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Posco Holdings Inc. and Honda Motor signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to form a joint venture for the electric vehicle and battery business. The companies will work together on the supply and recycling of EV battery materials.
Choi Jeong Woo, the chairman of Posco Holdings and Toshihiro Mibe, chief executive officer of Honda Motor, met up for a signing ceremony of the MOU on Tuesday this week. The event was held at the Posco Center in Seoul, South Korea.
As per Pulse News, under the MOU, it was agreed that Posco and Honda would look at technical exchanges on key battery materials like anode and cathode materials, battery materials recycling, and materials for all-solid-state batteries where the companies agreed to promote joint technology development via steady exchanges in the business and technology sectors.
In the recycling business, they have agreed to work on methods that will link Honda's electric vehicle business with Posco Group's recycling business that is operating worldwide. For steel, the companies will consider the expansion of applications of environmentally-friendly steel plates for carbon neutrality.
The Posco Group's goal is to set up a production and sales system that will cover 610,000 tons of anode materials, 300,000 tons of lithium, 320,000 tons of cathode, and 220,000 tons of nickel by the year 2030. It also wants to reach KRW41 trillion or $31 billion in sales solely from this battery materials business. On the other hand, Honda Motor is planning to put in $40 billion by 2030 to boost the brand's competitiveness in the EV industry.
"Honda has been our strategic partner in the steel business, and we are pleased to expand our cooperative system into the field of battery materials," Choi Jeong Woo, Posco Holdings chairman, said in a press release. "We are expecting that the POSCO Group's 'full value chain' for battery materials, which includes elemental materials such as lithium and nickel, cathode and anode materials, future battery materials, and recycling, will be of great help to Honda's strategy to expand its electric vehicle business."
Honda's chief Toshihiro Mibe further said, "We believe that this expansion of our partnership with POSCO, which has extensive expertise in the areas of battery materials, recycling, and steel sheet and electric steel sheet will help us further accelerate our electrification strategies."
