Battery maker Samsung SDI has begun construction of its lithium-ion plant in Hungary to supply the European electric vehicle market.
The South Korean firm new facility in Hungary will enable it to establish a triangular production structure along with existing plants in Ulsan, Korea and Xian, China.
The company aims to start commercial production at the 330,000 square meters site in Goed in the 2nd half of 2018.
the company will build production lines with annual capacity of batteries for 50,000 pure electric vehicles, investing around 400 billion won ($365.7million).
The new plant will use existing infrastructure of a plant built in 2001 to manufacture cathode ray tubes (CRTs) and later remodeled for PDP production.
Once operational the company will establish integrated production system ranging from battery cells to packs.
“By launching construction for the plant in Hungary, we now can set up the global triangular production structure for electric vehicle batteries,”said Jeong SehWoong, Samsung SDI executive vice president and Head of Automotive & ESS Business division.