Bosch Samsung Li-Ion JV Begins Operations; $300-400M Investment Over 5 Years

1 September 2008

SB LiMotive, the 50-50 joint venture of Bosch and Samsung SDI for the development, manufacture, and sale of lithium-ion batteries for automotive applications, has begun operations. (Earlier post.) The partners plan to being series manufacturing of lithium-ion battery systems customized to automotive requirements in 2011 and to market them worldwide.

To support this, the joint venture partners will jointly invest between US$ 300 and 400 million dollars in the next five years. The new company will be led by Youngwoo Park (Samsung SDI), who will be in charge of finance, production, sales, and purchasing, and Dr. Joachim Fetzer (Bosch), who will be responsible for engineering and quality. A few days ago, Bosch and Samsung SDI received the approval from all relevant authorities for the establishment of the joint venture.

Bosch and Samsung expect a market volume of some three million hybrid vehicles by 2015. The prime objective of the joint venture is to optimize lithium-ion battery technology to meet the exacting requirements associated with the automobile—with respect to power density and safety, for example—to allow purely electrically powered driving over longer distances.

SB LiMotive is headquartered in Suwon, South Korea. This will also apply initially to battery cell development. Further, initial production of lithium-ion cells is also planned in Korea. Roughly 100 associates will be located there. In Germany, a subsidiary based in Stuttgart will be established. At first, 40 associates will work there in sales, marketing and system engineering. The location of the manufacturing sites for battery systems will be announced at a later date.

Bosch has been working on electrical drive technologies for the automobile for more than 30 years. The company has already built up a broad portfolio of components, including electric motors, power electronics, and DC/DC converters. Bosch’s current main focus is the concept of the parallel hybrid, whose modular components can be customized to suit the requirements of individual OEMs and their models.

The company has already taken its first orders for both gasoline and diesel hybrids. Besides mild and strong hybrid concepts, Bosch also offers simpler methods for innovative start-stop technologies and the recovery of braking energy via the alternator. Bosch has pooled the expertise of roughly 370 of its employees from a wide range of divisions in a Hybrid project unit, whose purpose is to develop and market hybrid and electrical drives.