South Korea’s high automakers and battery corporations are teaming up for the primary time to tackle China and advance new know-how. Hyundai and Kia introduced a brand new alliance with three EV battery giants to assist Korea acquire an edge.
Hyundai and Kia kind new EV battery alliance in Korea
The worldwide EV market is a “nationwide competitors,” warned Kim Dong-myung, CEO of LG Power Resolution, on Friday.
Kim can also be the chairman of the Korean Battery Trade Alliance, which goals to solidify the nation’s management in electrical car battery know-how.
Based on Kim, “The federal government and firms should change into one group,” he added that “LG Power Resolution will even run till the tip to make sure Korea’s future competitiveness.”
LG Power Options is likely one of the three main Korean battery corporations, together with Samsung SDI and SK On, which have joined forces with Hyundai and Kia to stay aggressive. It’s the primary time the nation’s high carmakers and battery corporations have joined forces.
After proposing a “Battery Security Activity Drive” final yr, Hyundai and Kia made it official on Friday, signing a brand new enterprise settlement to “additional improve cooperation sooner or later.”
The businesses introduced the collaboration at Hyundai Motor’s Namyang R&D Heart in South Korea, with a number of authorities officers and firm officers in attendance.
On the occasion, Hyundai, Kia, and the battery corporations revealed a number of tasks the place “every firm will leverage its personal specialised applied sciences.” The partnership will concentrate on 5 areas, together with new security patents, digital battery passports, design high quality, manufacturing high quality, and firefighting know-how.
Creating safer battery tech, Hyundai stated, the brand new partnership will “additional contribute to strengthening nationwide competitiveness.”
The partnership comes after Hyundai and Kia launched a joint mission in September to develop lower-cost lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, aiming to problem BYD’s Blade batteries and different Chinese language leaders.
Electrek’s Take
Based on SNE Analysis, China is widening its lead within the international electrical car battery market. Within the first half of the yr, CATL and BYD alone accounted for over 55% of world EV battery gross sales, up from 53% in comparison with the identical interval in 2024.
In the meantime, the mixed market share of LG Power, SK On, and Samsung SDI decreased to 16.4%, a 5.4% decline from the identical interval final yr.
With Hyundai and Kia getting ready to launch a collection of lower-cost, mass-market EVs, the brand new alliance might be useful for everybody concerned.
China remains to be main the worldwide EV race by a large margin, however South Korea has bold plans for the long run. Can they shut the hole? Hyundai and Kia are shortly changing into top-selling EV manufacturers in quite a lot of international markets, however so are China’s BYD, Geely, XPeng, NIO, Li Auto, and others.
