Samsung's battery-making arm Samsung SDI has confirmed that it's going to set up a new battery factory in Hungary. It's going to invest $358 million in the factory so that it can supply the auto industry in Europe with lithium ion batteries. With car manufacturers gradually shifting towards hybrid and full electric powertrains the future looks bright particularly for battery manufacturers like Samsung SDI.
Samsung SDI already operates battery manufacturing plants in China and South Korea. Its European plant is scheduled to open in the second half of 2018 near Budapest and will have the capacity to produce batteries for 50,000 cars per year. The company's clients include BMW which uses a Samsung battery in its BMW i3 electric vehicle. Samsung SDI says that this new factory in Europe is going to help the company cut down on logistics costs and quickly keep up with demand from European companies as most of them have manufacturing bases around Hungary.
This can be seen as yet another move by Samsung to establish its footing in the car market. Samsung has been taking a lot of steps since earlier this year for precisely this purpose and it's now expected to spend as much as $3 billion to acquire Fiat Chrysler's auto parts subsidiary Magneti Marelli.
