Samsung SDI has signed a multi-year battery supply agreement with Mercedes-Benz worth more than 10 trillion won, or about $6.8 billion. The deal marks the South Korean battery maker’s first direct supply contract with the German luxury automaker.
It comes at a time of fast growth in the electric vehicle (EV) battery market. Industry forecasts predict growth from around $92.7 billion in 2025 to $181.8 billion by 2032. This rise is fueled by increasing EV adoption in Europe, China, and the United States.
The agreement strengthens Samsung SDI’s position in the premium EV supply chain. It also shows how automakers are reshaping their sourcing strategies to reduce risk, improve supply stability, and meet long-term carbon goals.
Mercedes-Benz Secures Long-Term Battery Supply for Next-Gen EVs
Mercedes-Benz will use Samsung SDI’s batteries in upcoming compact and mid-size electric SUVs and coupe models. These vehicles are expected to form part of the company’s next wave of electrification plans.
The batteries will use high-nickel NCM (nickel, cobalt, manganese) chemistry. This design improves energy density and driving range. It also supports longer battery life and higher output, which are important for premium EV performance.
The agreement also includes cooperation beyond supply. Both companies plan joint development work on next-generation battery technologies. This signals a deeper strategic partnership rather than a short-term contract.
Industry reports suggest the batteries will likely be used in Mercedes-Benz EV platforms from around 2028. This matches the company’s broader shift toward electric-first vehicle architecture, aligning with its Ambition 2039.
Samsung SDI Expands Its European EV Footprint
The deal significantly strengthens Samsung SDI’s position in Europe’s premium automotive market. The company supplies batteries to major global automakers. This includes BMW, Volvo-linked platforms, and Stellantis joint ventures.
A Samsung SDI official remarked:
“This partnership brings together the innovative DNA of both companies. It is meaningful in that SAMSUNG SDI has secured a battery order aimed at strengthening its position in the global EV market.”
Europe is becoming a key battleground for battery suppliers. Automakers are moving away from single-source supply chains. They are also reducing dependence on China-based production networks due to geopolitical and logistics risks.
Samsung SDI’s entry into Mercedes-Benz’s supply chain adds scale and visibility. It also improves its exposure to high-margin luxury EV segments.
At the same time, the partnership supports Mercedes-Benz’s supplier diversification strategy. The company already works with LG Energy Solution and SK On for EV batteries, reflecting a multi-supplier model now common in the industry.
The $180B Battery Boom: Why EV Demand Is Still Accelerating
The global EV battery market continues to expand rapidly. Persistence Market Research says the market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.1%. It should hit around $181.8 billion by 2032.
Other industry data shows strong near-term concentration. In 2025, the top two battery producers accounted for 55.6% of global installations, equal to 659.5 GWh out of a total 1,187 GWh, according to SNE Research.
This concentration highlights two trends:
- A small number of leaders dominate large-scale production.
- Mid-tier players compete for premium contracts and long-term OEM deals.
At the same time, EV battery demand is projected to rise by over 25% each year until 2030. This growth is driven by increased EV adoption in key markets and tougher emissions regulations.
This growth is also linked to broader energy transition trends. EV batteries are now central to national decarbonization plans, especially in Europe and North America.
Net-Zero Pressure Shapes Both Automakers and Battery Makers
The Mercedes–Samsung SDI deal is also shaped by climate targets and ESG pressure across the automotive value chain.
Mercedes-Benz has set a goal for its new vehicle fleet to become net carbon-neutral by 2039 across the full lifecycle, including supply chains and production. The company also aims to reduce CO₂ emissions per passenger car by up to 50% compared to 2020 levels.
To support this, Mercedes-Benz is expanding renewable energy use in production. It is also pushing suppliers to reduce emissions in materials such as steel, aluminum, and battery cells.
Samsung SDI is also increasing its focus on low-carbon manufacturing. The company has been expanding efforts in sustainable sourcing and battery efficiency improvements. It is part of a wider Korean battery industry push toward cleaner production and circular battery systems.
Mercedes-Benz has already introduced net carbon-neutral battery cell production requirements for suppliers in its EV programs. This means battery partners must reduce emissions across raw materials and production processes.
These policies are reshaping competition. Battery performance is no longer the only factor. Carbon intensity is becoming a key procurement metric.
Technology Focus: High-Nickel and Prismatic Battery Design
Samsung SDI’s batteries for Mercedes-Benz will use high-nickel NCM chemistry. This type of battery increases energy density while reducing reliance on cobalt over time.
