According to the news released by SK On, BlueOval SK, a joint venture battery company between SK On and Ford, was officially established on July 13 (US local time).
In September last year, SK On and Ford announced that they would invest a total of 10.2 trillion won, each with 5.1 trillion won, to establish BlueOval SK, build a battery plant in Tennessee, and build two battery plants in Kentucky. The shareholding ratio is 50%.
Among them, the Tennessee plant will be built on a 15.54 million-square-meter site together with Ford's EV production plant. The Kentucky plant has a total area of 6.28 million square meters.
The three plants have a total capacity of 129GWh, of which the Tennessee plant has an annual capacity of 43GWh; the Kentucky plant has an annual capacity of 86GWh.
It is reported that in addition to BlueOval SK, SK On is investing US$2.6 billion to build its US battery factory with a total production capacity of over 21.5GWh. Among them, the first battery factory in Georgia, the United States, has a capacity of 9.8GWh in the first phase, and is expected to achieve mass production from 2022. The second US factory has also started construction and is expected to be put into operation in 2023, with a planned production capacity of 11.7GWh.
If the production capacity of BlueOval SK is added, the planned annual production capacity of SK On in the United States alone has exceeded 150GWh.
In May 2022, SK Group, the parent company of SK On, announced that it would invest 247 trillion won over the next five years to support the company's businesses in semiconductors, EV batteries and biopharmaceuticals. Among them, 67.4 trillion won was invested in green businesses such as electric vehicle batteries.
SK On plans to expand its production capacity from just 1.6GWh in 2017 to 77GWh by the end of this year through steady investments in the US, Hungary and China. By 2030, it is expected to expand to more than 500GWh.
According to SK On's partner Ford's global electric vehicle plan, by 2030, it will have at least 240GWh of battery cell production capacity, which is equivalent to having 10 factories. Of this, about 140GWh of capacity will come from North America, with the rest coming from other regions, including Europe and China.
