Samsung to spend $1.5 billion on EV battery manufacturing in Europe

Samsung SDI reportedly plans to make a 2 trillion won ($1.48 billion) investment to expand its electric vehicle battery plant located in Hungary. The plan was reportedly confirmed by SDI's board of directors (via Korea IT News).

The company aims to increase its EV battery production capacity to 1 million units, or 60GWh per year. Compared to what Samsung's battery plant in Hungary churns out now, the company may be looking at a 70-80% increase in production capacity.

Samsung's largest single-scale investment in EV batteries

Assuming that Samsung SDI goes on with its plan, market watchers say this will be the largest single-scale investment in EV batteries for the European continent.

However, estimates suggest that, over the past two years, Samsung spend nearly 3 trillion won ($2.23) on its EV battery manufacturing infrastructure.

Outside of Europe, Samsung is building a new EV battery mass-manufacturing plant in Malaysia to supply car companies like BMW. Furthermore, Samsung SDI recently established its first EV battery R&D center in the United States. The company said it wants to keep set up more R&D centers in various regions, “starting with the ones in the US and Europe.”