Denying Rumor about Battery Technology Problem
SK On’s U.S. subsidiary, SK Battery America (SKBA), has restarted its battery production plant that supplies batteries for Ford Motor’s electric pickup truck F-150 Lightning.
SKBA restarted the plant in Commerce, Georgia, from late afternoon on Feb. 20 (local time). The decision was made 15 days after a battery fire in a F-150 Lightning, which was waiting to be rolled out, halted it on Feb. 5.
SKBA restarted the plant as it has identified the cause of the fire through inspections and taken necessary measures to address problems in facilities and manufacturing operations.
“We quickly identified problems in facilities and manufacturing operations and took measures to prevent the recurrence of such problems,” an SK On official said. “It is not a fundamental technical problem. We will normalize all production lines after discussing an improvement method with Ford.”
The F-150 Lightning is powered by NCM9 batteries from SK On’s Georgia Plant 1. SK On supplies battery modules to Ford, which assembles them into battery packs.