SKOn's Efforts to Overcome Slowdown in Electric Vehicle Demand and Future Plans

TapTechNews July 13th news, under the situation of the global slowdown in electric vehicle demand, SKOn is striving to turn the situation around. Ko Chang-Kook, the chief spokesperson of SKOn, said that the company is in negotiations with automakers seeking a supply agreement for prismatic batteries.

SKOn is currently supplying cylindrical batteries to several automakers such as Ford, Hyundai, and Volkswagen. SKOn is negotiating with automakers other than existing customers and plans to expand the supply of prismatic batteries in an effort to reverse the dilemma caused by the slowdown in global electric vehicle demand.

"We are in negotiations with the automakers that will adopt our prismatic batteries... We will now have the opportunity to diversify our product portfolio earlier than expected."

He did not disclose the name of the automaker, but said that the company has fully mastered the prismatic battery technology and is ready to start production immediately after the negotiation is completed.

At present, there are mainly three types of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles: cylindrical batteries, prismatic batteries, and pouch batteries, which basically have the same functions but each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Among them, SKOn is currently only producing pouch-type batteries.

When asked if SKOn plans to cut its capital expenditure this year (SKOn has not been profitable since it was spun off from SK Innovation at the end of 2021), Ko Chang-Kook said that SKOn currently has no such consideration and emphasized that it will not cut R&D expenditure.

Earlier this year, SKOn's parent company, SK Innovation, had said that its capital expenditure budget for this year is about 9 trillion Korean won (TapTechNews note: currently about 47.511 billion Chinese yuan), and more than 80% of it is prepared to be allocated to SKOn.

In April this year, SKOn said that the company plans to achieve break-even in the second half of this year. Earlier this month, the company also said that it will implement comprehensive open source and cost reduction measures, including freezing the salaries of all senior executives until the company turns a profit.