[Courtesy of Samsung SDI]
Shares of South Korean car battery maker Samsung SDI fell sharply Wednesday after Tesla Motors, a US electric vehicles manufacturer, said it has been working exclusively with Japan's Panasonic Corp. on a battery deal.
As of 2:40 pm (0540 GMT), Samsung SDI shares were traded at 108,500 won (93.5 US dollars) on the Seoul bourse, down 8.4 percent from the previous day's closing price.
The fall came after Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on his Tweeter account that his company was cooperating with Panasonic to use its batteries for Tesla model X and S. Panasonic has been the exclusive provider of batteries for Tesla cars.
"Would like to clarify that Tesla is working exclusively with Panasonic for Model 3 cells. News articles claiming otherwise are incorrect," he wrote.
Musk's remarks followed unconfirmed domestic reports said that Samsung SDI, a Samsung Group unit, has been in talks with Tesla to supply lithium ion batteries. Samsung SDI has been in partnership mainly with European automakers including BMW.
Tesla has increased its annual manufacturing volume for electric vehicles to one million units. It plans to produce 500,000 units of its Model 3 in 2018.
Aju News Lim Chang-won = cwlim34@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
