German multinational luxury vehicle manufacturer BMW Group announced on Friday that it purchased auto parts worth 6.5 trillion won ($4.6 billion) from South Korean suppliers in 2023. By comparison, BMW Group‘s regional office in Korea, BMW Korea, earned a total of 6.1 trillion won in sales for the year.

Samsung SDI Co., Samsung Display Co., Hankook Tire & Technology Co., and Sebang Global Battery Co. are among BMW’s 30 major Korean suppliers and are responsible for manufacturing key components of battery-powered cars, such as electric vehicle batteries and displays.

BMW‘s purchases from Korean suppliers amounted to approximately 71.1 billion won in 2010 after first topping the 1 trillion won mark in 2014. Local procurement grown rapidly to hit 4 trillion won in 2022 and 6 trillion won the year after.

BMW Korea has also announced a charging infrastructure buildup project, Charging Next, which will increase the number of its EV charging stations to 2,100 units in Korea. There were around 1,000 BMW stations in the country as of the end of 2023.

By Park Je-wan and Han Yubin

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]