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| Visitors walk past booths at the InterBattery 2020 exhibition at COEX in southern Seoul, Wednesday. Courtesy of InterBattery 2020 |
By Nam Hyun-woo
SK Innovation is focusing on promoting the safety of its electric vehicle (EV) batteries as global battery makers struggle to tackle safety concerns after several EVs caught fire around the world.
SK Innovation on Wednesday participated in the InterBattery 2020 exhibition held by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy at COEX in Seoul.
The three-day exhibition featured 198 companies in the global battery industry, including some big names such as Samsung SDI, LG Chem and POSCO Chemical.
During the first day, SK Innovation's battery business chief Ji Dong-sup said the company picked safety, fast charging and longevity as the main keywords for its showcase, because "they are the top priorities in the demands of customers and carmakers."
In a press release for the event, the company claimed its batteries are the safest in the market because none of its products were involved in fires in the EVs or energy storage systems. It said it designed its showcase to highlight this.
Automobile authorities and carmakers around the world have launched investigations into recent fires involving various brands of EVs. Of them, Hyundai Motor is recalling more than 77,000 Kona Electric vehicles worldwide after 14 of them caught fire. The latest involved a Kona Electric in Gyeonggi Province on Oct. 17. The 14 vehicles all had LG Chem batteries.
The carmaker and Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport suspect the fires could have been caused by the battery in the vehicles, but supplier LG Chem rejects the allegation.
"When you have an issue with your product, the top priority is finding the root cause as soon as possible and preventing a recurrence," Ji said of the Kona EV fires. "Though our battery is yet to report any fire cases, we have to presume potential errors and make every possible effort to prevent fires."
Both LG Chem and SK Innovation have supplied batteries for the Kona Electrics. According to industry officials, the 77,000 Kona Electrics under recall were made in Korea from 2018 to March this year.
SK Innovation is thought to have supplied batteries for 12,000 Kona Electric vehicles built at Hyundai Motor's plant in the Czech Republic. These are not subject to the recall.
According to sources, in supplying batteries for the Kona Electric, SK Innovation mixed its NCM811 and NCM523 chemistries and that played a significant role in improving stability.
NCM refers to a combination of nickel, cobalt and manganese, and the numbers show the ratio of each material's mix. For example, NCM811 means it contains 80 percent nickel, 10 percent cobalt and 10 percent manganese.
Though higher nickel content improves energy density, it sacrifices battery stability, thus the mixture of NCM811 and NCM523 appears to be contributing to the battery's safety. Also, advanced technologies in lithium-ion battery separators (LiBS) are required for high-nickel batteries, and SK Innovation owns its own technology in developing these.
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