Before a month or so, SK Innovation has made a commitment of spending nearly $1.67 billion for construction of a battery manufacturing unit in the southeast U.S. state of Georgia. After 4 weeks, Jun Kim, the Chief Operating Officer of the company, made an announcement that the company’s plan had some major permutations, and the next decision is to invest approx. $5 billion into the same project. An investment as such is considered to be a major contribution to the EV (electric vehicle) revolution and is likely to create new opportunities for the company to enhance its brand equity.
With this new investment, does SK Innovation wants to go a mile ahead by auguring well for the drastic EVs penetration? It would be interesting to see if any of the rivalry of SK Innovation comes up with something in similar lines or would come up with something unique. A commitment as such from SK Innovation would be instrumental in making it a prominent player in the manufacturing space on a global scale alongside other renowned firms including Samsung SDI, Panasonic, LG Chem, and CATL.
As per multiple sources, the construction is likely to start off this year itself. Post its construction, approximately 2,000 workers will be employed and the production capacity is expected be large-scale. The completion of construction has been scheduled for 2022 and is likely to go through several refinements and reformations before it approaches the completion period.
SK Innovation is well-known as a supplier of batteries to prominent brands, including Mercedes-Benz, Kia, and Hyundai. Volkswagen has stated that SK is one of its leading battery suppliers for the upcoming ID brand with regard to electric cars.
Mercedes, Hyundai, and Honda operating their independent assembly plants in the region of Alabama. Mazda and Toyota have also initiated a new venture with by jointly-owing a factory located in Alabama. Kia owns a plant in the region of Georgia while Volkswagen does have an assembly plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Volkswagen recently unveiled that the company is on a lookout for a particular place to come up with another factory construction in the US. With its announcement regarding use of SK Innovation batteries in its innovative ID cars, probably Georgia could be in the list for the new Volkswagen factory.
Expectations point that capacity for the automotive traction batteries will take off by significant heights in the forthcoming years, in a bid to meet the herculean needs and latest demand projections.