April 25, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] SK Innovation said on Nov. 30 it has decided to invest more than 1 trillion won (US$925 million) to boost electric vehicle battery production capacity to meet growing demand.

The Korean EV battery maker said it is set to break ground on an 840 million-won battery plant in the northwestern Hungarian city of Komarom in February.

Beginning in 2020, the 430,000-square-meter plant will be capable of producing EV cells with a combined 7.5 gigawatt hours per year.

Komarom is home to assembly lines of German carmaker Audi and is not far away from a plant of another German automaker, Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz.

Meanwhile, SK Innovation said it has decided to invest about 150 billion won to expand production capacity of lithium-ion battery separators, a key component in EV batteries, in Jeungpyeong, about 126 kilometers south of Seoul.

It also announced a plan to expand EV battery production lines in Seosan, 150 kilometers south of Seoul. The latest investment will raise domestic production capacity of EV cells to a combined 4.7 GWh.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)