For Vehicles to Be Launched after 2023
Hyundai Motor Group has selected China's CATL and Korea's SK Innovation as suppliers of the third batch of batteries for its electric vehicles.
CATL and SK Innovation will supply batteries for the E-GMP-based electric vehicles that Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp. will launch after 2023. The total contract value was in the 9 trillion won range. CATL reportedly took more than half of the order volume.
The two suppliers were selected from among four candidates, which also included LG Energy Solution and Samsung SDI. Hyundai Motor and Kia selected a plural number of suppliers for a stable supply of batteries.
The reason why Hyundai Motor chose CATL as one of its two partners is that the Chinese supplier’s products have nearly the same performance as those from Korean companies but are about 20 percent cheaper than them.
LG Energy Solution has thus far been a partner for Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp., but it seems to have been excluded from the list of suppliers due to frequent fires of the vehicles powered by its batteries. SK Innovation's electric vehicle batteries have received good reviews.