Samsung SDI is acquiring General Motors’ 49.99 percent stake in the joint battery venture “SynergyCells”, becoming the sole owner of the cell plant currently under construction in New Carlisle, Indiana. The South Korean battery manufacturer announced the transaction on Tuesday, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg. Samsung SDI cited changed market conditions since the joint venture was established, in particular slower-than-expected growth in US electric vehicle demand, as the reason for the restructuring.
Partnership was announced 2023
GM and Samsung SDI announced their partnership in April 2023 and finalized the 3.5 billion US dollar joint venture in 2024. The roughly 680-acre site was slated to produce prismatic cells with nickel-rich NCA chemistry under Samsung’s PRiMX brand from 2027, with an initial annual capacity of 27 GWh, expandable to 36 GWh, and more than 1,600 jobs.
Missing EV demand
Recently, however, the project had stalled: in view of weakening EV demand, the two partners paused construction earlier this year. The building shell has been completed, but no production equipment has been installed so far. According to Bloomberg, GM has invested around 300 million US dollars in developing the site to date.
Samsung SDI will complete the plant and produce BESS
Samsung SDI now intends to complete the plant on its own and initially produce batteries for stationary energy storage systems (ESS) in order to tap into the fast-growing US storage market. The facility will be the company’s first wholly owned production site in North America. The strategic partnership with GM is set to continue nonetheless, including the joint development of next-generation prismatic cells.
GM withdraws from cell manufacturing
For GM, the sale marks the latest step in a gradual withdrawal from in-house cell manufacturing capacity: in 2025, the automaker had already divested its stake in the nearly completed Ultium cell plant in Lansing, Michigan, to LG Energy Solution. GM continues to operate two Ultium Cells plants together with LG Energy Solution, where production of LFP cells has recently started as well.
Source
Reuters, Samsung SDI
