SK Innovation to invest KRW 3 trillion into US battery plant

SK Innovation – one of South Korea’s leading battery makers – have decided to make additional investments into its US battery facilities to bring the total to KRW 3 trillion, according to the company on April 28.

The KRW 3 trillion will include the costs for building an additional second plant in the state of Georgia with an expected production capacity of 11.7GWh. Mass production is to begin in 2023. For now, the SK Innovation board of directors have decided on an initial investment of around KRW 890 billion (USD 727 million).

“The only way to recover fundamental competitiveness is to make bold investments for the future when the times are hard,” said SK Innovation CEO Kim Jun. “We hope to also contribute to the global and US EV industry value chain and eco-system as well.”

In 2018, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won had pledged that the group would ’grow together’ with the US, beginning with creating up to 6,000 new EV battery jobs and invest up to USD 5 billion.

With the second plant, SK Innovation will secure EV battery facilities capable of producing up to an annual 21.5GWh in the US alone, which compares with the global supply of 71GWh. SK’s mid-term goal is to produce up to 100GWh by 2025.

The Elec is South Korea’s No.1 tech news platform.