Higher nickel content generally improves driving range. This is critical for luxury EVs competing on performance and long-distance capability.
The batteries will also use a prismatic format. This rectangular design improves space efficiency inside the vehicle. It also helps with thermal control, which improves safety and performance stability.
Key advantages include:
- Higher energy density for longer range,
- Better space utilization in vehicle design,
- Improved thermal management for safety, and
- Strong fit for compact and mid-size EV platforms.
These features are important as automakers move toward more compact EV architectures while maintaining premium performance standards.
Market Impact: Strategic Shift in EV Supply Chains
The Samsung SDI–Mercedes-Benz agreement reflects a wider transformation in the EV industry. Automakers are now prioritizing:
- Supply chain diversification,
- Long-term battery partnerships,
- Access to advanced chemistry technologies, and
- Lower carbon production systems.
For Samsung SDI, the deal strengthens its position in the global battery race. It adds a major European luxury OEM to its customer base and increases visibility in the premium EV segment.
For Mercedes-Benz, the agreement supports its electrification roadmap while reducing reliance on single suppliers and improving supply chain resilience.
The financial scale of the deal also signals confidence in long-term EV demand, despite short-term market volatility in the sector. As EV adoption continues to grow and battery demand rises sharply toward 2030, partnerships like this are likely to become more common across the industry.
The agreement highlights a key shift. Battery supply is no longer just a procurement decision. It is now a strategic pillar of global automotive competition and decarbonization.
The post Samsung SDI Signs $6.8 Billion Multi-Year EV Battery Supply Deal with Mercedes-Benz appeared first on Carbon Credits.
Nature-based carbon investments deserve consideration when they address a specific business dependency and produce outcomes you can measure. Imagine Moonbucks, a global coffee roaster planning next season’s espresso blend. It is considering natural Grade 4 coffee from Jimma, in southwestern Oromia, Ethiopia. Its sourcing decisions affect the roasting schedule and the cash tied up in coffee purchases. Moonbucks needs to understand which measures could protect that supply, what they would cost and how it would judge the results.
1. Define the sourcing problem before choosing a project
Moonbucks needs a dependable component for its espresso blend. Its procurement team wants continuity of volume and an agreed cup profile. Replacing a shipment at short notice could require new sample approval and changes to the blend, and given the schedules for cultivation, processing, and freight delivery, is practically impossible. Moonbucks needs to get this right, and its initial concern is inconsistent deliveries. It commissions an assessment of the supplying farms and post-harvest chain. The questions cover land condition, harvest availability and whether drying or storage problems are affecting saleable lots.
This distinction changes the investment brief. A tree-planting proposal cannot be assumed to fix drying problems. Better storage cannot restore eroded land. The team must establish which problem exists before selecting the response.
CCC’s guide to finding nature-based solutions in your supply chain explains where to look. Here, the next task is to turn a broad concern into a testable proposal.
2. Develop nature-based carbon investments around the actual supply chain
The assessment would trace Moonbucks’ purchases back through the exporter and supplying producer groups. Which farms supply the contracted lots? Who controls land-management decisions? How long does the buyer expect to maintain the purchasing relationship?
Furthermore, Jimma natural Grade 4 cannot be treated as interchangeable with every Ethiopian coffee. Moonbucks would need to test any substitute against its own blend and quality requirements.
Suppose Moonbucks’ assessment identifies an opportunity to maintain shade trees and restore vegetation along exposed streambanks. The IPCC describes agroforestry as a way to store carbon in vegetation and soil, with potential benefits for erosion control and water quality.1 Moonbucks would need local advice on species, growing conditions and maintenance before deciding how these measures fit its sourcing plan.
The proposal now has a defined sourcing connection and a candidate intervention. The next steps are to test its effect on production, assess carbon eligibility and build the financial case.
3. Compare the proposal with other ways to protect supply
WBCSD’s Nature-based Solutions Blueprint recommends comparing nature-based options with other responses across their benefits and costs.2 For Moonbucks, that means evaluating the landscape proposal alongside drying improvements, storage controls and alternative sourcing arrangements.
The product’s natural-process designation matters. Moonbucks should examine the drying and dry-milling chain alongside land conditions. Its team would check storage practices, contamination risks and incoming-lot quality to see whether problems arise before or after the coffee leaves the farms.
