Polestar and SK consider EV development alliance
Electric car manufacturer Polestar is exploring a wide-ranging alliance with South Korean conglomerate SK to advance the development of electric cars. The possible collaboration also includes a potential supply of SK batteries for upcoming Polestar vehicles.
Specifically, according to Polestar, the two companies have agreed to evaluate a potential partnership in areas such as electric vehicle battery technology and related systems, as well as semiconductor technology. To this end, both parties have now signed a memorandum of understanding.
“The two words that unify Polestar and SK are ‘performance’ and ‘sustainability,” says Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar. “With this MoU, we can evaluate the opportunity to jointly develop battery technology for high performing cars and other commercial offerings, with a focus to support our significant global growth plans.”
To date, Polestar is sourcing its batteries from CATL and LG. With a deal fixed in 2019, Volvo Car Group will cover its needs for battery modules for all models on the SPA2 vehicle architecture and the CMA modular platform. The Polestar 2, among others, is based on the latter. The Polestar-SK partnership review could touch on the supplier status-quo. Polestar plans to “launch several breakthrough vehicles in the coming years”. The company had let this be known only recently in the context of a capital increase.
Since its inception three and a half years ago, Polestar has developed its own manufacturing facility in China, established global distribution and launched two vehicles, Polestar 1 and Polestar 2.
SK Group, for its part, is considered South Korea’s third-largest industrial holding company. It operates more than 120 companies in the fields of semiconductors, batteries for electric vehicles, energy and telecommunications and, according to its own figures, employs more than 100,000 people worldwide. In connection with electromobility, the battery division SK Innovation has so far come to the fore.
“We see the growth potential of Polestar and are looking forward to evaluating possible collaborations in what will be an exciting journey,” commented Dong Hyun Jang, CEO of SK Group, on the signing of the memorandum of understanding.
Among other things, SK Group made a name for itself at the beginning of the year: In January, the conglomerate acquired almost ten per cent of the shares in the US fuel cell specialist Plug Power. Shortly afterwards, the South Korean company presented a long-term plan worth billions to enter the hydrogen economy even more comprehensively than before.
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