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Samsung will join Volkswagen’s electric vehicle battery foundry in Germany
According to the latest report, Samsung SDI will participate in Volkswagen’s own electric vehicle (EV) battery foundry in Germany, the world’s largest automaker. The ‘Unified Prismatic Cell’, which was unveiled at the Power Day event on March 15.
It is unknown whether Samsung SDI will be solely responsible for the battery foundry. Guo Xuan, a Chinese battery manufacturer in which Volkswagen is the largest shareholder, is highly likely to participate. Similarly, Sweden’s Northbolt, where equity investment was made, is a candidate.
Some in the industry are interpreting whether Samsung SDI is simply subcontracting. But battery cell design doesn’t happen overnight. Tesla also entrusted the basic design of the core system-on-chip (SoC) for autonomous vehicles to Samsung.
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Samsung designed and manufactured it according to the specifications and functions requested by Tesla. If Volkswagen presents the specifications and functions required for the integrated prismatic battery, Samsung SDI is likely to be in charge of battery design and production.
Volkswagen promotes cost reduction and productivity improvement through integrated prismatic batteries.
The reason Samsung SDI joined hands with Volkswagen is that it helps to stably increase battery sales.
Currently, Samsung SDI’s largest electric vehicle customer is Volkswagen. It accounts for more than half of total EV battery sales 5 trillion won per year. BMW, which was the largest customer in the past, accounts for 20-30%, and other companies including Stellantis account for 20%.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen is pushing for the establishment of six battery cell factories in Europe by 2030 as a sole or joint investment. 240 gigawatt-hours (GWh). This is enough to make 3.7 million high-performance electric vehicles with a driving range of 400 km.
The integrated prismatic battery will be introduced in 2023. The goal is to reduce battery cost by up to 50% by applying it to 80% of all-electric vehicles by 2030.
Samsung remained the king in the Q2 2024 market, but Apple and Xiaomi are getting closer. IDC market research data shows that Samsung led the worldwide smartphone market in the second quarter of the year and Chinese brands scored rapid growth.
According to IDC, Samsung sold 53.9 million devices in the second quarter. The company occupied an 18.9% market share internationally. The company has slightly improved its sales share up from 53.5 million units in the same period last year.
The data suggests that Apple ranked second in terms of global volume sales. The iPhone maker shipped 45.2 million devices in Q2, 2024. It captured a market share of 15.8%, a modest increase from 44.5 million shipments in the second quarter of last year.
Third comes Xiaomi. The Chinese brand saw massive growth in sales year over year. It had sold 42.3 million smartphones in the second quarter alone. It’s a big jump from 33.2 million units shipped in Q2 2023, becoming a potential threat to Apple and Samsung.
Apart from this, Vivo also recorded significant growth in the global market. The company’s year-over-year growth in Q2 was 21.9%, with sales listing 25.9 million units with a market share of 9.1%. The growth percentage shows that aggressive marketing and boasting competitive specs into devices is paying off.
Samsung, Apple’s game isn’t over…
Last week, Samsung launched its new foldable phones, releasing on July 24, 2024. Apple, on the other hand, is expected to launch new flagship iPhones in September. It means, Samsung will enjoy the third quarter as well. The fourth quarter might be of Apple as iPhone sales would sharply grow in the global market given the new lineup release.
Samsung is now preparing to unveil new FE products later this year, followed by the S25 series in early next year. Chinese brands are expected to debut their latest flagships in the last quarter of this year, while Google Pixel phones are also coming in August.
Samsung today announced provisional sales and profit results for the second quarter. Samsung formally announced the provisional/predicted sales and operating profit, suggesting a massive profit boom in Q2, 2024 given the AI memory semiconductor rise.
In Q2, 2024, Samsung sales provisionally increased by 2.89% and operating profit by 57.34% compared to the previous quarter thanks to AI boom. Besides, the sales climbed by 23.31% and operating profit by 1,452.24% compared to the same period last year.
The company expects sales of 74 trillion won and operating profit of 10.4 trillion won on a consolidated basis. While these results are not final, there won’t be much change in the final result when it comes out. Samsung had a pretty profitable period in the second quarter.
Samsung in Q2
- Consolidated Sales: Approximately 74 trillion Korean won
- Consolidated Operating Profit: Approximately 10.4 trillion Korean won
The Korean tech giant is currently facing yield issues in its second-generation 3nm process. The flagship Exynos processor is unlikely to be commercialized this year. It would lead the Mobile business to face additional burdens due to rising prices of Snapdragon chipsets.
Meanwhile, Samsung is focussing on HBM (high bandwidth memory) semiconductors. HBM is a key player in artificial intelligence servers and data centers. The booming AI market will directly benefit Samsung’s semiconductor business.
Samsung ranked first in market share in the global smartphone market in Q3, 2023. TrendForce report says that Samsung led the global Q3 smartphone market, recording a market share of 19.5%.
Overall production in the third quarter increased by 11.5% compared to the previous quarter to 60.1 million units. During the same period, Apple’s production increased by 17.9% to 49.5 million, thanks to iPhone 15.
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Third place was taken by Xiaomi (13.9%), followed by Oppo (12.6%) and Transion (8.6%). 6th place is Vivo (8%). Meanwhile, global smartphone production reached 308 million units, a 13% increase compared to the previous quarter and a 6.4% increase from the previous year.
Huawei’s re-entry into the flagship smartphone market targeting Apple has had a significant impact in China. Huawei is aiming to expand its high-end flagship series, focusing on the Chinese domestic market next year, so Apple “We plan to attack directly”.
// Source