Hyundai-Kia buys more batteries from SK On in the US
As Business Korea writes, SK On is expanding its battery production at its plants 1 and 2 in Georgia, which is solely due to the increased demand from customer Hyundai-Kia. The portal quotes insiders as saying that in the future, 75 per cent of the production lines at the SK On production site in Georgia will be reserved for battery deliveries to the two Korean brands. In other words, nine out of twelve lines.
It is not clear from the report whether the ramp-up has anything to do with the fact that Hyundai has to make changes to the batteries in order to qualify for the US tax credit of 7,500 dollars. As is known, the US Department of Energy included the Hyundai Group’s electric cars for the first time in its list of eligible electric cars updated at the turn of the year – but for three out of five models it remained a brief intermezzo: the Ioniq 5, Ioniq 9 and Genesis GV70 Electrified models were removed from the list again in the course of January. According to Business Korea, their batteries did not meet the requirements. According to insiders, Hyundai then made a plan to replace them for these models sold in the US by March – and thus fulfil the criteria for the subsidy again.
It is possible that there is a connection to the obvious additional demand for batteries at SK On. These will be supplied to Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America (HMGMA). According to Business Korea, the Hyundai Group is currently still sourcing some batteries from South Korea or Europe for its US production. For SK On, meanwhile, the higher demand means better capacity utilisation of its own plants, which, according to the report, was only 46 per cent in the third quarter of 2024.
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