Samsung SDI Secures Volkswagen Unified Cell Supply Deal

Samsung SDI has reached a new agreement with the Volkswagen Group to manufacture the carmaker’s standardized prismatic battery — the Unified cell — at its Göd, Hungary, production site. The company will repurpose two existing battery lines at Plant 1 to accommodate Volkswagen’s side-terminal design. Equipment relocation is already in progress, and mass production is scheduled to start next year. Industry analysts estimate initial capacity in the double-digit gigawatt-hour range.

First presented by Volkswagen in March 2021, the Unified cell measures 256 millimeters by 106 millimeters by 24.8 millimeters. Its side-mounted electrical terminals — instead of top terminals — make it possible to use a single format across vehicle brands and platforms with different chemistries, such as lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and nickel cobalt manganese (NCM). This terminal layout also reshapes the pack architecture, allowing busbars to be positioned centrally or laterally and cooling plates to be integrated above and below the cell stack.

Samsung SDI’s Göd plant serves as a strategic hub in Europe, already supplying batteries to BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai Motor Group, and now Volkswagen. Until now, the company delivered top-terminal prismatic cells to Audi and Porsche. Volkswagen’s Unified cell is already being produced by its subsidiary PowerCo in Salzgitter, Germany, which operates an annual line of 20 GWh, and by Gotion High-Tech in Hefei, China.

Volkswagen has begun integrating the Unified cell into volume models across the Volkswagen, Škoda, and Cupra brands. Production of the Cupra Raval and Volkswagen ID.Polo started this year at the Martorell plant in Spain.

The agreement is consistent with the European Union’s Industrial Acceleration Act, which progressively introduces local sourcing requirements for key EV battery components. Korean manufacturers account for more than 80% of cell capacity in the EU, reinforcing Hungary’s strategic importance for Samsung SDI’s electric vehicle battery operations.

While Samsung SDI is redirecting capacity in the United States toward energy storage systems, in Europe it is expanding EV battery output. The company intends to supply cells from Göd for the Kia EV2 and Hyundai Ioniq 3, which are produced in Slovakia and Türkiye.

During its first-quarter earnings call, Samsung SDI highlighted recovering demand in Europe’s volume EV segment, forecast battery demand growth of more than 10% year-over-year, and set a target to exceed 70% utilization at the Hungary facility in the second half of the year.