SK On expands presence in EV battery market

SK On, a South Korea-based producer of electric vehicle (EV) batteries, has broken ground along with Ford Motor Co. at a production site in Kentucky and has announced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a battery recycling firm in its home region.

In North America, SK On and Ford held a groundbreaking ceremony for a joint venture (JV) EV battery manufacturing campus in December in Glendale, Kentucky. The BlueOval SK Battery Park in Glendale joins another Ford BlueOval investment underway in Tennessee. The BlueOval SK JV was established this July.

“Right here in Kentucky, Ford and SK are joining forces to lead the future of the EV industry,” SK Group Executive Vice Chairman Chey Jae-won said at the ceremony. “We will be manufacturing the safest and the most reliable batteries in the world. Over the next two years, BlueOval SK will build the biggest and most advanced plants for EV batteries, and Kentucky will become a vital center for the future of clean mobility.”

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called the $5.8 billion project “the largest economic development project in our state’s history and part of the biggest investment ever by Ford.”

Once completed, the two BlueOval battery plants in Kentucky and Tennessee are scheduled to “churn out batteries powering next generation electric Ford and Lincoln vehicles starting from the first quarter of 2025,” according to SK On.

On the recycling front, the SK Innovation business unit of SK On announced in December the MoU with South Korea-based SungEel HiTech to “cooperate in the metal recovery business for cathode materials from end-of-life batteries.”

SK Innovation says one of the aims of the MoU is to establish a recycling-specific JV in South Korea in 2023 and start commercial production of cathode materials in 2025. SK Innovation lists lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese as materials to be targeted for recovery.

SK Innovation says it has been developing the technology to recover lithium hydroxide from lithium-ion batteries since 2017, building a pilot plant in late 2021.

The lithium hydroxide retrieved through SK Innovation’s technology is pure enough to be used in EV batteries and the process is “known to have the highest recovery rates in the industry,” according to the company. SK Innovation will be building its first plant in South Korea, but more plants could follow in the United States and Europe.

SungEel HiTech is described by SK Innovation as the only company in South Korea to recover cobalt, nickel, manganese and copper from lithium-ion batteries via  “a large-scale hydrometallurgical plant.” In cooperation with SK Innovation, SungEel HiTech will attempt to generate additional profits by recovering lithium via its process.

“Recycling metals from end-of-life batteries is a crucial new business in implementing SK Innovation’s ‘Carbon to Green’ financial story and expanding its eco-friendly business portfolio,” says Kang Dong-soo, head of SK Innovation’s Portfolio Divisional Group. “In cooperation with SungEel HiTech, we will build a circular economic model at a fast pace by recycling battery raw materials.”