SK Innovation’s announcement confirms Europe’s position as the global hotspot for the battery industry

Last week, at the launch of the second IPCEI on batteries, Vice-President Šefčovič declared Europe a global hotspot for battery investments as a result of the actions under the European Battery Alliance. In his statement, he enforced that by 2025 Europe should be manufacturing enough battery cells each year to power at least six million electric cars. He also wanted the audience to remember that just three years ago, the EU battery industry was hardly on the map in global terms.

The day following the launch of the IPCEI, SK Innovation announced its plan to build a new battery factory in Iváncsa, Hungary, with an annual production capacity of 30 GWh. This comes in addition to its two plants in Komárom. The investment will amount to $ 2.3 billion, which will be the largest greenfield investment in the history of Hungary. The decision of the South Korean automotive supplier is expected to create 2,500 new jobs.

The 30 GWh annual production capacity of SK Innovation’s third plant in Hungary will be able to produce enough batteries to power 600,000 electric cars (calculated with 50 KWh batteries per piece) getting Europe a big step closer to achieving its ambition to decarbonise the transport systems with batteries.

This latest announcement confirms once more that the growing demand for electric cars in combination with a supportive regulatory framework and continued support for the European battery ecosystem play a key role in attracting new investments in Europe. The European Battery Alliance continues to deliver!