Stellantis and Samsung SDI form battery joint venture
Together, the two companies will manufacture battery cells in North America to power the automaker's vehicle-electrification plans.
Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep, on Friday announced that it's forming a joint venture with Samsung SDI, the Korean giant's battery division, to manufacture battery cells in North America, pending regulatory approval.
This tie-up is expected to yield fruit starting in 2025, when their first plant comes online. The location of this facility has not been determined, but annual capacity is expected to start at 23 gigawatt-hours per year, but based on demand, that could be increased to 40GWh. (For comparison, Tesla's Nevada Gigafactory reportedly has about 35GWh per year of capacity.)
Eventually, battery plants -- plural -- will feed Stellantis factories in the US, Canada and Mexico with the electron reservoirs needed to build a wide range of next-generation vehicles. This includes pure EV and plug-in hybrids, cars, crossovers and trucks that will be sold by many of the automaker's plethora of brands.
This is a significant step for Stellantis toward realizing its goal of making electrified vehicles 40% of its US sales by 2030, but it will have stiff competition from nearly every other company in the business. Ford, for instance, announced a major battery plant expansion last month.
Stellantis shared much of its electrification strategy back in July during its EV Day presentation. The multinational automaker is developing four separate full battery-electric vehicle platforms: STLA Small, STLA Medium, STLA Large and STLA Frame. These architectures will support a huge range of vehicles, everything from compact cars to luxury models to pickup trucks. Stellantis is also poised to invest some $35 billion through 2025 on electrified vehicles and software. Friday's joint-venture announcement bolsters these efforts.
"Our strategy to work with highly recognized partners boosts the speed and agility needed to design and build safe, affordable and sustainable vehicles that match exactly what our customers demand. I am thankful to all the teams working on this critical investment in our collective future," said Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, in a press release. "With the forthcoming battery plants coming online, we will be well positioned to compete, and ultimately win, in the North American electric vehicle market."