South Korea’s SK Innovation has pledged to bring new “NCM9” battery tech to market as it ramps up global battery production from the current 5GWh to 100GWh per annum by 2025.
Company CEO and president Kim Jun (pictured) told a news conference in Seoul the new technology would contain nickel, cobalt and manganese at a ratio of 90%, 5% and 5% respectively and a cathode with an energy density of “at least 670Wh/litre”.
Kim claimed an electric vehicle powered by the new battery tech would have a range of more than 500 kilometres on a single charge.
And in the lithium-ion battery separator business, SK Innovation will aim for a market share of 30% by increasing its production capacity to more than 2.5 billion square metres per year, Kim said. To achieve this, the company plans to secure new production facilities in addition to those under construction in China and Poland.
SK Innovation broke ground on a US$1.1bn electric vehicle batteries production plant in the US state of Georgia last year. The plant will have an annual production capacity of around 60GWh of lithium-ion batteries annually by 2022— when full production is slated to start.