The Samsung SDI board of directors finally confirmed the plan to invest 2 trillion won to expand the battery production capacity of electric vehicles in Hungary, which is expected to have a battery production capacity of 1 million electric vehicles per year.
In addition to expanding the Hungarian factory, Samsung will expand its production capacity to 60GWh/year in the second half of next year, according to industry sources. The 60GWh production will enable it to install high-capacity batteries in more than 1 million electric vehicles. Compared to the current production capacity of the Hungarian plant, production could increase by 70-80%.
Samsung SDI will make further large-scale overseas investments based on future market conditions. Last year alone, the total investment in batteries in all fields including electric vehicles, information technology (IT), and energy storage systems (ESS) reached around 2 trillion won.
The 2 trillion won invested in electric vehicle batteries in Europe is said to be the largest single investment in history. Although Samsung SDI has not disclosed specific investment projects, it is estimated that in the past two years, in addition to the mobile and ESS fields that have been implemented, the investment in electric vehicle batteries is close to 3 trillion won.
The investment is seen as a shift in Samsung's SDI strategy, which prioritizes profit-driven growth. In the second quarter of this year, Samsung SDI posted a record profit, with an operating profit of more than 400 billion won. The company is expanding its electric vehicle battery business with its own high-value-added electric vehicle battery brand "PRiMX" as its core. The operating profit margin in the first half of this year was 6%, the highest level in the Korean battery industry.
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