SK On to put up JV with Ford, Koc for EV battery manufacturing in Turkey

SK On Co., a South Korean battery firm, has inked an initial agreement with US automobile company Ford Motor Company and Turkish conglomerate Koc Holding A.S. to establish an electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturing facility in Turkey.

SK On announced the formation of a joint venture with the two firms to construct a high-nickel lithium-ion battery plant in Ankara, Turkey.

The JV is targetting an annual production capacity of 30-45 gigawatt-hours (GWh) from 2025.

The deal marks SK On continuous expansion in the European market with its American counterpart by forming a collaboration with a third party in Europe.

Koc Holding is a long-standing collaborator for Ford, with a domestic production facility that can produce 455,000 automobiles every year.

SK has partnered with Ford in building three EV battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky through their joint venture BlueOval SK in a deal worth 10.2 trillion won.

Koc Holding, a long-time partner of Ford, has a domestic production line capable of manufacturing 455,000 vehicles a year.

SK On has partnered up with Ford to build three EV battery plants in the US states of Tennessee and Kentucky through their joint venture BlueOval SK in a deal worth 10.2 trillion won.

The deal makes SK a major Form supplier of Ford by helping it secure about 70 percent of EV batteries it needs from SK On.

SK On operates a domestic plant in South Korea’s central region of Seosan, and overseas factories in Georgia, the US, the Chinese city of Changzhou, and the Hungarian city of Komarom.

By 2025, the firm aims to have opened two more factories in China and Hungary.

SK On aims to grow into a global battery producer with its total production reaching 500 GWh by 2030.