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Today, BMW announced that it secured a total of $10 billion worth of battery cells over the next decade from two suppliers.

The bulk of the new volume is coming from CATL, a giant Chinese battery manufacturer who is also building a new factory in Germany.

BMW wrote about the new agreement with CATL:

“The original CATL order volume of four billion euros announced in mid-2018 will now be increased to 7.3 billion euros (contract duration from 2020 to 2031), with 4.5 billion euros for the BMW Group and 2.8 billion euros for the Chinese production site of the BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd. (BBA) joint venture in Shenyang. The BMW Group is the first customer of the CATL battery cell plant currently under construction in Erfurt, Germany.”

The second battery cell supplier is Samsung SDI, which received a new contract from BMW valued at 2.9 billion euros from 2021 to 2031.

Dr. Andreas Wendt, a member of the Board of Management of BMW AG responsible for Purchasing and Supplier Network, commented on the agreement with the Korean battery manufacturer:

“In this way, we are securing our long-term battery cell needs. Every cell generation is awarded in global competition to the leading manufacturer from both a technology and a business perspective. This ensures we always have access to the best possible cell technology,”

Interestingly, BMW plans on sourcing cobalt and lithium itself and will make the minerals available to CATL and Samsung for them to use in their batteries.

The automaker claims that it gives them more transparency in sourcing the minerals, which are sometimes coming from conflict-prone regions.

Full article here:
https://electrek.co/2019/11/22/bmw-secures-10-billion-battery-cell-supply-electric-cars/