South Korea lithium-ion battery maker SK Innovation announced last week its going to build a second electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in the United States.
Construction of the 11.7GWh plant is due to begin in July in Georgia with production aimed for 2023, the company said in a statement on 28 April.
The company broke ground on a 1.2 trillion won ($903 million) EV batteries production plant in the state a little over a year ago (artist’s impression pictured). That plant is scheduled to have an annual production capacity of around 10GWh when production starts in 2022.
Its first US factory is intended to serve Volkswagen’s EV base in neighbouring state of Tennessee.
SK Innovation has been expanding its production capacity in the past few years, with plants in Jiangsu Province, China (7.5GWH), Hungary (7.5GWh) and South Korea (4GWh)
The US’ international trade watchdog also investigated allegations that SK Innovation was involved in the theft of trade secrets from manufacturing rival LG Chem.
Industry researcher Wood Mackenzie has forecast a drop of 43% in global sales of EV to 1.3 million units this year.
