[NewsSpace=JeongYoung Kim] Three Korean battery companies have announced plans to establish new factories both domestically and internationally, as demand for electric vehicles continues to rise.
The companies are opening dedicated battery production lines and increasing joint venture factories with car manufacturers in order to meet demand and comply with regulations for battery subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Although the three companies have already started constructing factories in the United States, Canada, and Europe, the current production capacity is still insufficient given the expected order balance of over 100 trillion won this year.
LG Energy Solution announced on the 25th that it will invest 600 billion won to establish a "Mother Line" at its battery production facility in Ochang, Chungbuk, which will serve as a technical hub for the production of new products with next-generation designs and process technology. The Mother Line will expand the existing pilot line's scale to verify mass production and develop sample and commercial production of the long cell battery, which is a next-generation battery that improves energy density and driving distance by more than 20%. The company plans to complete the expansion of the Mother Line by the end of 2024.
Hyundai Motor Group and SK Innovation have also agreed to establish a battery joint venture corporation in Georgia, USA, by jointly investing a total of $5 billion (approximately 6.5 trillion won). Hyundai Motor Group held a regular board meeting on the same day and approved the agenda to construct a battery cell joint venture factory with SK Innovation in Bartow County, Georgia, which can produce 35 GWh (gigawatt-hours) of batteries annually for 300,000 electric cars. The factory is expected to start production in the second half of 2025, and both companies will hold a 50% stake in the joint venture.
Samsung SDI has also announced plans to construct a battery joint venture factory with General Motors (GM) in the United States. GM has already launched or is constructing three joint venture factories with LG Energy Solution in the United States, and has selected Samsung SDI as its fourth partner. The investment scale of both companies is over $3 billion, and the production scale is over 30 GWh annually. Production is planned to begin in 2026, and both companies plan to consider various incentives offered by state governments to determine the location of the joint venture factory. Some experts interpret this new cooperation between Samsung and GM, announced on the 70th anniversary of the Korea-US alliance, as a sign that the alliance is evolving from a military and security-focused partnership to a supply chain and advanced technology-focused partnership.
