,000 units this year and 240,000 units next year, to become the largest in the world.