SK Innovation to raise annual battery capacity to 200 GWh by 2025

Reuters
Updated ·1 min read
FILE PHOTO: The logo of SK Innovation is seen in front of its headquarters in Seoul

SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's SK Innovation Co Ltd said on Thursday it aims to ramp up its annual battery production capacity to 200 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in 2025, up 60% from its previously announced 125 GWh of batteries.

SK Innovation, with battery production sites in the United States, Hungary, China and South Korea, currently has an annual capacity of about 40 GWh of batteries.

SK Innovation's expansion plan comes as global sales of battery-powered electric cars are expected to have reached nearly 2.5 million in 2020 and are set to rise by 70% in 2021, according to IHS Markit.

The South Korean battery maker said it has more than 130 trillion won ($115 billion) worth of battery orders, which is more than 1 terawatt hours (TWh) worth of batteries, which could power about 14 million electric vehicles.

($1 = 1,130.1600 won)

(Reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Stephen Coates)