Acquired 13.3% stake in Blue Park Smart Energy
SK Innovation starts a replacement battery business in China. It is meaningful in that it is the first overseas expansion for the’BaaS-Battery as a Service’ business.
On the 21st, SK Innovation announced that it has recently acquired a 13.3% stake in’Blue Park Smart Energy (Beijing) Technology Co. LTD.’ It was decided not to disclose the amount of investment through consultation between the two companies.
SK Innovation established a battery manufacturing joint venture with Beijing Motors in 2013, and this investment paved the way for the battery service business in China, which accounts for nearly half of the global electric vehicle market. The two companies will promote cooperation in the BaaS business field through a business agreement. It is expected to create synergy with the existing battery business in China. It plans to expand the business into service areas throughout the entire battery life cycle, such as battery rental, charging, reuse, and recycling.
BPSE is a company that has been approved for battery reuse business from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (Ministry of Public Information) of China. A battery replacement station is operated for taxi and MaaS (Mobility as a Service) operators in Beijing. It is a major operator that leads the establishment of Chinese national standards for replaceable batteries and exerts influence on related industrial policies.
The first BaaS business that both companies are paying attention to is the battery replacement station. The battery replacement station is a service that replaces a discharged battery pack with a charged battery pack at an offline store like a gas station. Since it can be replaced in a short time, it can overcome the limitations of existing rechargeable batteries that take a lot of time to charge.
The battery installed in the battery replacement station can be used as an energy storage device (ESS). It is expected to be helpful in establishing a distributed power infrastructure in the city in the future.
“SK Innovation will change the paradigm of the electric vehicle market in the future through the BaaS business model,” said Ji Dong-seop, CEO of SK Innovation’s battery business. I will actively utilize it.”
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