Lithium-ion battery company Samsung SDI Co. Ltd., has bought Magna Steyr’s battery pack business for an undisclosed fee.
The deal includes all of the Austrian company’s 264 employees, production and development sites and existing contracts of the business.
The acquisition paves the way for Samsung SDI to increase its market penetration of the lucrative automotive battery markets in Europe, North America and China.
Its latest purchase will boost its EV battery capabilities by combining its established battery cells and modules with the battery pack expertise of Magna Steyr’s – an operating unit of Magna International.
The transaction is due to be completed during the first half of 2015, pending regulatory approvals.
Last year the South Korean company signed a deal to supply lithium-ion batteries for Germen OEM BMW’s i3 and i8 EV models.
It also entered a preliminary agreement to build an EV battery factory in China to meet the country’s 5,000,000 new-energy-vehicle target by 2020.
Samsung SDI introduced four automotive batteries at January’s 2015 North American International Auto Show.
They included: a 120Ah High Capacity Battery Cell to power vehicles past the 300km mark in a single charge; a Battery Module interchangeable between Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) and (EV); a 20mm Compact Design Cell; and a Low Voltage System (LVS) to replace lead-acid, or alongside existing batteries to provide Idle Stop & Go (ISG).