SK Innovation plans to deliver solid-state batteries for EVs two years ahead of rivals

SK Innovation Co. plans to move two years or more ahead of its rivals and deliver solid-state batteries by 2025, according to the head of battery research at the South Korean company.

The batteries are a keenly anticipated development in the industry, potentially hastening adoption of electric vehicles by providing automakers with a safer and less expensive alternative to lithium ion batteries. The technology could potentially slash EV charging times to about 10 minutes from as much as several hours.

SK Innovation plans to use a nickel-cobalt-manganese cathode and anode based on silicon or graphite for its solid-state batteries by 2025 and also seeks to deliver one with a lithium-metal anode by 2030, said Seongjun Lee, head of the department overseeing battery research.

LG Energy Solution, the world's second-largest lithium ion battery maker, has said it aims to commercialize solid-state batteries between 2027 and 2030. Another Korean player, Samsung SDI Co., is forecast to start mass-producing the batteries in 2027, according to BloombergNEF.

"We have never caused fires with our batteries and we have the world's best technology for high-nickel batteries," Lee said in an interview Oct. 28 at the company's campus in Daejeon, south of Seoul.

SK Innovation, a unit of conglomerate SK Group, hasn't laid out a schedule for its next-generation battery before. The plan comes as the company looks to increase its global presence, and after LG apologized for a $1.9 billion recall of Chevrolet Bolts because of battery fires.

SK Innovation's battery sales rose 68 percent in the most recent quarter to 816.8 billion won ($691 million), the company said. The results followed an announcement the previous day that SK Innovation is teaming up with U.S.-based Solid Power Inc. to develop and produce solid-state batteries.

As part of the agreement with Solid Power, which is backed by Ford Motor Co. and BMW AG, SK Innovation will invest $30 million for a stake in the Colorado-based company, which plans to go public via a reverse merger. Among others, BMW has joined the race with a plan to build a prototype of a solid-state-battery vehicle before 2025, while Toyota aims to commercialize EVs with the batteries by mid- to late decade.

"Why the relationship with SK is so valuable to us is that our business model doesn't have us being a cell producer in this automotive industry at scale," Solid Power CEO Douglas Campbell said last month.

Solid Power has an agreement to test its cells in Ford and BMW vehicles. Campbell said in a September interview that if manufacturing is successful, the company will deliver them in 2022, with an eye toward full battery production in 2025 and vehicle manufacturing in 2026. He said Solid Power would look to partner with an automaker or existing battery manufacturer for full production.

SK Innovation chose Solid Power as a partner because its quality of sulfide electrolyte might enable the Korean company to switch some of its operation lines from lithium ion batteries to solid state, Lee said. The company aims to use 60 to 70 percent of its production lines for solid-state batteries in the future.

SK Innovation is seeking other partners mainly in the U.S., he added.

Asked about solid-state batteries during last month's earnings call, SK Innovation's head of business strategy, Jinsuk Yu, said the company is seeking various partnerships, especially to resolve problems such as dendrite. That refers to spiky structures formed by lithium ions as a battery charges. They can grow long enough to reach the other electrode and short-circuit the battery, potentially causing a fire.

"SK Group has a reputation of good investment strategy, especially in M&A," said Hyun-Su Kim, a fund manager at Seoul-based IBK Asset Management. "If SK invests on something, you need to look at it even if the size is small."

Hongcheol Kim, Gabrielle Coppola, Akshat Rathi, David Baker and Ali Izadi-Najafabadi contributed to this report.