SK Innovation will take part in Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2020, the largest household electronics and IT exhibition in the world, held in Las Vegas, USA, from January 7 to 10. As the sole Korean petrochemical firm to take part in CES, SK Innovation will join the SK Group affiliates, such as SK Telecom, SK Hynix, and SKC, under the theme of “SK, Evolve Towards the Future.”

▲ SK Group booth at CES 2020

SK Innovation’s centerpiece for this exhibition is “SK Inside,” a collection of core technologies for innovations in future mobility.

Alongside its visions for battery-driven cars of the future, SK Innovation will display application models under the idea of Beyond EV, or using cutting-edge battery technologies for aerospace/train/vessel; eco-friendly, ultra-light materials for E-mobility; and lubricant products.

The rationale of the company’s second participation in CES is the first part of its management direction for the year 2020, namely “showing the directionality of customer innovation.” This directionality of customer innovation, SK Innovation added, is “providing support for the innovation of customers by providing them with new values, and thus expanding the customer base and growth of the company.”

▲SK Group’s joint exhibition booth in CES 2019 organized under the theme of “Innovative Mobility by SK”

Through cooperation with its affiliates, such as SK Global Chemical, SK Lubricants, and SK IE Technology, SK Innovation has created the “SK Inside” model, a holistic package consisting of cutting-edge batteries, ultra-light and eco-friendly materials, and lubricant products that are required for the innovations of “future E-mobility.” It also hopes to generate a synergy of “SK Inside,” in which other SK affiliates, such as SK Telecom, SK Hynix, and SKC, are participating jointly.

| “SK Inside,” the Exemplar of SK Innovation’s Cutting-edge Technology

SK Innovation proposes a vision of the future electric vehicle (EV) by combining the moving model vehicles and large screen images in cutting-edge technology. “SK Inside,” in other words, is both a proposal on the direction of EV technology and a demonstration of SK Innovation’s cutting-edge technologies that enable this vision.

The first order of this demonstration is the presentation of core battery technologies and materials that allow the company to have a distinguished edge in the EV battery market. Ultra-long cell and high-nickel manufacturing technologies, both unique technologies held by SK Innovation only, enable the production of ultra-efficient long-range NCM 9 1/1 1/1 and NCM 811⁽¹⁾ battery cell technologies on display.

1) NCM 9 1/2 1/2 and 811 refer to batteries with the nickel – cobalt – manganese ratio of 9:1/2:1/2 and 8:1:1, respectively.

▲ SK Innovation’s EV battery module on display at its SK booth during CES 2019

The company also plans to present its technology of LiBS (lithium-ion battery separator), a core component of batteries that sits between the anode and the cathode of the battery, maintaining the stability of the battery and enhancing its output. SK Innovation successfully developed the LiBS technology in 2004, the first Korean company and the third in the world to do so. Since then, the company’s LiBS has been recognized for its top-level quality in all areas, including homogeneity, contractibility, and stability.

The company will demonstrate its technological prowess with a model of future mobility, which will be enabled by such cutting-edge battery technologies. The model will also demonstrate other areas of application, such as aerospace engineering, trains, and vessels.

This presentation represents the company’s strategy of “Beyond EV,” or the expansion of its business to E-mobility areas outside EV, as revealed by CEO Kim Jun in May 2019.

| SK Affiliates Assemble for E-mobility Innovation

SK Innovation will also present a large collection of eco-friendly, ultra-light materials and lubricants, all integral enablers and accelerators of E-mobility innovation.

SK Global Chemical will present materials that will be used for interior and exterior surfaces of eco-friendly, ultra-light cars. These materials represent the pinnacle of the company’s 50-year petrochemical R&D capabilities, and can be used in the automobile body, dashboard, bumper, door trim, tires, and other components in the cars of the future. Ultra-light materials enable eco-friendly E-mobility by reducing the weight of the vehicle drastically while maintaining the strength of the structure to levels equivalent to steel, thereby reducing energy consumption.

SK Lubricants, as the global leader of Group III base oil products, will present lubricant products⁽²⁾ optimized for EV batteries. These products help to maintain the optimal temperature of batteries (15–35°C) and optimize the efficiency of motor systems.

2) Gear-box oil, motor cooling fluid, battery cooling fluid, shock absorber oil, etc.

SK IE Technology (hereafter SKIET), SK Innovation’s material business spin-off, will introduce its FCW(³⁾(Flexible Cover Window), a core material for flexible display. SKIET’s FCW is the result of the company’s expertise in film production and coating technologies, made evident in its resistance to scratches and its excellent durability.

3) FCW (Flexible Cover Window): A brand name for SKIET’s flexible display cover material

▲ SK Innovation’s automobile display model equipped with FCW displayed at its SK booth during CES 2019

FCW is a display material that can be used not only for traditional display products like TV or smartphones but can also potentially enable EVs with autonomous driving functionality to act as workspaces or infotainment spaces. It is also a core enabler of next-generation technologies such as transparent fingerprint identification sensors or transparent antenna for enhanced vehicle security.

| SK Group will showcase the Technologies that will lead the Future Mobility

As future mobility has become one of the new growth engines in the group, SK Group will expand its exhibition space almost eightfold from the previous year’s 91㎡ to 713㎡, and provide a comprehensive demonstration of its value chain from EV batteries to in-vehicle media (infotainment), semiconductors, and automobile materials.

SK Telecom, as the only Korean mobile service participating in CES 2020, will demonstrate its 5G-based mobility and media services. More specifically, it will exhibit its media services geared toward the increasingly smart automobile platforms, such as ▲automobile infotainment (IVI, In-Vehicle Infotainment), ▲next-generation LiDAR4) technology, ▲AI-based HD Map Live update5) technology, and a host of other media services such as 5G mobile edge computing (MEC)6) based high-definition TV, and real-time ATSC 3.07) broadcasting in the U.S.

4) LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging): A remote sensing technology using lasers to detect the terrain, acting as the figurative eyes of autonomous vehicles
5) HD Map Live update: A technology supplying highly accurate maps for drivers using real-time automatic updates of the latest road data
6) Mobile Edge Computing (MEC): A technology that reduces data latency by installing small-scale data centers in base stations that are not data centers
7) ATSC3.0 : Standard for digital TV broadcasting in the U.S. It is capable of transmitting high-definition video at a higher speed than conventional broadcasting.

SK Hynix, under the theme of “Memory-Centric World,” will exhibit semiconductor solutions like DRAM, NAND flash memory, and image sensors used in the six lifestyle-changing industrial areas of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR) & Virtual Reality (VR), Automotive, Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, and 5G. Along with these exhibitions, SK Hynix will also create a model city of the future where the large-scale data are used, thereby providing opportunities for visitors to visually experience the role of semiconductors.

SKC will introduce high-value, high-functional special mobility materials. Alongside its remarkable battery copper foil production technology, which is capable of producing the thinnest foils of its kind in the world, SKC will also exhibit PCT films that will be used in lightweight cables and battery busbars8)for the automobiles of the future. Other products to be showcased in CES 2020 include polyurethane products that can be used as automotive interior materials for excellent noise and vibration reduction, and vastly reduced emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which are known to cause atopic dermatitis. Such mobility materials will form a formidable part of SKC’s future growth, and the company will likewise continue to expand its business accordingly.

8) Battery Busbar: A conductor connecting small batteries together to create a battery bank for EV and other purposes

Such technologies will form the basis of SK Innovation’s showcase in CES 2020 as a demonstration of the directions in the future of the mobility industry. They will also help to create the synergies between SK Telecom, SK Hynix, and SKC, “apart yet together.”