SK completes second battery plant for EVs

By Park Si-soo

SK Innovation, Korea’s biggest refiner, said Tuesday it has completed a second plant to produce batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) in a move that heralds its full-fledged entry into the market.

The company held a ceremony to mark the completion of the plant in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, with some 150 guests, including SK Group Executive Vice Chairman Chey Jae-won and SK Innovation CEO Koo Ja-young in attendance.

The facility, 151 kilometers southwest of Seoul, has an annual capacity of producing batteries for 10,000 EVs, SK said in a press release. SK’s first EV battery plant was built in May 2010 with a capacity to produce batteries for 5,000 vehicles per year in Daejeon.

“EV batteries are one of the future growth drivers for the global economy and it takes aggressive investment and research and development (R&D) efforts to be competitive in the global market,” Chey said in his congratulatory speech. “SK started its battery research in 1996 and has emerged as a globally competitive battery manufacturer thanks to continuous R&D investments.”

SK Innovation plans to double the Seosan plant's capacity by next year, the firm said.

“We are aiming to grab the No. 1 spot in the global EV battery market in 2020 by building battery plants in many parts of the world,” Chey said

As part of efforts to build its presence in the global EV battery market, SK Innovation plans to establish a joint venture with Germany's leading auto parts company, Continental AG, by the end of the year.

The two firms will invest around 400 billion won ($358 million) over the next five years and run research centers in Berlin and Daejeon. Along with the production of EV batteries, SK Innovation has been producing lithium-ion battery separators, a key component in EV batteries, since the end of 2005.