SK Innovation

Ford partners with Korea to boost US lithium-ion battery production

Ford Motor Company and SK Innovation plan to invest $11.4 billion in the US electric vehicle and battery sector— including three dedicated battery plants with a combined 129GWh capacity.

The money is earmarked for sites in the US states of Kentucky and Tennessee as Ford looks to secure a supply of batteries for its North American assembly plants.

Ford will be investing $7 billion of the overall cash boost into US manufacturing, with the South Korean firm SK Innovation delivering the rest of the funding.

The plants are due to begin coming online in 2025 to supply batteries for next-generation electric Ford and Lincoln vehicles.

A $5.6 billion 3,600-acre mega campus in Tennessee called Blue Oval City, will “reimagine” how vehicles and batteries are made and include a battery plant called BlueOvalSK and an assembly plant.

It is believed the battery manufacturing capacity of the Tennessee plant will be 43GWh.

Kentucky battery plant

In central Kentucky, $5.8 billion has been made available to build a 1,500-acre dedicated battery-manufacturing complex called the BlueOvalSK Battery Park.

Twin co-located plants at the site will be capable of producing up to 43GWh each for a total of 86GWh annually.

Ford estimates it will need 140GWh battery supply to meet its manufacturing demand.

Ford Motor Company

SK Innovation

us

electric vehicle

battery

SK Innovations to invest $1B in new China plant to meet forecast demand of lithium-ion batteries

South Korea's SK Innovation is set to invest 1.2 trillion won ($1 billion) in a new battery factory in China, as it looks to ramp up lithium-ion battery production to 200GWh in the next four years.

Detailed plans for the new factory were not revealed, but in July the firm said it was to up production to 200GWh from a previously announced goal of 125GWh.

The company’s production capacity is 40GWh.

The South Korean battery maker supplies electric vehicle (EV) batteries to Ford Motor, Volkswagen and Hyundai Motor among others, and has battery production sites in the US, Hungary, China and South Korea.

In July, SK announced it would spinoff its battery division to allow it to concentrate on meeting demand for batteries as global EV sales are set to increase from last year’s 2.5 million, according to IHS Markit.

SK Innovation CEO Kim Jun said in July: “We haven't decided how to split the battery business ... it takes quite a lot of resources to further grow our growing battery business, so we are considering the spinoff as one of the ways to secure resources.”

The South Korean battery maker told news outlet Reuters that it had more than 130 trillion won ($115 billion) worth of battery orders, which is more than 1TWh worth of batteries, enough to power around 14 million electric vehicles.

Hyundai and SK Innovation partner to develop EV lithium-ion battery industry ecosystem

Vehicle OEM Hyundai Motor Group and lithium-ion battery maker SK Innovation will partner to create a battery value chain and strengthen eco-friendliness of electric vehicle batteries.

The South Korean firms have agreed to cooperate in the development of a sustainable ecosystem for electric vehicle (EV) batteries and create acycle of battery usage known as the Battery as a Service (BaaS), which includes lease or rental service.

Lithium-ion battery maker SK Innovation reveals plans to build second EV battery plant in US

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.

south korea

Lithium-ion

SK Innovation

electric vehicle (EV)

battery

United States.

SK Innovation to target EV market with cells from its first ‘overseas’ lithium-ion gigafactory

South Korea’s battery maker SK Innovation will begin mass production of lithium-ion battery cells for electric vehicles at its new plant dubbed BEST early next year.

Operations at the 168,000 square meter plant in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, will begin after test operation and product approvals, following completion of the battery line.

Hungary woos another Asian battery maker

Inzi Controls, a South Korean automotive company, is to build an electric vehicles battery plant in Hungary.

The company will build the plant in the city of Komárom, backed by a HUF1.6 billion (US$5.6 million) grant from Hungary’s government, foreign affairs and trade minister Peter Szijjarto (pictured) confirmed.

US trade probe into Korean battery secrets theft claims

The US’ international trade watchdog is investigating allegations that Korean battery maker SK Innovation was involved in the theft of trade secrets from manufacturing rival LG Chem.

The US International Trade Commission (USITC) probe follows a lawsuit filed in the US by LG Chem and its US manufacturing subsidiary, LGCMI, whose pouch-type lithium-ion battery tech underpins what the company said is a “significant share” of the American electric vehicle market.

US International Trade Commission (USITC)

LG Them

SK Innovation

lithium-ion batteries

trade secrets

LGCMI

companies

SK Innovation to expand battery production in China

South Korea’s SK Innovation (SKI) is to build a second battery manufacturing plant in China in response to increasing global demand from the electric vehicle sector.

CEO Kim Jun (pictured) said the company intends to invest 579.9 billion Korean won (US$488 million) in the lithium-ion batteries project, which will be a joint venture with the Beijing Automobile Works Company— a subsidiary of the state-owned BAIC Group.

SK Innovation

china

lithium-ion batteries

Kim Jun

Beijing Automobile Works Company

BAIC

SK Innovation ‘in battery venture talks with VW, China’

South Korea’s SK Innovation (SKI) is reportedly in talks to establish two separate battery production joint ventures— one with Volkswagen and another with Chinese partners.

SKI confirmed talks with Volkswagen in an interview with Reuters, saying the two companies were discussing building a factory together. SKI also said I was “on the cusp” of agreeing plans to build a plant in China with “undisclosed partners”.

The president of SKI’s batteries business YS Yoon told Reuters: “Our strategy is to keep up with technological advancement by having relationships with some of our key customers. Compared with rivals, we’ve been matching or exceeding investment in the (EV batteries) area since last year.”

SK Innovation building Polish battery plant

SK Innovation is to start work on a factory in Poland to manufacture lithium-ion battery separators (LiBS) and ceramic coated separators (CCS) for electric vehicle batteries in Europe.

The South Korean group will break ground on the plant site in Województwo Śląskie in southern Poland in the third quarter of 2019— and expects to begin mass production in the third quarter of 2021.

SK Innovation intends to invest €335 million (US$378m) to realise four LiBS production units and three CCS production units on the 270,000 square metre site.

battery manufacturing

Infrastructure

battery separators