SB LiMotive to double li-ion battery production in Korea; eyeing sites in Europe, U.S.

SB LiMotive, the 50:50 joint venture between Bosch and Samsung SDI, fired up the lines at its Ulsan, South Korea lithium-ion battery plant back in January of 2011. With massive “volume projects” already in the works, the Korea Times reports that SB LiMotive will, come 2015, double its li-ion battery output in Ulsan. That means that SB LiMotive’s facility in South Korea will crank out enough batteries a year to power some 180,000 plug-in vehicles.

Sometime after 2013, SB LiMotive expects that demand for li-ion power will reach a point where it’s imperative that the firm establishes a production facility in Europe and perhaps even here in the U.S.

Later this year, the SB LiMotive-powered BMW ActiveE will launch. Then, in 2012, the electrified Fiat 500, sporting SB LiMotive batteries, should hit dealerships. In 2013, another SB LiMotive-powered BMW, the
Megacity
i3, will make its debut. That’s a significant list of car that will, of course, need more than a handful of batteries.

[Source: Korea Times]