Samsung SDI announced on August 11 that it will acquire GM’s entire 49.99% stake in their joint venture ‘SynergyCells’ and take over full ownership. This effectively converts the joint plant into a sole-owned operation, a move driven by GM’s revised EV strategy amid a slower-than-expected recovery in US EV demand.
SynergyCells is the EV battery manufacturing joint venture Samsung SDI and GM established in New Carlisle, Indiana in 2024. The two companies invested a combined $3.5 billion to build a battery plant with an annual capacity of 27GWh, and construction is underway with a targeted 2027 startup.
With this stake acquisition, Samsung SDI secures its first sole-owned battery plant in North America. The plant is planned to mass-produce Samsung SDI’s flagship battery products for multiple applications, including next-generation prismatic EV batteries co-developed with GM. Notably, the New Carlisle site also has ESS (Energy Storage System) battery production facilities under construction, positioning Samsung SDI to respond proactively to the rapidly growing North American ESS market as well.
■ Equipment perspective
Moving to sole ownership concentrates equipment-spec decision-making in a single company. Under the joint-venture structure, coater/calender/slitter line specifications had to satisfy both companies’ requirements; these can now be redesigned or optimized to a single Samsung SDI standard. In particular, as the lineup expands into prismatic-type batteries, electrode-process equipment previously scoped around cylindrical/pouch formats will likely need a wider response range, along with a re-examination of tension-control logic.
The separate construction of ESS battery production facilities is also notable. ESS cells differ from EV cells in thickness and energy-density specification, which could lead to a dedicated coating/winding line rather than shared production on the same line. The trend in North American battery equipment orders warrants continued monitoring.
※ This article was compiled based on Chosun Biz reporting dated August 11, 2026.