Nothing to Show
Samsung SDI’s next-generation “fuel cell project” business is facing a shutdown. Some even speculate that Samsung SDI will permanently relinquish the project altogether.
Samsung Group selected fuel cells as a next-gen business in 2005, made a goal to commercialize it by 2008, and announced that it will invest several trillion won for R&D and facilities, putting Samsung SDI in charge.
Samsung SDI began the project by releasing fuel cell-related products in 2005, with the introduction of butane-fueled cells. It used compact 220 g butane gas cans, the fuel for portable gas ranges, as the energy source. This can be used for over five hours with 100W of output. It can fuel over eight hours of portable color TV usage (60W), and 20 hours of laptop PC usage (20W).
What Leading Company? Samsung SDI Couldn’t Even Look Three Years Ahead
In February 2006, Samsung SDI announced that it made the world’s first fuel cells for PMP and mobile phones, boasting that it was on its way to take over the mobile fuel cell market. Also, it promised that it would commercialize PMP fuel cells that could supply 10 continuous hours, and set the release date to 2007 or 2008.
However, its prediction was totally off. Smartphones were released in 2009, the iPhone from Apple and Galaxy from Samsung, which drastically reduced the PMP market ultimately to the point of obsolescence.
A specialist in the IT industry said, “Everyone in the related industries wondered how Samsung SDI could not know that its sister company Samsung Electronics was soon to release smartphones,” and “From this, we can conclude that this global company couldn’t even predict three years ahead.”
Samsung SDI also claimed that there was a worldwide demand for electricity supply devices for mobile military applications and that it was “growing fast,” and “The test products are going to get field-tested from 2010, which is coming up pretty soon.”
However, none of the products have ever actually been released. Some even say that Samsung SDI might have completely shut down its fuel cell project. A source from a fuel cell manufacturer said, “We can’t deny the fact that the fuel cells are not doing well,” and “I don’t think Samsung looked closely into the industry prior to making the decision to go in.”
In response, Seo Hae-su of Samsung SDI’s PR department said, “We are focusing more on R&D for fuel cell projects,” and “The major businesses of Samsung SDI are secondary cell batteries for cars, energy storage systems, and compact-sized batteries.”
But contrary to the announcement, there was no record of fuel cell R&D in the report it disclosed during 2012 to the 1Q of 2014.
Samsung SDI’s Fuel Cell Technology Remains at 58-67 Percent of Competitors
Samsung SDI’s original of fuel cell technology is far behind that of competitors.
According to Patent Result, Japan’s patent analysis and evaluation firm, Samsung SDI is behind on its original technology on fuel cells, so it is inevitable to delay the commercialization. The assessment was based on the frequency of patent usage, the possibility of commercialization, and the cases of objection for competitor patent nullification lawsuits.
GM ranked first. It had 892 patent applications, Toyota (972 patents) ranked second, while Honda (873 patents) and Panasonic (533 patents) ranked next. Samsung ranked fifth with 598 patents, but the combined score of the number of patents and the overall score only reached 58-67 percent of the top-ranked companies.