Lee Jae-yong and Chung Eui-sun's 'Battery Meeting' Yields Results... Expansion from Electric Vehicles to Robots
Published 25 Feb.2025 15:05(KST)
Updated 26 Feb.2025 07:50(KST)
Expansion of Collaboration Since the 2020 Exclusive Meeting
"Joint Development of Robot-Optimized Batteries"
Battery collaboration between Samsung Group and Hyundai Motor Group has expanded into the robotics sector. Industry insiders and outsiders alike regard this as a significant advancement, marking progress about five years after the 'battery meeting' between Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Eui-sun in 2020.
On the 25th, according to Samsung SDI and Hyundai Motor·Kia, the two companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the joint development of batteries dedicated to robots at Hyundai Motor Group's Uiwang Research Center in Uiwang-si, Gyeonggi-do, the day before. This collaboration aims to combine the resources and specialized technical capabilities each company possesses to develop robot-optimized batteries and install them in various service robots. Until now, related collaborations were mainly conducted by small startups, making this the first time such cooperation has occurred between large corporations.
Since the exclusive meeting between Chairman Lee and Chairman Chung in 2020, the companies have continued multifaceted cooperation in the battery field. In May 2020, Chairman Chung (then Senior Vice Chairman) visited Samsung SDI's Cheonan plant, which specializes in vehicle batteries, toured the electric vehicle battery development and production site, and exchanged opinions with Chairman Lee (then Vice Chairman) on next-generation battery business. This was the first time the heads of Samsung and Hyundai Motor Group met for business purposes, and it attracted attention as Chairman Chung had never previously visited a Samsung business site.
At that time, Chairman Chung and Hyundai Motor executives toured the electric vehicle battery production line under Chairman Lee's guidance and received explanations on the development status of all-solid-state batteries, a next-generation core technology.
Two months later, in July of the same year, Chairman Lee visited Namyang Research Center, Hyundai Motor Group's technology hub, as a return visit. Chairman Lee received explanations from Chairman Chung about next-generation eco-friendly vehicles and agreed to explore multifaceted cooperation in next-generation mobility fields such as electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and Urban Air Mobility (UAM).
Since then, Samsung SDI and Hyundai Motor have strengthened their partnership through battery-related technology exchanges and preliminary task execution, entering into electric vehicle battery cooperation in 2021. This led to the first electric vehicle battery supply contract in October 2023. According to the contract, Samsung SDI will produce and supply the P6 (6th generation prismatic battery) for Hyundai Motor's next-generation European electric vehicles at its Hungarian production subsidiary for seven years starting in 2026.
This time, through the MOU, the scope of cooperation has been expanded to 'robots' to jointly develop dedicated batteries. In most robot industries, due to the absence of dedicated batteries, batteries used for electric tools or Light Electric Vehicles (LEV) are installed. However, because of the complex and irregular structure of robots, battery installation space is limited, and applying small cells to fit the specifications results in a chronic problem of reduced output capacity. The core of this collaboration is to develop high-performance robot-dedicated batteries that optimize battery form within limited space while improving energy density to significantly increase output and usage time.
Under the agreement, Samsung SDI will develop high-capacity materials to enhance energy density and promote battery efficiency advancement through design optimization. This is expected to significantly extend battery usage time compared to existing products and improve price competitiveness.
Hyundai Motor·Kia Robotics Lab will be responsible for evaluating the application of the newly developed batteries to robots and enhancing performance. Utilizing technical know-how accumulated through years of robot development and operation experience, they plan to conduct evaluations of maximum charge/discharge performance, usage time, and warranty life of the batteries. Both parties plan to cooperate closely to establish this joint development as a representative cooperation model for innovation in robot-dedicated batteries.
Additionally, Hyundai Motor·Kia will engage in joint marketing with Samsung SDI to expand the base of the robot market. As the first step, they plan to exhibit Hyundai Motor·Kia's service robots DAL-e and MobED at Samsung SDI's exhibition booth at 'InterBattery 2025' scheduled for March. They will demonstrate the exhibited robots to visitors and industry officials, showcasing the growth potential of the robot battery market. The batteries installed in the demonstration robots are existing Samsung SDI products, but it is explained that future cooperation will equip dedicated batteries to enhance performance.
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