BMW Group has announced that it will significantly increase its battery cell orders from Chinese company Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd (CATL), in order to boost its vehicle electrification program.
BMW Group has also informed in a release that the order volume from CATL will be increased to 7.3 billion euros during 2020-2031 period, up from the initial volume of 4 billion euros under a contract signed in 2018.
Battery cell worth 2.8 billion euros from this total order will be used by BMW Brilliance Automotive, a joint venture production in China, as the German automobile group has informed. It also said that the rest of the battery cells will be supplied to the company’s production plants outside China.
BMW Group aims to take a leading place pioneer in electromobility with 25 electrified models planned to be launched by 2023. It has developed flexible vehicle architectures for fully-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and models with combustion engines that enable the company to respond quickly to changing conditions.
As BMW Group claims, more than half of the 25 models will be fully electric. The group further plans to double its sales of electrified vehicles between 2019 and 2021.
BMW Group was the first global auto manufacturer to use CATL’s battery cells through its local joint venture BMW Brilliance, which started operation in 2011. Also, the company became the first customer of the Chinese battery cell provider’s, which is still under construction in Erfurt in Germany.
In order to further increase the pace of the electrification drive, BMW Group has also signed a partnership with Samsung SDI to purchase battery cells from them worth 2.9 billion euros between 2021 to 2031. It also plans to source cobalt and lithium directly from mines in Australia and other countries.
