SK Innovation' EV Battery Shipments Surged 160% This Year

SK Innovation's electrical vehicle (EV) battery shipments this year has increased about 160 percent compared to the same period a year ago.

SK Innovation announced on Oct. 10, quoting the data released by SNE Research, a market research company, that it recorded the highest growth rate among global battery makers in the shipments of batteries for non-Chinese EVs from January to August this year.

SK Innovation's accumulated shipments of EV batteries from January to August this year totaled 428.9 MWh, a 160% increase from the same period last year.

In particular, it increased its shipment by 2.6 times in August compared to last year, boosting its share of the global market to 3.2 percent.

If the company’s second battery plant in Seosan on the nation’s western coast is completed in the second half of this year, its annual EV battery production will increase to 4.7 GWh per year.
 

In addition, the company’s annual EV battery output will expand to about 20 GWh by 2022, when two 7.5 GWh battery plants are completed overseas, one in Hungary and the other in Changzhou, China.

The company announced on Oct. 7 that it is pushing to construct a lithium-ion battery separator/ceramic coating separator plant in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province of China.

"Because global demands are rapidly increasing, we are flexibly applying our current strategy of building plants after winning orders," said an official of SK Innovation, adding the company is stepping up efforts to improve its profitability in the battery business.