The first phase of South Korea's Samsung Group's automotive power battery project in the Xi'an High-tech Zone is progressing smoothly and will soon be completed and put into production, becoming China's largest automotive power battery production base.

    The automotive power battery project was jointly constructed by Samsung SDI, Anqing Huanxin Group and Xi'an Hi-Tech Group. Construction began in Xi'an on August 18, 2014, with a total investment of USD 600 million. This is another fruit of pragmatic cooperation between Shaanxi and South Korea's Samsung Group, marking that Xi'an will become the nation's largest production base for automotive power batteries. The first phase of the project invested USD 299 million. After completion, it will produce 700,000 battery cells per month. After the completion of the first two phases of 2020, it will reach 3.6 million battery cells per month.

    Park Sangjin, president of South Korea's Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. said that China is the world's largest electric vehicle market in the future. Based on this project, Samsung SDI has expanded its business scope to the field of medium and large batteries.

    Samsung SDI is a subsidiary of the Samsung Group in the electronics field. Its main business is the production of lithium battery packs. The current market size ranks first in the world. Anqing Huanxin Group is a manufacturer of piston rings and cylinder liners for auto parts in China, and currently ranks first in China in terms of market share.

    At the beginning of last year, South Korea's Samsung SDI, Anqing Huanxin Group and the Shaanxi Provincial Government signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Tripartite Investment and Construction of Automotive Power Battery Production Bases.

In recent years, in order to solve the environmental pollution caused by the popularity of automobiles, China has actively promoted the development of the electric vehicle industry. According to the New Energy Vehicle Industry Development Plan, by 2020, China will popularize 5 million pure electric (EV) vehicles and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) vehicles, becoming the world's largest electric vehicle market.

The automobile industry is one of the key industries in the Xi'an Hi-tech Zone. The auto industry in Xi'an Hi-tech Zone has formed BYD, Fast, Oshut and other companies as the mainstay, with automobile manufacturing as the leader, powertrains, control systems, Supporting system based on chassis, key components, and automotive services. The settlement of Samsung SDI electric vehicle battery production base project will further improve the new energy vehicle industry chain in Xi'an High-tech Zone.