SK Innovation plans massive increase in battery cell production
The battery cell manufacturer SK Innovation plan to increase their global battery cell manufacturing capacity more than ten-fold over the next four years. The news broke only days after SK-customer Daimler announced that they plan to procure battery cells in a volume worth 20 billion euros by 2030.
According to Kim Tae-hyeon, SK Innovation battery business manager, the annual battery cell production capacity is to be increased from the current 4.7 GWh to 55 GWh in 2022. By 2020, SK Innovation expects the battery business to break even and start making profits.
SK Innovation has announced investment plans worth approximately $3 billion since the end of 2017 to build new factories in China, Hungary and the United States. SK Innovation currently supplies battery cells to several major automakers, including Daimler and Hyundai. Since mid-November, it has also been known that SK Innovation has also been appointed strategic battery cell supplier by Volkswagen – alongside CATL, LG Chem and Samsung SDI.
Furthermore, it was announced in November that the three largest Korean battery manufacturers (LG Chem, Samsung SDI and SK Innovation) would jointly create a 100 billion won (78 million euros) fund to purchase next-generation battery technologies and support promising companies.
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