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SK Innovation May Team Up with U.S. Automakers in Battery Business

• By Michael Herh
• April 21, 2021, 11:23

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SK Innovation is expected to promote electric vehicle (EV) battery production joint ventures with U.S. automakers.

SK Innovation is expected to promote electric vehicle (EV) battery production joint ventures with U.S. automakers.

“We will actively make additional investments to create an EV battery ecosystem at home and abroad, including the United States,” the company’s CEO Kim Joon said on April 12, following its agreement with LG Energy Solution.

Kim is currently staying in the United States. He met with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp on April 19 (local time), who visited SK Innovation’s plant construction site in Commerce, Jackson County.

SK Innovation president Kim Joon

The company will invest US$2.4 billion by 2025 to build a new plant in Georgia in addition to its US$2.7 billion investment in the first plant now under construction.

"We expect to create about 6,000 jobs when the second phase of construction is completed by 2025," Kim said.

Industry watchers say that SK Innovation is likely to promote joint ventures with local automakers in the United States. The most likely partner is U.S. automaker Ford, a major customer of SK Innovation.

Ford plan to release only EV models in Europe beginning by 2030. Securing batteries holds the key to making the plan successful. In particular, Ford also mentioned the possibility of internalizing batteries. Yet it does not have battery manufacturing technology, so it needs to join hands with a battery manufacturer. SK Innovation can be its ideal partner as it already uses batteries from the Korean producer.