SK, Hyundai strengthen partnership in EVs
The meeting between SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun last July is starting to bear fruit, with more SK electric vehicle (EV) batteries being added to Hyundai’s latest lineup.
The Genesis officially introduced its first G80 EV sedan at the 2021 Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition. Together with Kia’s EV6, both utilize SK Innovation’s batteries. Hyundai Motor Group is the parent company of both Kia and Hyundai Motor Co.
“Both the G80 and the EV6 utilize SK Innovation batteries,” an industry official said.
Hyundai says that the G80 EV is equipped with SK’s 87.2 kWh battery pack and can travel up to 427 km on a single charge, equipped with a solar panel roof capable of charging an average of 830 KWh a day. The Kia EV6 model, with a 77.4 KWh pack, has a travel range of 510 km and charges up to 80 percent of battery capacity in 18 minutes.
The two batteries are SK Innovation’s NCM811 batteries, which were also supplied to Hyundai’s Bongo EVs, electric buses and hydrogen trucks.
Hyundai plans to launch more than 20 electric models in China by 2030, in a move to revive its sales through the world’s largest automotive
market. Industry watchers believe that SK Innovation will have opportunities to supply its batteries in a number of Hyundai’s scheduled EV releases.
For 2020, the two Korean carmakers suffered a collective 27 percent year-on-year decline in their China sales, impacted by a diplomatic dispute between Seoul and Beijing over the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in Korea in 2017. Hyundai Motor Group aims
to revive its China market share through the newly released EVs.
SK Innovation, Hyundai Motor and Kia will also collaborate to co-develop batteries for their future hybrid electric vehicles. This occasion marks the first time Hyundai Motor and Kia, which together constitute the world’s fifth-biggest carmaker by sales, have directly engaged in battery development, after fully relying on partnerships with battery makers in the past.
“The global EV market is expected
to grow at a rapid pace in the coming years, and carmakers will need to make their own batteries, as the cost of battery packs takes up a significant portion of the cost of an EV,” an industry official said.
The co-developed batteries are scheduled to be installed in Hyundai and Kia’s hybrid vehicles, which are slated for release in 2024.
“Through this partnership with the global battery technology company SK Innovation, we plan to upgrade our competitiveness in the eco-friendly vehicle market,” a Hyundai official said.
Since 2010, SK and Hyundai have worked together, mass-producing the carmaker’s first EV, dubbed BlueOn. SK Innovation has maintained an especially close relationship with Kia, installing its batteries in the majority of Kia’s eco-friendly car lineup, including in the Niro EV, Niro Hybrid, K5 Hybrid and K7 Hybrid.
SK Innovation has also been chosen as the sole supplier of the first batch of vehicles produced from Hyundai Motor’s EV E-GMP platform, which includes Hyundai’s Ioniq 5 and Kia’s EV6.
Recently, SK Innovation agreed to pay 2 trillion won ($1.78 billion) to settle an electric vehicle battery dispute with LG Energy Solution, ending other pending litigations.
Their compromise allows SK to resume construction of a $2.6-billion electric vehicle battery plant in Georgia, the U.S., which is scheduled to supply electric vehicle batteries to Ford and Volkswagen.
The first phase of the plant is expected to start operating during the first quarter of next year, while the second factory is set to go into mass production starting in 2023.
The two factories combined could generate 21.5 gigawatts (GWh) and SK has injected 3 trillion won in construction costs so far, while an additional 2.6 trillion won is expected to be invested in order to complete the construction.
“We will continue local and overseas investments in the global EV industry in order to establish an ecosystem,” said an official from SK Innovation.
SK is investing heavily in the Georgia plant, but also, plans to put an additional 3 trillion won into its Hungary plant by 2025. With these investments, the company aims to achieve 85GWh by 2023 and 125GWh by 2025, raising its competitiveness in the global EV market.
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The global EV market is expected to grow at a rapid pace in the coming years, and carmakers will need to make their own batteries.
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