(ATF) Ford Motor Co and South Korea’s SK Innovation are expected to announce a battery joint venture in the United States.
While a memorandum of understanding about the joint venture is due to be announced on Thursday, Reuters reported that the plans include a plant to make battery cells for use in rechargeable electric vehicle (EV) batteries.
For Ford, the deal marks a significant step in its goal of making its entire passenger vehicle line-up in Europe all-electric by 2030. By the middle of 2026, all its cars will be available as electric or hybrid models, it added.
Ford said it would spend $1 billion (£720m) updating its factory in Cologne, with the aim of producing a mass-market EV by 2023.
“Ford is now preparing for a future that is electric-first, leaving behind the traditional combustion engine which made it famous and providing a roadmap to a 100% electric world by the end of the decade,” said Oliver Shaw, chief executive of Kalibrate, a consultancy.
TALKS ADVANCE
Talks around the joint venture picked up speed last month after SK Innovation agreed to pay $1.8 billion to LG Energy Solution, a wholly owned subsidiary of LG Chem to settle LG’s accusations of trade theft by its rival.
The Korean company is expected to complete construction of a plant in the US state of Georgia later this year, and it is building a second facility that is expected to start battery production in 2023. The company has invested $2.6 billion in Georgia.
SK Innovation, with battery production sites in the US, Hungary, China and South Korea, has an annual capacity of about 40 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of batteries. It aims to ramp up to an annual capacity of about 125 GWh of batteries in 2025, which can power about 1.8 million electric vehicles.
A deal with SK may have Ford taking a similar path as rival General Motors, which has a battery joint venture with LG Energy that is building plants in Ohio and Tennessee.
With reporting by Agence France-Presse
ALSO SEE:
LG Chem powers into US with second battery factory
EVs to compete with petrol cars by 2030, says battery maker
