| Lubricant market for EVs expected to grow six times by 2025 in line with the explosive expansion of the EV market.

Recently, the global mobility market is transforming rapidly to EVs. Market research firm IHS estimates that the EV market will include about 3.94 million vehicles this year. It is predicted that the size of this market will increase by more than 70% from 2.28 million vehicle last year, and much more rapidly to about 11.26 million vehicles by 2025, which is four years from now. As a result, global automakers such as GM and Ford are also announcing their plans to convert 100% to EVs.

As the global vehicle market gets restructured around EVs, the market for lubricants for EV is emerging as the new blue ocean. With improved performances of EVs, the use of exclusive lubricant products for these cars is becoming an essential practice.

Compared to conventional internal combustion engine lubricants, lubricants for EVs quickly cool off heat occurring on electric motors and gears, and cut off unnecessary electricity flowing inside the vehicle’s driving system to reduce energy loss and wear. Also, it extends the lifetime of each electric motor part, and extends the mileage of EVs by improving machine efficiency.

The industry predicts that the global lubricant market for EVs will increase 6 times from 10 million liters last year to 60 million liters in 2025. Over the next 10 years, it is expected to make a rapid growth of more than 24% annually in average.

| SK Lubricants, the global leading company for high-end lubricants, also leads the EV market

The industry is paying attention to SK Lubricants because it is considered to be a leading company in the market for EV lubricants, a market rapidly emerging as the new blue ocean.

Unlike other domestic oil companies that are still in the early stages of developing and releasing EV lubricants, SK Lubricants already started developing lubricants for EVs in 2010. This bold move has become a strategy that differentiated itself from other oil companies in Korea. After SK Lubricants successfully made an early entrance to the market, it went on to supplying lubricants for EVs to global automakers starting 2013. As of today, its supply so far has reached the amount for more than 700,000 EVs. Because of this, it is no secret in the industry that SK Lubricants is the world’s leading company in the EV lubricant market.

The company also boasts an outstanding growth. Its sales of lubricants for EVs have increased by an average of 33% annually over the past two years. Moreover, sales are expected to double this year compared to 2020 due to full-fledged growth of the EV market.

Meanwhile, SK Lubricants’ lubricant YUBASE already holds the position as the world’s no. 1 product with an overwhelming 35% share in the high-end lubricant market* (Group Ⅲ). Based on its unrivaled technological capability to manufacture high-end lubricants and technology to design a mixing formula suitable for EVs, SK Lubricants is also leading the lubricant market for EVs.

(*) The key factors of EV lubricants are basically electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity. In this aspect, using paraffin-based high-quality base oil is a plus for quality and performance. Group III oil made by SK Lubricants (brand name: YUBASE) essentially meets this requirement.

| Successful transformation into ESG-optimized portfolio with strong eco-friendly product line-up

Amid rapid growth of the EV market, demand for high-end lubricant for internal combustion engine is still on the rise.

This is because the importance of lowering engine oil viscosity and improving fuel efficiency is being emphasized due to expanding eco-friendly policies and more demand for improving efficiency of internal combustion engines, and the existing market for engine oil is still growing according to the current trend of eco-friendly technology development.

SK Lubricants is also transforming its existing lubricants for internal combustion engines to “green products”. ZIC ZERO, released in 2019, is the face of eco-friendly lubricant of SK Lubricants.

▲ SK ZIC ZERO is an eco-friendly lubricant product that maximizes fuel efficiency and engine protection performance while reducing emissions such as carbon dioxide. (From the left: SK ZIC ZERO 16, SK ZIC ZERO 20, SK ZIC ZERO 30)

This product is a low-viscosity engine oil that is manufactured using SK Lubricants’ high-end lube base oil as the base. SK ZIC ZERO is characterized by applying SK’s unique ionic liquid application technology to improve fuel efficiency AND engine protection performance at the same time. In addition, it is the first product of its kind to use 100% recycling materials for its packaging container to secure its name as an innovative lubricant that is “eco-friendly from the packaging to the product itself”.

Furthermore, SK Lubricants is expanding its business beyond the existing vehicle lubricants to lubricants for the entire renewable energy sector such as wind power facilities. As demand for renewable energy is increasing, SK Lubricants is pioneering the market in advance to secure future growth. The reason why the future of SK Lubricants – securing its position as an eco-friendly company – seems brighter than ever.