SK On and Ford form BlueOval SK, an EV battery joint venture

David Hahm, the head of BlueOval SK [SK ON]

SK On, an SK Innovation subsidiary, and Ford Motor Company on Wednesday established BlueOval SK, a battery-making joint venture.

The 50:50 joint venture will be located in Commerce, Georgia, where an SK On manufacturing facility is located, and will move eventually to Stanton, Tennessee.

It will manufacture batteries for electric vehicles (EV).

The venture will be headed by David Hahm, vice president at SK On, while Jiem Cranney from Ford will serve as chief financial officer.

The two companies will jointly invest 10.2 trillion won ($7.8 billion) to build three plants in the United States, two in Tennessee and one in Kentucky. When completed, the combined capacity will total 129 gigawatt-hours (GWh). The facilities will initiate mass production in 2025.

SK On and Ford said earlier that they will establish a venture with Istanbul-based Koc Holding to build a plant near Ankara, Turkey. The size of the investment has yet to be disclosed, but the plant will produce 30 to 45 GWh of batteries per year mostly for use in commercial vehicles, according to SK On.

SK On aims to expand its battery manufacturing capacity to 220 GWh by 2025 and 500 GWh by 2030. It ranked No. 5 in the global EV battery market last year, with a 5.6 percent market share. It supplied 16.7 GWh batteries to EV makers, 107.5 percent on-year growth.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]