The top management of Hyundai Motor Group, including Hyundai Motor Group Executive Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun, Head of R&D Division of Hyundai/Kia Motors Albert Biermann, two President of Hyundai Motor Kim Geol and Seo Bo-shin, and President of Hyundai Mobis Park Chung-kook, visited the battery factory of SK Innovation in Seosan, Chungnam, South Korea on the 7th of this month.

In response, the top management of the SK Group including Chairman of SK Group Chey Tae-won, Vice Chairman Chey Jae-won, President & CEO of SK Innovation Kim Jun, CEO of SK Holdings Jang Dong-hyun, and President of SK Innovation’s Battery Business Jee Dong-seob, greeted the top management of the Hyundai Motor Group.

The top managements of the both Groups, including the Chairman Chey Tae-won and the Executive Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun exchanged opinions on the means of sharing the directionality and means of cooperation for the development of future new technologies including ▲ next-generation battery technologies such as high energy density, quick charging, and lithium-metal batteries, etc., and ▲ power semiconductors, new light-weight materials, and service platforms for leasing and replacement of batteries (BaaS, Battery as a Service), etc. on which SK Innovation is concentrating. They also discussed opportunities to expand EV and hydrogen fuel cell vehicle recharging infrastructure in South Korea by utilizing the nationwide SK Group network of petrol and charging stations.

The top management of the Hyundai Motor Group had a tour of the assembly line for the battery cells supplied to Niro electric vehicles within the Seosan factory of SK Innovation. The Seosan factory, which was constructed in 2012, completed the expansion of the 7th assembly line last year, thereby equipping itself with the manufacturing capacity for the annual supply of 4.7GWh of batteries.

Hyundai Motor Group is utilizing batteries manufactured by SK Innovation for the plug-in hybrid vehicles as well as Niro and Soul EV of Kia Motors that Hyundai and Kia Motors are currently manufacturing.

Moreover, Hyundai and Kia Motors chose SK Innovation as the primary battery supplier for the ‘E-GMP (Electric-Global Modular Platform)’, an exclusive electric vehicle platform that Hyundai and Kia Motors is scheduling to mass produce in 2021.

Products of SK Innovation to be loaded in the ‘E-GMP’-based electric vehicles of Hyundai and Kia Motors are high performance, next-generation lithium-ion batteries with marked improvements in performance and the companies will provide diversified values to the customers by combining these efforts with the special features of the exclusive models for electric vehicles.

According to a representative of SK Group, “the meeting today was a highly meaningful opportunity to further discuss cooperation in a diversified range of new technological domains including next-generation batteries and so on between the two companies, which have been cooperating closely in the electric vehicle and battery business realm for quite some time.”

An interested party of the Hyundai Motor Group also stated that “Hyundai and Kia Motors are researching relevant technologies for the realization of the optimized battery performances necessary for electric vehicles with the best performance in the world,” and that, “this visit is aimed at the examination of the current status of the development of high performance, next-generation batteries to be loaded in the exclusive models or electric vehicles in the future and to share the directionality for the development of future batteries and new technologies.”