SK On starts to place equipment at new battery factory in Hungary

SK On has started installing equipment into its planned new EV battery factory in Hungary, TheElec has learned.

The factory at Ivancsa will be its third factory in Europe. It plans to build two at Ivancsa and the equipment are being placed for the first one.

The first factory will have an annual output of 30GWh, enough to power 4.3 million units of EVs.

Ford and Volkswagen are expected to be the main customer of the factory.

It will have 12 lines, six of them for the production and manufacture 300mm and 600mm length battery cells.

SK On is using equipment from around 20 companies for this factory. The mixing equipment is provided by Yunsung F&C. The supplier will also be providing accessory logistics kits and tanks in turn-key.

PNT will supply the electrode equipment. Notching equipment is supplied by both Youil Energy Tech and Woowon Technology. SK On previously mostly used Youil Energy Tech only but Woowon is now supplying the notching equipment for the long-length cells.

Woonwon is also the main supplier of stacking equipment. Youil Energy Tech and Woowon may both win future equipment orders from Blue Oval SK, the battery joint venture between SK On and Ford.

Mplus is the exclusive supplier of packaging equipment to Ivancsa. The South Korean supplier had won 200 billion won worth of orders for the equipment SK On had placed for both Ivancsa and Yancheng, China, early this year.

Korea Vacuum is providing the dryroom and x-ray inspection equipment will be supplied by Innometry.

For the back-end, Zhejiang Hangke is supplying the formation equipment; SFA the degassing equipment; NS the folding inspection equipment.

Hana Technology and Wonik PNE are providing the side folding equipment. Oceanbridge, a close partner to chipmaker SK Hynix, is supplying the electrolyte injector.

Toptec is providing the module assembly equipment and SK C&C will provide the smart factory solution.