BMW orders more than $11 billion worth of EV battery cells

BERLIN — German carmaker BMW on Thursday said it had ordered more than 10 billion euros’ ($11 billion) worth of battery cells from Chinese battery cell maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL) and Samsung SDI.

BMW said it had boosted its order with CATL to 7.3 billion euros from an original booking announced in mid-2018 that was worth 4 billion euros. It said the contract would last from 2020 to 2031.

BMW said it had also signed a battery supply contract with Samsung SDI worth 2.9 billion euros, valid from 2021 to 2031.

BMW said it would get the cobalt it needs for cell production from mines in Australia and Morocco and provide it to CATL and Samsung SDI. It said it would source the lithium from mines.

BMW plans to have 25 electrified models in its offering by 2023, with more than half of them fully electric. It expects sales of electrified vehicles to double between 2019 and 2021.

Europe’s auto industry is promoting zero-emissions cars as a way to comply with clean air rules, a strategy shift which forces carmakers to retool their supply chains to build electric, rather than combustion engine cars.