SK Innovation Co., which owns South Korea's top refiner SK Energy, is set to construct two additional EV battery production lines. SK Innovation has said that it will more than double the company's electric vehicle battery production capacity in a bid to meet fast-growing demand for EV batteries.
The company will build two additional EV battery production lines with a combined capacity of 2 gigawatt hour (GWh) so as to bring the company’s total battery capacity to 3.9GWh, which is capable of powering 140,000 EVs a year. The two additional EV battery production lines are expected to go into operation sometime in the first half of 2018.
Above all, the productivity of the two new production lines will be maximized by applying the smart factory concept to major production processes.
The entire process, from raw material input and inspection of finished goods to packaging, will be fully automated; big data-based facility management and a central control system will also make them smart.
The new production facilities will have a production capacity about 3 times larger than that of the company’s existing facilities located at the Seosan Complex, some 150 kilometers south of Seoul.