SK On to bolster US business with Ford's EV pickup truck sales

SK On Co., South Korea’s leading electric vehicle battery manufacturer, is expected to improve production capacity as its client Ford Motor Co. has started customer deliveries of the F-150 Lightning. F-150 Lightning is the US automaker giant’s first all-electric pickup truck model, with 200,000 units already reserved. 

Ford started production of the EV pickup trucks last month and has recently begun providing the cars to retail customers in the US, auto industry sources said on May 29. The US automaker’s stock price will depend on the EV pickup truck’s monthly sales for a while, the sources added.

SK On’s business in the US is expected to benefit once production of the EV pickup truck model hits its stride. The Korean firm, wholly owned by Korea's major energy company SK Innovation Co., is providing its EV battery NCM9 for the F-150 Lightning manufactured from its first plant in the US state of Georgia.

NCM9 is a high-nickel battery made of 90% nickel, with manganese and cobalt making up the remaining 10%. The higher the nickel, the higher the energy and better battery output, SK On said. The company is set to offer batteries with a capacity of 19.6 to 26.2 gigawatt-hour (GWh) once Ford completes production next year of all the 200,000 reserved units. 

Ford is planning to provide 40,000 units of F-150 Lightning this year and manufacture 150,000 units next year. This indicates half of the annual capacity of SK On’s first plant in Georgia, which will produce up to 9.8 GWh of batteries a year, will be used for the EV pickup truck unit.

SK On is set to bulk up the battery production by commencing operation of its second Georgia-based plant next year. In addition, it will construct a third plant in Georgia with an annual capacity of 40 GWh, aimed to begin operations in 2025. The 40 GWh is enough for 500,000 EVs that can drive more than 500 kilometers on a single charge.

SK On’s battery capacity sold to the global EV market rose to 6.3 GWh in the first quarter of 2022 from 2.6 GWh in the same period the previous year, according to Korea’s energy market research firm SNE Research. SK On’s global EV market share rose to 6.6% in the first quarter from 5.3% the year previous, thanks to sales expansion of Hyundai Motor’s IONIQ 5 and Kia’s EV6, EV models that install SK On’s batteries.

Ford is expected to focus on F-150 Lightning production this year, boosting SK On’s hopes for operation gains. The Korean company was in the red during the first quarter of this year, posting 1.26 trillion won ($1.03 billion) in sales and 273.4 billion won in operating losses.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim and Han-Shin Park at khk@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.