The revised proposal might combine land stewardship with separate post-harvest controls. Each component needs its own purpose and budget. A sustainability label should not obscure which activity is expected to solve which problem.
The project develops as the evidence improves. Its scope should follow the diagnosis rather than preserve the first idea unchanged.
4. Establish what the carbon outcome could count toward
Moonbucks’ sustainability team now tests the proposed carbon case separately from the sourcing case. Is the objective a measurable change in Moonbucks’ value-chain emissions, verified credits for separate voluntary use, or distinct outcomes under carefully defined arrangements?
Scope 3 covers value-chain emissions. A purchasing relationship alone does not prove that a farm intervention can be included in Moonbucks’ inventory. The team needs an applicable accounting method, defensible boundaries and evidence supporting attribution.
SBTi’s FLAG Guidance (forest, land and agriculture), version 1.2, says purchased credits used as offsets cannot meet near-term FLAG or energy and industry targets. Eligible land-based removals are subject to accounting requirements.3 Moonbucks needs to test its proposal against those rules before including an outcome in its targets.
For Moonbucks’ Jimma proposal, maintaining existing trees and establishing new vegetation could involve different carbon questions. Specialists must examine the baseline and additionality, meaning what changes because the project proceeds. They must also assess measurement and the risk that stored carbon is lost. CCC’s MRV and additionality article introduces those tests.
Until that work is complete, Moonbucks should not budget an assumed Scope 3 reduction or credit-sale receipt. Direct emissions reductions remain the priority.
5. Build a financial case that survives weaker assumptions
Moonbucks’ finance team would now build a multi-year budget. UNEP’s State of Finance for Nature 2023 compares current finance with the investment needed to meet climate, biodiversity and land-restoration goals.4 The company would cost its proposed activities, farmer participation and ongoing monitoring. Verification, where required, is a separate expense. Maintenance and responsibility for replacing failed plantings must remain visible after the initial establishment budget ends.
Operational benefits need equally careful treatment. If fewer rejected lots reduce emergency purchasing, count that saving once. Do not add “supply resilience” as another financial benefit when it represents the same avoided cost.
Moonbucks should compare a base case with slower benefits, higher implementation costs and no carbon revenue. It should also distinguish production outcomes from quality and shipment outcomes. A single good harvest would not prove that the landscape intervention caused better delivery performance.
A project can remain worth funding even when its carbon case needs more work. That decision must rest on the operational evidence and the company’s objectives, without unsupported environmental claims.
6. Fund a pilot with a clear expansion decision
Moonbucks’ first approval would fund a bounded pilot, rather than commit the entire sourcing program. Before spending, Moonbucks would agree on participating farms, responsibilities and the evidence needed at review.
Its scorecard could track farmer participation, implementation costs and plant survival, alongside accepted coffee volumes and lot-quality results. Carbon measurements would follow the selected method. Farm-level traceability must connect the intervention to the actual sourcing relationship.
Suppose Moonbucks’ review later finds that storage changes explain most quality improvements, while the land measures need longer observation. Those findings would shape the next decision: expand the proven component, adjust the landscape work or pause further spending. They would not justify crediting all improvements to tree planting.
This gives nature-based carbon investments a practical place in a multi-year strategy. Funding increases as the evidence supports it, and the project can change direction before a larger commitment.
Discuss a sourcing opportunity with CCC
Carbon Credit Capital’s nature-based supply-chain investment service uses its Dual-Value Model to examine supply-chain economics alongside potential sustainability outcomes.
Schedule a consultation to discuss your sourcing exposure and the questions to resolve before allocating capital.
Sources
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change, Chapter 7, Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses, section 7.4.3.3 (Agroforestry).
- World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Nature-based Solutions Blueprint, 5 June 2024.
- Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), Forest, Land and Agriculture Science-Based Target-Setting Guidance, version 1.2, March 2026, section 3.1.4, pp. 37–38.
- United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), State of Finance for Nature 2023, 2023.
A plastic credit funds the collection of plastic waste in places where no formal system exists to collect it. Each credit represents a measured, independently audited quantity of plastic taken out of the environment or returned to use, tracked on a public registry.
EU carbon credit claims changed on 27 September 2026, the day the Directive (EU) 2024/825 began to apply across the European Union. The change is narrow. It changes how a company can talk about the credits it buys. A product can no longer be called neutral on the strength of compensation alone; however, every specific, evidenced statement about what a company measured, reduced, and funded stays fully available.
