SK boosts capacity of Hungary EV battery plant

South Korea's SK Innovation has raised the capacity target for a second electric vehicle (EV) battery plant that it is building in Hungary and has approved funding for an additional factory in China.

The Hungarian plant will have annual production capacity of 9GWh, rather than the 7.5GWh target that was reported in February. It will be located in Komarom, near northwest Hungary's border with Slovakia. SK's first Hungarian battery plant, also located in Komarom, is scheduled to start production in 2020 and will have capacity of 7.5GWh.

The company is rapidly expanding its battery business to capitalise on booming demand for EVs. With the larger project scope in Hungary, SK has 38.5GWh of production capacity that is already built or announced. This means the company will still need to build an additional 21.5GWh of capacity by the end of 2022 to meet its 60GWh target for that timeframe, which it reiterated today.

SK approved investment of 579.9bn won ($488.1mn) for a new plant in China, the world's largest EV market, to be built by 2022. But the factory's location and capacity have yet to be determined.

SK also has a Chinese 7.5GWh battery plant under construction in Changzhou through a joint venture with Chinese automaker BAIC and Beijing Electronics.

South Korean battery producers have been essentially shut out of the Chinese EV market since 2016 because cars employing their power packs have been excluded from the country's subsidy programme.