Hyundai set to use BYD blade batteries in China
According to a Korean media report, Hyundai Motor is in talks with BYD about the supply of blade batteries for electric cars to be sold in China. BYD is said to have already set up a business unit responsible for cooperation with Hyundai and has offered to supply the batteries to Hyundai from 2022 onwards.
According to an article in Business Korea, BYD has offered to supply the South Korean carmaker with blade batteries from 2022. BYD has built a battery factory in Chongqing with a planned annual capacity of 20 GWh in the central Chinese city where Hyundai also has a car plant with an annual output of 300,000 vehicles. The BYD Chongqing factory is currently the only production base for the blade battery that was presented a year ago.
Hyundai has so far relied on CATL as another battery cell supplier for its electric cars based on the E-GMP platform in addition to batteries from SK Innovation. CATL will supply the cells for two of the three models planned by Hyundai from 2023, while SK Innovation will supply the cells for another. For the first Hyundai model based on the E-GMP platform, the recently unveiled Ioniq 5, SK Innovation is the exclusive battery cell supplier. As yet, details about delivery quantities or financial aspects of the deal have not been revealed.
The South Korean publication Business Korea now writes that Hyundai could equip its China-made electric vehicles with batteries from CATL and blade batteries from BYD. This would be a result of the Chinese government’s policy that came into effect in 2016 of only granting subsidies for electric vehicles with batteries manufactured in China. The new LFP battery is supposed to have a 50 per cent higher energy density, require less space and, above all, be safer. It is currently already being used in the BYD Han.
As the S.Korean business publication writes, BYD is offering to reserve some of the assembly lines for the blade batteries in Chongqing for Hyundai on request. These batteries are to be built in the new plant in a production volume of 10 GWh.
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