BMW said on Aug. 3 it had chosen the German auto parts maker Bosch and its Korean partner Samsung to supply lithium-ion batteries for a future electric city car.
The company said that the decision was a milestone on the path to mass production of a city car and Samsung chief executive Soon Taek Kim said his group and Bosch would "supply BMW with the best battery technology available in terms of performance, range and safety."
BMW is currently testing about 600 models of its electrically-powered Mini car in Britain, Germany and the U.S., and mass production is forecast for sometime around 2015.
The SB LiMotive company chosen to make the lithium-ion batteries is jointly owned by Bosch and Samsung SDI, which already produces such batteries for mobile phones and laptop computers.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009
