Following the first and second plants in Europe, the third plant is also in Hungary… the size of 98 soccer fields, investment of 2.6 trillion won
More than 125GWh of production capacity in 2020…”Growing up the top global players”
[서울=뉴스핌] Reporter Yoonae Lee = SK Innovation has made a bold investment in the battery business, the future growth engine. The strategy is to expand battery production bases in Europe, which is one of the largest automobile markets and where global automakers are gathered.
SK Innovation will build an additional 3 electric vehicle battery plant in Hungary. The annual production scale is about 30GWh, which can supply about 430,000 electric vehicles.
SK Innovation announced on the 29th that it had held the board of directors the day before and decided to invest $1.14 billion (about 1.27 trillion won) to a local subsidiary, SKBH (SK Battery Hungary) to build a new production plant in Europe.
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| [서울=뉴스핌] Reporter Yunae Lee = Location of 3rd plant in Hungary [사진=SK이노베이션] 2021.01.29 [email protected] |
The third plant, which has decided to invest this time, is expected to be built in Ivancha, Hungary. SK Innovation’s first and second factories in Europe are located in Komarom, Hungary.
The annual production scale is 30GWh, and it can supply about 430,000 units based on 70kWh of electric vehicle loading capacity capable of driving more than 400km per charge. To this end, SK Innovation secured a site of about 700,000 m2 (about 210,000 pyeong) in the city of Ivan Car. This is an area of 98 soccer fields.
Ivanchasi is about 50 km southwest of the capital Budapest. It was selected as the best location for Europe’s third battery factory due to its location conditions, such as the easy supply and demand of manpower and well-equipped infrastructure as it is adjacent to large cities along with seamless logistics infrastructure such as railroads and roads.
In terms of investment, SK Innovation is the largest among battery factories in Europe. It is a long-term project in which construction begins in the third quarter of 2021 and investments are made sequentially until 2028, with a total amount of $2.29 billion (about 2.6 trillion won).
The fund invested this time is 50% of the total investment amount, and SK Innovation plans to raise additional funds required for plant construction through external financing if necessary in accordance with the plant construction fund requirement schedule.
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| [서울=뉴스핌] Reporter Yunae Lee = SK Innovation Hungary Plant 1 [사진=SK이노베이션] 2021.01.29 [email protected] |
SK Innovation’s top management held a meeting with the Hungarian government to formalize the investment on the afternoon of the 29th. Hungarian Seeyart Pieter, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mayor of Molner Turbo Ivan, and Director of the Transplantation Robert Roberts attended the meeting, while SK Innovation was attended by President Kim Joon and CEO Ji Dong-seop, the battery business representative.
The company explained that this investment decision brings us one step closer to the mid- to long-term goal of becoming a global electric vehicle battery company with a production capacity of ‘125 GWh + α per year in 2025’.
In particular, it has been promoting the construction of a 10GWh factory in line with the order status, but this time it has preemptively built a large-scale factory with a size of 30GWh.
It is a will to secure business competitiveness in the rapidly growing electric vehicle market environment and to leap forward as a global top player through more aggressive orders.
Through this, it is possible to actively respond to European battery demand, which is expected to increase more than six times from 41GWh to 256GWh in 2025.
SK Innovation President Kim Joon said, “With this investment, SK Innovation’s battery business will not only greatly contribute to the development of the value chain and ecosystem of the global electric vehicle industry, but will also leap forward as a leading company that leads the electric vehicle battery industry in the long term.”