South Korean automotive giant Hyundai Motor Group has announced that its affiliates have approved the group’s the $5 billion deal with SK On Company Limited to build a 35-GWh battery cell joint venture (JV) in the United States.
To set up the EV battery JV, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between Hyundai Motor Group and SK On in November last year. Near the end of the same year, a site in the Bartow County of Georgia was confirmed for the battery manufacturing plant. Now, Hyundai Motor Group has announced that its affiliates, viz. Hyundai, Kia and Hyundai Mobis, have also gave their consent to the $5 billion battery JV deal with SK On. Both partners will own 50/50 stake in the JV.
As per information made available by the two partners, the battery plant should be up and running in around a couple of years. More specifically, production is expected to start in the second half of 2025.
Lithium-ion battery cells produced by the JV will be used by affiliates like Hyundai Mobis to assemble EV batteries for next-generation EVs. It is already setting up an EV power electric system production facility in the Bryan County of the U.S. state of Georgia. Near the same site, Hyundai Motor is setting up its all-new EV-dedicated factory, called the Metaplant America (HMGMA).
Battery cells produced by the JV will also be used by the group’s existing production plants, such as Montgomery-based Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama (HMMA) factory and Kia Georgia Plant (KaGA). The battery production capacity of 35-GWh should be enough to produce as many as 300,000 BEVs. This would be equivalent to roughly 117 kWh per vehicle on average.
The battery JV will not only allow the South Korean manufacturer to secure a stable supply of batteries for its EVs but also provide it easy access to the federal government’s tax credit of $7,500. It is worth-mentioning here that only those EV makers are eligible for this important tax incentive (under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022) which produce EV components like batteries within the boundaries of the U.S. It is also noteworthy that Seoul-headquartered SK On Co. Ltd. has been a strategic partner for the Hyundai Motor Group for a long time. A number of the group’s EV models, including Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6, are already using SK On batteries.