U.S. EV battery upstart, Hyundai-Kia close in on lithium metal battery commercialization

TOKYO — SES AI Corp., a U.S. maker of electric vehicle batteries, stepped closer to commercializing breakthrough next-generation lithium metal batteries as early as 2026 with a new agreement to build and operate a test and verification line with Hyundai Motor Group.

The new line will be set up in Uiwang, South Korea, just south of Seoul, as a joint project with Hyundai Motor Co. and corporate sibling Kia Corp., SES AI said Wednesday in a news release.

Qichao Hu, CEO of SES AI, told Automotive News the facility marked a breakthrough in realizing the new battery technology, which is touted as delivering better energy density and range than lithium ion batteries. The facility could come online as soon as the third quarter, he said.

"The last time a new battery chemistry got this far was probably in the early 2000s when we started replacing nickel cadmium batteries with lithium ion batteries," Hu said in an interview.

"So with two leading car manufacturers, this is quite significant."

SES AI's cells will enter B-sample development with Hyundai and Kia. This is the second stage of battery development that consists of making enough cells for about 100 electric vehicles. It is followed by a C-sample stage in which the battery packs are tested in road cars for a year or so before reaching the production phase.

Many automakers and suppliers are racing to develop lithium metal batteries, which are touted as safely holding more energy than lithium ion batteries and charging faster.

No one has commercialized the technology for automobiles. Some developers are pursuing solid lithium metal batteries. Others, including SES AI, focus on a semisolid makeup.

Proponents of the semisolid composition say they can be cheaper and easier to manufacture than solid types, and thus are also closer to mass production.

SES AI, for example, thinks it can bring its lithium metal batteries to market in 2026, Hu said.

By contrast, Nissan Motor Co., now building a pilot plant for solid-state batteries in Yokohama, Japan, expects its mass production to begin in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2029. Toyota Motor Corp. is also working on solid-state batteries, which could land around 2027 to 2028.

Aside from Hyundai and Kia, SES AI is working with Honda Motor Co. and General Motors on semisolid lithium metal batteries. Honda wants to launch them in the second half of the 2020s.

Chinese automakers Geely and SAIC are among the companies investing in SES AI, though they do not have partnerships to develop batteries for automobiles.

SES is based in the Boston suburb of Woburn, Mass. The company was founded in 2012 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2022.

It has a manufacturing site in Shanghai, where it makes lithium metal batteries for urban air mobility products. It has another in South Korea that also produces air mobility batteries.

By the end of this year, after the new Hyundai-Kia line opens, SES AI will have five lines globally with prototype capacity to make about 1,000 cells per line per month, Hu said.

That is enough to supply about five electric vehicles per line per month.

The line in Uiwang will be the first line that SES AI operates outside its own facility. SES will own the manufacturing equipment and run production; Hyundai Motor Group will own the building.

Operating a line outside its own facilities will be good training for when SES AI starts production with automakers at sites around the world, Hu said.

Automakers, for example, may require SES AI batteries to be made in certain markets to qualify for regional incentives, such as U.S. tax credits.

"So, building and operating this line in Hyundai's facility is also practice for us for how to operate a cell production line basically outside of our own facility," Hu said. "it's good practice."